Mini Tug

Chuck,

My boat is finally in the water.

Just built it with what I had basically. I was inspired by the berkley easterman designs The hull was bought for $20 the main under deck timbers were from a a double bed frame that I bought from an aboriginal chap that I meet at the rubbish tip. The deck timber is from Bunnings wharehouse and were offcuts that were cheep and are red gum and terpintine with tasmanian oak on the gunels which was milled down to 5mm on a Triton saw bench.

The boat is my own design. I bought some bronze screws which turned out to be steel and the boat was rained on and all the screws had to be removed and dowels put in there place there were over a thousand of them. The boat was built outside and the glue used was Vise glue which is water proof and expands and fills gaps information on this glue can be found at www.vise.com.au

The motor we use was 2.5 yamaha and was good but I will be using a mariner 3.4hp would work better with an electric outboard. Its home port is Wolamia just off Jervis Bay 2hrs south of Sydney It took about two months and cost a about $200au.. The glass is perspex and is glued in with silicon. I have just started to make the navigation lights..

I have built model boats and several boats all from scrap from the tip and steel from scrap yards.. I built a boat years ago and ran in the Bayer solar boat race in Canberra and completed the course which is some achievement as it was all from the tip.

Cheers, Stewart

Interesting Boat

Hey Chuck.

Thought this might give your readers a chuckle. My brother Rob Steingress and his friend Nate Breeding built this craft out of a military jet wing tank to compete in a benefit river race in Asheville NC.

Propultion is by pedal/chain drive to a propellor. Front wheels steer the craft. Their entry took first place.

The pictures were from the Asheville Citizen Times.

Rick

Gaff Sloop

Here's a pic after she was finished and we did "sea trials" with her back in July (on an inland lake). We learned some things, made some changes to the clubfoot jib boom, built a new gaff with wider longer jaws, re-rigged the topping lift to be accessible from the winward side of the boom on either tack, moved the cleats for the slab (jiffy) reefing system so they are more accessible by a solo crew (me :), and moved the mainsheet hexaratchet forward a bit.

click to enlarge

She is about 14' LOD with an 18' LOA (aft boom to bowsprit). Construction was from marine ply and is considered stressed-skin monocoque. Spars are made of laminated poplar, epoxy coated and finished with Pettit Captains Varnish. Overall painted with Pettit Easypoxy undercoater and 2 coats of Pettit Easypoxy Topside paint - she is a trailerable boat so comes out of the water when done sailing. Propulsion in and out of slip/mooring is via a 34 lb thrust trolling motor, Optima Blue Top marine battery and a desulphating solar panel and charge controller/monitor

Chainplates, Gammon Iron, and Bobstay chainplate are custom fab'ed of nautical brass (which I got from you guys along with some of my spar hardware), buffed and polished, and the kranze iron was cast by Port Townsend Foundry.

Epoxy was West Marine throughout. I made the sails from bolts of sailcloth, software and hardware purchased from Sailrite (and you guys) according to the techniques in Marino's book "The Sailmaker's Apprentice" - lofted and basted with 3M Super Seamstick, machine seamed and hand finished. She is a deep forefoot keel skipjack design and has no centerboard. Windward performance is good within 4 points of the wind on either tack, and gaff twist is controlled with a vang that can be cleated aft and controlled by the helmsman.

Base design was a Stevenson Projects plan, but I deviated from plan in choice of materials, adhesives, fasteners, rigging, sails, spars, and finish resulting in a much higher quality build.

The gaff is of traditional design with a tumbler which pivots and maintains alignment with the mast vertical, and a stainless plate for the throat halyard and nock attachments so that halyard, gaff pivot and mainsail throat are all kept in column for good sail set.

Your parrel beads are both perfect side and shape for this. The orange color isn't too clashy either.

The bowsprit is also stayed with Krypton-D in the traditional manner (chain/Krypton-D bobstay, sprit shrouds of Krypton-D back to chainplates at the shoulders that I bought which were salvaged from a gaff ship circa the last 100 years). Forestay is tensioned with a lever-type tensioner and spritshrouds and bobstay with rigging screws (turnbuckles) The mast shrouds are tensioned with deadeyes and lanyards in a traditional manner with modern materials (delrin deadeyes with stainless shackles). I have a block of lignum vitae for making the eventual ones but didn't have time for fabrication this season - nice winter project.

