Thread: New Queensland PDRacer Build

Hi Mik - welcome back!

Yes, that was the last time I'd been sailing - 4 years ago now?

Gosh .. was it really that long ago we all spent that afternoon eating, talking and sailing on different boats?

Well done Duncan!

MIK

It was certainly life changing. My friend Aiden (also in the video) met his wife that day They came along for the launch and we had a great day on the lake.

We are now wondering what to build next...

Do some sailing first!

Hi All,

I have made a couple of small mods to my OzRacer. #1 was some grab handles to make her easier to move around on the beach. #2 was adding a gunnel on the bow which makes the front edge less sharp, but also looks nice too I think.

The handles are 1" tube tape (available from climbing stores) into which I've inserted some stiffish plastic tubing to give it a nice feel. I've screwed to the deck (into the underlying frame) using 3/4" 10g screws with cup/fabric washers.

Attached are a couple of pics.

Nice mods Duncan!

Always nice to see what people do. To uniquify their boats! It's not likely that you will have to because of the dryness of the boat after a capsize... But if there was lots of water in the boat it could mean a lot of load on those straps.

Normally there won't be a prob because the boat is so light. But if it is extra heavy for an unusual reason lift at the gunwales.

Nice work!

Mik

So pretty soon after I started sailing at various places, I realised I needed a better way to move the boat around. And this is the result - pretty much the same as any dinghy beach trolley, but made from some framing pine that I had lying around.

It is just screwed together right now, but I plan on epoxying the joints and the end grain, and giving it a coat of house paint. Then a few bits of carpet or other padding for the hull to rest on.

The wheels are from the Big B ($13 ea) - hopefully they prove big enough for the beach; axles are 1/2" gal bolts with an assortment of nuts and washers to lock them onto a gal L-bracket, which is screwed to the frame with lag screws - I will epoxy that whole assembly as well since it could get some reasonable loads on it.

If anyone needs measurements I'm happy to provide them.

Very nice Duncan.

I'm going to steal that for the news section on the PDRacer.info website run by Peter Hyndman.

How did you do the "T" join?

The critical bit!

Michael

Hi Mik,

By all means post to the PDR site.

How did you do the "T" join?

I used 2 x 75mm long batten screws (exterior grade). The timber is 90x35 so the full thread of the screw is into the endgrain of the chassis rail (for want of a better term). I pilot drilled the holes to prevent splitting up the grain. I will also back up this join with thickened epoxy. Hopefully this will be strong enough, but it would also be straight forward to add a ply gusset to transfer the load a bit more along to the 'axle'.

I used the same screws on the mitred join for the handle, but I had to drill quite a deep 'pocket' using a spade bit to get the screws down far enough - I'll post a more detailed photo of this when I get back to my other computer later. Once again, it could probably do with a ply gusset or web to backup the screws (or do the screws backup the gusset? )

Duncan

That is a very Zen question Duncan!

The classical answer is "Neither, it is the mind that backs up"

Michael

First beach trials of the trolley occurred yesterday - the frame works fine, but I need bigger wheels for the softer sand. I could have guessed this, but I was hoping to get away with the cheaper solid wheels.

I went sailing with some friends of mine who were on windsurfers. The forecast was 10-15kts growing to 20kts overnight. We started at lunchtime and there was not much wind in sight - around 5 kts, so off we went expecting the wind to continually strengthen throughout the afternoon. But it never materialised, instead dropping to almost dead calm after an hour or so. I ended up paddling back in the last 100m and my windsurfer friends had to swim!