Thread: GIS for the former small-dinghy sailor

Spot on Joost. i just recieved my plans for the pd racer 20mins ago and can tell you that it requires 2 sheets of 4mm 1200 x 2400 ply and 1 sheet of 6mm 1200 x 2400.

Unfortunately i had similar trouble with the duck flats web site and couldnt get my plans through them. Instead i bout from the seawing boats site in the uk.

It was a bit frustrating as i'd only recently come across these simple, low cost plans, and was all enthusiastic to start, only to find that i couldnt buy the plans.

It gets worse. Having succesfully bought the plans from seawing boats and having the plans e-mailed to me i discovered that they come in three parts. 1 a cutting list for the ply, 2 instructions for sail making and 3 the general construction instructions.

Turns out i could only download 2 of the three parts. The one im missing is the general construction part. Grr

Any way, ill keep an eye on your post as ill likely try a GIS if i succesfully complete my PDRacer.

Interesting...I didn't have any trouble with the DF site charging my card for the paper plans via Aust Post, ;). I decided not to go the pdf route as I don't have a plotter and didn't fancy glueing a large number of A4 sheets together. Been there, done that ;).

Maybe the pdf server is on the same machine as the one that takes Duckery registrations, as that link comes up with both 500 (server) and 404 (page not found) errors, going either direct from the DFWB "masthead", or via the "add details after purchase" popup route. I emailed the webmaster, but I don't think he's back on deck until Monday, judging by the info on the DFWB Home page.

Cheers,
Alex.

Nehpets ... I have sent you a PM to check whether you are still missing a part.

I can send it to you directly.

Best wishes
Michael

The 2.4 x 1.2 ply is too small for my boats. It is a real struggle to fit things.

You need to use the old 8ft by 4 ft which will be all the imported plywoods (Australia is the only country I know of that has made such a big deal of the 2400 x 1200 size)

The PDR can be exterior ply for the 4mm sheets but recommend marine for the 6mm bottom.

The GIS is a cool boat and probably deserves premium material such as gaboon - this keeps about 25% out of the hullweight which is important for handling the boat on shore.

Best wishes
Michael

Hello Michael,

The lighter the better (within reason of course :). Does Duck Flat sell gaboon in the large size? I may have mis-interpreted their materials page ply section, with the default being 8 x 4(?), and the 1200 x 1200 at the top of the list indicating deviation from the default.

Cheers,
Alex.

Fortunately, boat-building in Oz doesn't seem to require the same tough standards as aircraft-building: you can't use BS1088 in any part of an airframe, according to AS/NZS 2272 (1996).

A.

Lucky i took the time to post. I hadnt taken much notice of the sheet sizes and was considering just poppin down to the local bunnins to get my ply. Compounding my ignorance, the plans dont seem to have an overall sheet dimension on them. After adding up the register lines it seems i need at least 2428mm sheet length to get the sides in.

Thanks too Michael for the email. Im still missin the instruction set, and havent had an oportunity to email seawing yet. Ill e-mail u later tonight hopefully. Im moving house this tuesday and am supposed to be busily packing today. Ive already copped a blast from SWMBO 3 times thismorning. Twice for reading my plan set and once for measuring our lounge room to ensure i can set my sails out there once all the furniture is gone.

As to the ply matter, i guess ill have to try duck flat again. I notice that there is no sheet size for thier gaboon ply. i assume these would be 8'x4'.

Anyway, thnx for the info, back to packing.

Alex,

Trend Timbers in Windsor have Gaboon and Pacific Maple plywood in the larger size http://www.trendtimbers.com.au/index.php?id=86

cheers,
clay

The plans have a materials list that gives the sheet sizes for ordering .. or at least it was meant to! )

Thanks for the link, Clay. A phone call on Monday should reveal the cost ;). I'll ring DF about sheet sizes while I'm at it. Once DF send me my ordered plans (assuming that their online ordering system is working 100%), I will follow up Michael's advice and read the BoM.

I have realised that I am going to have to get a skip in to make room to build the GIS - I have squirrelled away way too much "useful" junk, to the point where I'm becoming increasingly less able to do things (e.g., swing cat-o'-nine-tails, set up the table saw again, build boats, etc.). Best thing to do in this case will be to shut my eyes, randomly grab stuff and heave it out the door! Unless it's a tool, of course.

Wikipedia (which is always right ;) has a stub article on gaboon, the last paragraph of which really raves about its use as a boat-building material, part of which reads: "Most often it is used in combination with epoxy and fiberglass, the combination giving a structure that can be stronger and lighter than plastic or fiberglass, rivaling the performance characteristics of more advanced composites such as carbon fiber".

Interesting, cf. Michael's comment above.

Cheers,
Alex.

Howdy AlexN

Gaboon is much better without the fibreglass!

Or the bare minimum. The glass undoes much of the good work that the gaboon does!

MIK

Howdy MIK,

Fortunately I had no intention of adding glass = weight (and weight is the enemy of flight :). Even if it were the 0.5 oz cloth that I use for covering flying surfaces/epoxy cowlings on my scale aircraft. Speaking of the latter, the multi-Nationals contest winner Brian Taylor in the UK uses lightweight tissue and dope. Not so good for a boat, even a balso canoe, though!

The Boss (my wife, a.k.a The Accountant ;) is already having conniptions about "the size of the thing" and "how are we going to carry it?", so the lighter the better, although building a GIS from balsa might be a tad silly.

The PDR plans (a more "Boss"-friendly craft) came via email this morning, and the GIS stuff is in the post :). Fast work from DF, they only just got back today! I spoke to Peter (I think) there this morning about sheet sizes, quality & availability of gaboon - it *is* your metricated imperial "right size", not the Oz 2.4 x 1.2 m, and the cost is about the same as Mr P&W, although the freight costs might be a bit prohibitive. Peter(?) was very informative, and also gave some useful tips on paints and sails when asked: for the sails, get a proper sail-maker to make 'em!

Trend Timbers, per seajak's link, haven't got any in stock, but are quoting $85.00 sheet, re-stocking possibly around the end of Feb, but I can't recall whether the price was GST inc. or not. Mr P&W are in the same ballpark as DF, but the stuff has to be got in specially from their warehouse.

I've had a thought that a listening to the boards with a stethoscope awhile tapping them at regular short intervals (that's a lot of taps ;) would be a good way of detecting voids before I got the stuff out of their shop door and whacked a saw through it.

Cheers,
Alex.

Also worth making the point and asking the supplier that if there are voids greater than the specification for the plywood grade whether they will replace the sheet/s

Generally you can get an overview by looking at all the ply in the rack and seeing if there are any gaps in the edges. If there are a lot of sheets it is a good statistical method.

If looking at a lot of sheets - 20 ... maybe you will see two or three tiny voids in the edges you can see - less than a couple of millimetres wide. Nicer to get stuff with no voids at all of course and when you see 20 sheets like this it does inspire quite a lot of confidence.

As far as storage goes .. if you have an 8ft roof in your garage or shed the PDRacer can be stood on its end. But don't do what one guy did and put shelves in it over winter when the boat was stored in the Laundry. Spring came and she wouldn't let him have the boat back and he had to build another one.

MIK

Thanks for the tips. The edge-void one is particulary neat :).

Fortunately, our laundry is too small to squeeze a boat into - it's almost too small for the washing machine!

My junk toss-out continues apace - it *is* amazing what you can heave when you don't look too closely at it.

Cheers,
Alex.