It's about as traditional as traditional can get with a modern spin on the standing and running rigging components and materials.

Regards,
Kevin

Nemo

I worked on the Delta Queen for years but was recently laid off as she can’t sail anymore due to her congressional exemption expiring. She is however being used as a hotel in Chatanooga for the time being. This was not all bad, at least I have time to build boats!

“How many boats do you need?” my wife asked when I told her I was building another PD Racer. It really was a fair question although the answer seems to be a very complicated one to some of us. I have a Bayliner Capri ski boat, it is an 80’s model that I refurbished, which is another story in itself. I have a 17 foot Venture sailboat which I trailer and I have a AMF Puffer (which is currently at my brother’s so I don’t think that should count!). I had a PD Racer that I had built a few years ago (PD Pirate, hull #54).

The PD Pirate had sat in my yard since I had bought our house about two years ago. It was laying upside down with weeds growing around it when I finally resolved to add it to the junk I was hauling to the dump. It wasn’t until I was unloading it at the dump station that those old “boat building” feelings started to creep back in. I wanted to bring it back home but a guy at the dump asked if he could have it and of course I said yes, after all, then I would have a reason to build another one!

“Nemo” began after studying the PDRacer.com website. There is all the info you need to get started. I chose to build airboxes into the sides and made a leg o mutton sail as Shorty recomends. After sea trials (actually lake trials!) I built a small cabin and added a jib with Jason Nabor’s do it yourself furling system. The boat took me exactly one week to build and paint. I coated the lower part of the hull with epoxy and spent about $250 to build it.

Ricky Idlett

Check out pdracer.com!
Also check out deltaqueenhotel.com
For videos of the Delta Queen check out my youtube site at https://www.youtube.com/user/JammerJawz
rickyidlett@hotmail.com

IT

Hi Chuck

...finally....after an out door build with long seasonal interruptions ....IT gets wet......have to come up with a proper name which seems to be the hardest part of boat designing and building.

The design is similar to Carolina dory style hull but has a modified stern and a bit finer entry. I'll write it up later.

By the way...thanks for your services at Duckworks ....you'll recognize the 'port holes',...the one way valve 'scuppers' and lights (and other bits and pieces) as sourced with you and Sandra....:^)

Capt. Jack

"since 1946"

Peapod

Here is a picture of the second boat I've built, launched on August 13th. This is a Peapod from Hannu's Boatyard - a rather stripped down version. I built this for my daughter Eliza (she's named it "Thex") and it floats and rows wonderfully! I ordered the hardware from Duckworks and it suits the boat perfectly. An added plus: it arrived in a jiffy - which was great because the girl was eager to try out her new vehicle.

My first boat was a 12' sailing dinghy from Selway-Fisher (also outfitted with Duckworks hardware) and the Peapod certainly came together quite a bit quicker! I'll build one more boat next summer...probably something from Gavin's "Mouse" family. Just one more. Really.

-Caroline Jones
 

Melonseed

Launched my boat on Friday.  Rows well and sails GREAT!  Build photos at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lansdownes/sets/72157602078215554/

Steve Lansdowne

Core Sound 15

Hi, Chuck,

All the cash I sent your way over the past year has contributed to the completion and launching of my Core Sound 15 (#14). She was launched on August 11 in Lake Macatawa, Holland Michigan.

I Christened her "Fatty Lumpkin" and she sports a spritsail sloop rig of 108 sq ft rather than the sharpie cat-ketch intended by the designer, Graham Byrnes, of B&B Yacht Designs. Despite this deviation from the plan, the boat sails very well.

It is so light on the helm that one can steer her with two fingers in a moderate breeze and she is so well balanced that she will sail herself on all points of sail. She moves easily in the lightest of zephyrs and really flies when the wind kicks up. As my friend David C noted, "This boat is a little rocket." I'm pleased as punch with the result. Here are a few pics that David took of the inaugural sail.

Best Wishes,
Dennis 

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