Thread: A little help for a novice builder

Hi Ace,
I think you'll be Very happy with the Pdracer. I've been using mine a lot lately, and when there's a good breeze, she goes just fine even with 2 full size guys. Single handed, she is quick and nimble sails upwind quite capably and is very stable. As far as materials, it does not take much. 3 sheets of ply, 1 piece of 6mm for the floor, and 2 sheets of 4mm for the sides decks and transoms. I used really really cheap 1/4" luan for the whole thing because i wanted to see how cheaply i could do it, but would not recommend this approach because it necessitates glass cloth on the bottom to not break, in spite of this, the boat goes great and is quite robust. All of my cleats, chine logs, spars, and foils are reclaimed fir studs from the trash, just pull out the old nails, and try to avoid any big knots. You could use any decent relatively knot free building grade softwood lumber. When all is said and done, you can use the high grade materials (new lumber and marine grade ply, spectra halyards), and end up with a gorgeous boat that is light enough for 1 person to cartop for under $500. I made the lug rigged version, and the huge sail comes in handy on light days.
Needless to say i'm very pleased! Spend the $20 on the plan download and get started.
Cheers,
Al

Thanks very much for the reply Al,

I used to sail as a kid and i really enjoyed it. Due to other pressures i had to give it up but now that i have a couple of kids myself i would love to get them out of the house and into something that is fun. As i said before, i have been looking for a smallish sailing dinghy for a while but i havent been able to find anything. Most of them were the out dated racing dinghys, which would have been great but pretty difficult to even rigg and sail properly.

I do like to idea of cartopping though! Much easier compared to a trailer and doesnt cost a thing to go anywhere! (no rego, maintenance etc etc)

Is there a prefered ply that gives a robust/light boat? I have read of eople having problems with splitting etc due to the quality of the ply.

Cheers

Ace

Also.....Is there a place to purchase white poly tarps in Aus? The blue ones are abundant but i havent seen any of the white variety (other than the sail kits).

Cheers

Hello Highace,
For a light hull use Gaboon marine ply as Al said spend the $20 on the plans Michael has explained all and includes all the building techniques for the novice builder, you can't go wrong.

As for white polytarp I keep looking for it without success however Duckflat Wooden Boats has a supplier and for a modest sum they will arrange for a pro sailmaker to sew it up for you. Give them a call they stock the hardware and know all about OZ PDRs.

Duck Flat Wooden Boats - PD Racer Kits

Have fun
Mike

Ill look into getting the plans asap, looking forward to a good read. I have some aptitude and psych testing to do in the next couple of days for a new job but i cant wait to start on the boat.

I have notice that Duckflats had the sail availabe in white but not for that price, i thought they were a lot more expensive than that. Does the tarp have enough area for the lug rig?

Cheers

Ace

Howdy ... just to be clear you can either buy the polytarp or the sail from duckflat. If you tell them you are making the lug they will cut it the right size.

Best wishes
MIK

Whats the average amount spent on building this little gem? How long is a peice of string you all say )

A rough estimate is all im after, using the standard materials etc. Nothing fancy.

Cheers

Originally Posted by highace1

Whats the average amount spent on building this little gem? How long is a peice of string you all say )

A rough estimate is all im after, using the standard materials etc. Nothing fancy.

Cheers

Well Mik can do one in a couple of weeks but for the rest of us generally several months (3-6) working weekends, depends on how fussy you want to get.

What about a dollar value? $$$$$$$$$$

Cheers

Originally Posted by highace1

What about a dollar value? $$$$$$$$$$

Cheers

Hm.......sorry should have read the post more carefully.

Ply $350
Epoxy stuff $350
Hardware $100
Polytarp $50
Salvaged timber $100
Spar Timber (salvaged) $150

Around about $1000- $1200 or there abouts.

Here we go David has porduced some costings in this post

Originally Posted by highace1

What about a dollar value? $$$$$$$$$$

Cheers

Priceless

Richard

just trying to be helpful

Thanks for the elaborate calculation Richard!

Just as an aside
In regards to cost and correct me if I'm wrong, but the first 2 OZ mk2 PDRacers, were built as a pair for something like $600 total. There is a wide cost envelope you can build this design in, mostly driven by personal preference. You can have anything from a banged up jalopy that always gets you to work, to the gold plated Benz turns heads from a mile away. Some might not be as pretty as others, so I don't want to discourage anyone from spending their hard earned money, and of equal importance, precious time on the finest methods and materials to create a thing of rectangular beauty. That said, if some of the higher end cost projections scare you, rest assured that if you read the plans carefully, and take stock of the less expensive building materials around you, you can make a pretty sweet beater that will hang with the best of them for more than a few seasons for a a great deal less than the higher end cost projections.
For a high performance cheapo, buy 1 sheet of 6mm marine grade (5ply) for the bottom, use 1/4" 3 ply luan for the sides and tanks, then coat liberally in epoxy so it lasts a while (this stuff is expensive but so worth it). All of the cleats and chines can be made of standard construction studs ripped down to size, just avoid big knots. My spars are also relatively knot free 2x4 lumber and are doing just fine to date. Either spend a bunch of time scarfing similar wood, or buy some decent longer lumber for the mast, and that about covers the wood.
As far as paint is concerned, there are numerous 2 part miracles of organic chemistry out there and none of them are cheap. Don't get me wrong, If you have a 5000 Lb. boat that costs $600 to take out of the water then you it's cheaper to spend more on paint, but a pdr generally lives upside down in the backyard, or sideways in the garage, so Exterior grade Alkyd Enamel (for houses), will last a long long time.
Finally the sail. Get a polytarp wherever you get one. If you have time and a sewing machine, sew it up real nice it will last a while. If you are done with everything else, and cant locate a suitable machine and want to sail tomorrow, get a few rolls if 2" carpet tape and go to town. I am still surprised by how well it holds after a season of hard use.
Again, I am not trying to discourage anyone here from doing a bang up job, I just want to be clear that both potential fun, and a sweet ride, are not always directly proportional to financial outlay.

Happy Building,
Al

Thanks hugely for that Al,

I read all the posts above and thought it needed to be said too. That you can build a PDR very cheap or quite cheap - $1200 is not a great deal of money even at the expensive end.

It also varies from place to place. In the USA timber and building supplies are sooooo cheap that it does push people toward building more cheap as you can always build another boat when the old one has too many problems.

But in OZ it is all quite expensive so it starts to make sense to protect the investment with premium products.

In either case it is a good idea to glue with epoxy, even if the boat is only painted rather than given the full epoxy coating treatment as this is the most reliable method of gluing and will take all the other variables (materials, conditions, experience of the builder) into consideration.

I suspect that in the USA there will be plenty of sub 400 dollar boats launched but most in Australia will be above that point. But that doesnt' stop people from building in nicer materials in the US or cheaper ones in OZ.

Whatever makes the builder happy.

MIK