Another PDRacer in Perth

[eggplantpasta]

Hi all,

I just discovered this forum and it rocks! So much useful info and full of friendly humans.

Anyway here's the story so far... After reading Annie Hill's "Cruising on a Small Income" she mentions that the tender they used on Badger was a Bolger Brick. I went looking for info on this design and came across the PDRacer. Perfect! I needed a tender for the Bruce Roberts 24 I'm building with Dad. After a bit more reading I came upon Michael Storer's refinement of the PDR design. Doubly Perfect! He'd managed to make it look pretty and sail fast. Anyway things got in the way for a couple of years but now I find myself living near the coast and longing for a boat.

I emailed Michael (who must be the most helpful and accessible designer ever) to check if there was an updated version of my plans and answer a couple of questions. After a few emails back and forth I'm now in possession of some updated plans an I'm on my way to having a new toy.

I'm posting progress and photos to my blog as I go. boats'n'stuff I'll also post here too perhaps a little less frequently than the blog. So far I've not made that much progress (I got distracted extending my saw horses and building a ladder frame for working with the ply) but I have the sides and side decks cut out and smoothed and all the timber apart from the foils and spar timber milled to the plan dimensions.



The next step is to cut out the bulk heads and frame them the laminate the chines etc. I'm not sure when I'll get onto that as it's over 40 outside at the moment and the air-con is too tempting.

Anyway,

Cheers,

Nice to meet you all.

[dhgomm]

Hi Eggplantpasta,

Thats a very interesting username youv'e got !, I also live in Perth WA, but am only building the PDRacer, I don't have room, or finance, for anything bigger.

At the moment I am temporarily unable to proceed further due to an accident, but am raring to go, as I am nearly to the painting stage.

The PDRacer should make an excellent tender, with the bonus of also being a sail boat when required.

If you need any help or advice, just ask.

The recent hot weather is just too hot to work in, unless you are really trying to finish by a particular date, or have an airconditioned workspace to work in.

[eggplantpasta]

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome and the kind offer of help and advice. Sorry to read about your accident.

I've seen your website with it's ton of useful information. Thanks for putting it up and for documenting your build. It's inspiring for someone like me who's just starting out (the Bruce Roberts is mostly dad's work). I have space issues too (see photos of the junk-heap-that-is-my-shed in the blog) so I'm having to build out on the driveway. In this weather that's only happening while I have shade between about 7am and 10am.

I did get the transoms and bulkheads marked out tonight so I'll be cutting them tomorrow morning and if all goes well I'll be able to coat and frame them tomorrow too. We'll see.

I'm having a careful think about things tonight as I'm moving the centre case over under the side deck and I need to plan out what will need to be modified. I've studied up what's been said on the forum here and emailed Mik and my plan is to:

• move it over and extent the now off-centre centre case up under the side deck

• remove the top beam and centre ply from frame #1 and #2 (leaving in the side structure and floor stiffeners

• extend the centre board by the same amount as the centre case to keep the designed depth

I'm not trying to get it done by any particular date but it would be nice to finish it this summer. I'd love to have some way to get out to Little (Seal) Island which is just offshore from my local beach so I can have some decent surf.

[dhgomm]

Hi Eggplantpasta,

I am certain that if Michael approves ( or has already approved ) the design changes you will have no problems, what he doesn't know about small boat design, isn't worth knowing anyway.

Having an offset centreboard will certainly increase the useable space for other uses, such as carrying luggage etc to and from the 'Bruce Roberts', when you use your PDRacer as a tender.

Thats the real beauty of building it yourself ( and consulting the designer directly ), being able to modify it to suit your exact needs, rather than having something just general purpose ( as in buying ready made ), and not always suited to all of your needs. Apart from that there is the joy and sense of achievement of doing it yourself, and knowing you have the confidence and skills to fix whatever needs fixing, as and when needed.

As you may have seen, I am building my PDRacer in my carport, which at least means I an working in shade some of the time and shelters it from the rain whithout the need to move it first, just a slight improvement over building it in the driveway.

I am certain you will learn a lot by helping, or even just watching your father build the 'Bruce Roberts' that will also help with your building of your PDRacer too.

[Boatmik]

Nice to see you here too! We need a good documented build of the off to the side board.

Best wishes
Michael