Thread: Puddle duck building the South African way

Pintles have been made from Aluminium angle iron and test fitted

Leading edge of rudder board has been taped as suggested, bubbles on dagger board opened and filled.

The deck and rudder case will get its final epoxy coat this afternoon then its the waiting game till next weekend for painting

PD Racer has been painted (duckling yellow)
Final fitting of hardware in progress and some inaugural sailing tomorrow. Woo Hoo!

I also add a photo of a boat one of my sailing friends, Manie Botha, is building. He owns Compaxboats in Pretoria and is currently building his own PDR - not shown in this pic.

I also add a pic of my assistant painting the cockpit and below decks as I have been handicapped with an oversised girth.

you may have to lose weight to sail the PD racer if you cannot get in the cockpit to paint

The apprentice PAINTER/ BOAT BUILDER IS DOING A GOOD JOB TOO

Jeff

I'll inhale some helium, talk like a duck, sail a duck and in duckling yellow with a teal green bottom to the water line
Big launch day is on Wednesday

Beware you may become lightheaded.

I am waiting with ANTICIPATION, to see you sailing this little hull, with a GREAT WHITE in your wake

Jeff

Final setup with bungees, small blocks and a battle stick to fight the massive rudder

Some pics of final setup

Even without helium I am light headed with anticipation. I hope the weather holds out though

It looks very good, the water looks a bit tight to sail on though.

Good Luck for the first sail. I hope the weather holds for you.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff

I have been out sailing today, what a maiden voayage, the boat got its first ding on a submerged rock, but it seems OK.
The breeze was quite stiff and trying to take pictures/videos with one hand on the tiller and the other hanging on to the main sheet made it quite impossible.

What I learnt today was this.
There is nothing as gratifying and actualizing as building and sailing your own boat. The heads were turning especially from the opti and dabchick owners. It was difficult to hide my pride when I told them I built it myself

I could hold my own against these boats and even managed to beat two opti's to the upwind bouy.

As to the handling of the boat. It has a wee bit of weather helm and the rudder requires constant attention. The stiffened fibreglass mast has enough bend to fill the sail nicely and is forgiving enough to make for a safe ride in gusty conditions.

Weight placement is critical on this little boat or else it is prone to pig rooting or tail dragging. Get it just right and it tries to push over bow wave, especially on a broad reach and running reach.

All in all a great little boat which i will enjoy for as long as the ply holds

Good onyu, I am happy that the boat performer weight is critic so well , Yes on a small hull weight placement is vritical.

Even with the JARCAT i built years ago, they are very sensitive to crew placement and will drag the stern if not enough weight is forward.

fair winds and calm seas,

jeff

Stoffel, baie lekker werk, sy is 'n pragtige klein bootjie!

We'd love to see some pics of her on the water, so post up when you get a chance.

I know what you mean about the pride of being able to say "Yes, I built her myself"

You have built a very neat PDRacer - congratulations.

Dankie vir die kompliment Alex, ek moet egter noem dat jou afronding myne by verre laat afsteek, knap gedaan!

To my fellow readers, just a bit of banter in my mother tongue, Afrikaans. (I promise it is not Hillbilly)

As soon as the weatherman stops telling lies and predicts reliable fair weather I will post pics. Tomorrow I will spend some time to strengthen the mast with a wrapping of glass tape and poxy.
There was a bit to much flex too my liking and the bottom part of the carbon fibre mast foot is showing signs of stress cracks, sooo rather safe than sorry

I did some sailing on a 16 foot hobie today and found it way too exciting for my liking especially when we had to make run for safety to evade a typical Highveld thunder storm. I complicated matters for my skip by unboating myself on a jybe trying to evade a conk on the knocker by the boom. At least he can tick off that he successfully executed a man overboard recovery.

Hi Stoffel

It’s nice to see that there are some people building wooden boats in South Africa. I searched the internet for South African sites but had very little luck. Your boat looks great. Its really is a case of Boer maak n plan here. Enjoy the sailing

Regards
Jeff

Well done!

Michael Storer