Thread: New OZ PDR in Florida

Originally Posted by paulwjax

Greetings everyone! I've learned quite a bit from everyone here so far just watching and thought I would post my experiences here for posterity or for an example of what not to do...

I'm 10 days in the building of my PDR and have all the framing glued in place. After work tomorrow I'm trying to go for 3D. We'll see what happens.

Day by day log of events.
Building Jemima, A Puddle Duck Adventure

Looking good - it's amazing how many people build inside their lounge rooms!

And nothing slows up a whippet like being epoxied to a large sheet of ply!

Thanks for the post

Best wishes
Michael

Originally Posted by colburge

Looking good - it's amazing how many people build inside their lounge rooms!

Yes an it's usually because there's a bigger boat project in the garage that we're ignoring by building a PDR!

Originally Posted by Boatmik

And nothing slows up a whippet like being epoxied to a large sheet of ply!

He's actually a Greyhound but yes, this glue would seriously ruin his day! He couldn't even slow down long enough for the picture...

Day 11

All day at work I kept thinking about how much fun it was going to be to pull all the screws out of the framing and the boat sides and then put it all together and finally have my pieces turn into a whole. I did get it put together. Sort of. If you look at the picture I forgot something pretty integral to assembly of this boat.

Chine logs. As in they haven't been attached to the hull sides yet. They haven't even been sanded down yet. Actually, they're still glued to the tape on the glue-board.

In addition, the transoms need to have the glue sanded down as well since I forgot to smooth and scrape the edges after I screwed everything together. I know what you're saying, "But Paul, removing the glue from those little nooks and crannies is the fun part!"

It isn't.

I'm 99.99% sure Mr. Storer even said to scrape the glue off in the plans because he didn't want everyone else to enjoy it as much as he probably did once (and I as well have now enjoyed). I'm not going to look since I don't need to remind myself that I messed this part up.

So I removed the glue bits. I cussed. I sanded the chines. I removed more glue bits and cussed some more. I stepped on the screws on the glue-board because I forgot to take them out, and because I live in Florida, I was barefoot, and it hurt. I really cussed then. I'm not 3D yet, but I'm close. Tonight I glue my chine logs on and I'll see what other things I might have missed.

It is a hard lesson to learn that one.

Remember though that some of these items are hidden away inside buoyancy tanks etc. I promise not to tell anyone! That is sometimes my approach with my own boats. Not too fussy, but I take the precautions to make it OK when it is easy.

It is a hard lesson, but you are now a much better boatbuilder than you were yesterday!

MIK

It's 3D!!!

This morning I went in to get ready to plane the frames down and my 3D excitement quickly went away. I carefully tipped her on her side and discovered the bulkhead was not flush with the top frame on one side. A quick measurement revealed that the bulkhead was 5mm longer on one side, which also means everything measured from that line is also 5mm off.
Now I get to recut, reglue and reassemble the transoms,framing and the bulkhead!
I'm extremely happy that I did not glue the transoms and BH to the sides last night.

On a positive note, now I can reuse the transom seconds to cut whole pieces for the centercase frames and I have a deck plate cutout template ready to go for my next bulkhead. I also now have lines on the inside of the hull sides so when the new bulkhead is ready there won't be any fiddling around and hoping it's right.
And the best part...I'll have measurements of the chines so when I'm gluing the bulkhead frames I can take that into account so I don't have to notch out the frame. I suck at that.

The 2nd and 3rd photos are my attempt at engineering.
I plan on using my old windsurfing mast for this boat. It is 16 feet 6 inches tall with a mast foot of 5 1/2 inches to bring the total height to just under 17 feet which is roughly 6 inches or 120 mm, give or take, taller than the plans. I can deal with that. The only small problem was how to get it to sit on the hull. I drew a full scale mock mast step on my glue board and realized I could just glue one more 3/4 x 1 3/4 to each runner and finally glue a small piece in the middle of them all and have my mast foot shoehorned into the design. Then I screw 3 screws into the center runner and call it good.
MS.maststep is a mockup of what the original would look like and PW.maststep is my solution to my problem of sorts.

I work in the restaurant industry so weekends really aren't good for boat building since I'm at work all day. Didn't stop me though!
On Day 15 I went to work and thought about what I did wrong at home. (Isn't that the way guys?) I came home and remeasured everything to see what could be done. Planing the mistake away was the thought but the stern was cut 5mm too short so I didn't want to reduce the size of the boat, just the transom. The bow transom was cut too big so once I lined it up I actually could plane the mistake away and no one would be the wiser.
That just left the CBH and the stern. I cut new ones and decided to use a larger frame than was required on the CBH so I could plane it down to meet the hull. I also precut the notches for the chines and precut the frames to match. Very neat and tidy.

On to Day 16...
Today's work involved sanding down the edges of the centercase sides and frame and then using the old CBH to cut Frame #2 sides out in one piece per side.

The dogs are getting restless since I spend all my free time with my puddle duck and not them. I thought it would be appropriate if they took out their aggression on some ducks of their own that way they can leave mine alone...

Are you going to make the standard sail to go with the windsurf mast?

Michael

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Are you going to make the standard sail to go with the windsurf mast?

Michael

I'm going to try to, yes. I'd like to have some sort of configuration that allows me to use a boom and gooseneck that's a little higher off the deck, but I'm not totally sure how yet.

Originally Posted by paulwjax

I'm going to try to, yes. I'd like to have some sort of configuration that allows me to use a boom and gooseneck that's a little higher off the deck, but I'm not totally sure how yet.

In keeping with the plan that everything should be available to everyone else for cheap, the idea I had was to get a plastic oarlock to use for a gooseneck attachment to a 6 or 7 ft piece of 1 to 1 1/2 inch (25-38mm) pipe for a boom and have it at about a 15 degree rise from the foot to the clew of the sail. That would enable me to use the windsurfing sail (4.5m) but I feel the boat might be underpowered.

If I were to use the sail detailed in the plans I'd have to make the boom about 11 feet long. Perhaps if I cut the sail size proportionately I can have the oarlock gooseneck attached to an 8 or 9 ft boom and have it perpendicular to the hull so I don't have to duck really low when I tack.

You could use lace the sail on with rope and use a sprit boom like the normal rig.

I will probably have to work out the sail shape a bit differently too or it will be too flat.

MIK

Originally Posted by paulwjax

.....Perhaps if I cut the sail size proportionately I can have the oarlock gooseneck attached to an 8 or 9 ft boom and have it perpendicular to the hull so I don't have to duck really low when I tack.

Naaah, go low! A lot of sailors are using these now
Attachment 127867

Originally Posted by Boatmik

I will probably have to work out the sail shape a bit differently too or it will be too flat.

MIK

Wow thanks. That'd be awesome.