So far there are about 450 hulls registered. (You can get a hull number once you have gone 3-D)
The nice thing about building a 8 feet x 4 feet boat is that it will fit just about anywhere. So far I've been working in the basement and then in the back yard.
This is the surprising part. YES. It even can plane.
Because of its footprint it is extremely stable. Various people have developed sailing rigs and leeboards or daggerboards that have performed extremely well for an 8 foot box. Crazy groups have taken Ducks to Gulf of Mexico races. Texas 200, Everglades challenge
There is an active building community hellbent in experimenting and just plain playing.
Sides have been cut out. Since I am working with non standard plywood I have a joint.
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I have cut out the sides from baltic plywood I had left over from making my kitchen cabinet doors. It comes in panels 5 feet x 5 feet. This is 6mm thick and has 5 layers. It is heavier than the mokume I used for my Skerry but I had it. Since the Puddle Duck Racer is designed to be quickly built out of 4 x 8 feet panels I was sort of shooting myself in the foot using odd size plywood! I had tested it for waterproof qualities and it had passed the 1 hour boil test. I made the joint using Dynamite Payson's method of just butt joining the 2 sheets and putting a band of fiberglass stuck down with epoxy along the joint. It works very well at least for this thickness and this plywood. |
Here is the bottom pieces being glued. If I had a regular sheet of plywood I would not have had to glue it up. |
Here I am gluing up the bottom. I did one side, let it set then did the other side. I probably could have devised a way of gluing both sides at the same time but the delay was not important. Its been warm here and I found that the cling wrap I used actually stuck to the epoxy resin. I had quite alot of trouble getting it off. This had never happened to me with this resin before. I made the panel a bit oversized. I figured it would be easier to trim than to align perfectly. |
Detail of the joint, you can see the strip of fiberglass covering the butt joint. So far it has been very solid. I think it would be a bit stiffer than the surrounding plywood but I'm not having to bend it much so there is no reason to use. |
Detail of the side panel joint. |
The 2 sides have been sanded and smoothed out. I put them back to back and made sure they were the same curve. There is actually a bit of a flat spot on the bottom. It helps to keep the boat steady and prevent rocking. I have glued the parts together and they are being held by c clamps. I measured the diagonals and made sure they were equal. |
(I got a virus and lost the earlier photos of putting the sides together and fabricating the front and back.) Unlike stitch and glue boats where the plywood bits are held together with wire, then glued in place with epoxy, this boat has strips of wood glued to the edges. The various parts then are glued together. I used temporary screws to hold some of the joints and in this case c clamps.
it was a bit tricky to bend the chine (that's the name of the piece of wood that follows the curve of the bottom) I cut 3 thin pieces and laminated these to curve them. I had some douglas fir but it is not that easy to bend so I laminated.
We are looking towards the back. The transom has a thicker piece of wood to support the future rudder. |
The strip of wood at the back sticks out beyond the bottom of the boat and needs to be trimmed. I used a combination of plane and belt sander. This occurs because I used a square piece of wood and the back and bottom meet at an angle. I could have cut the wood at an angle but this is easier. | The sides and the box and stern have been glued. I am using epoxy thickened with a mixture of silica and sawdust. The whole assembly is pretty wobbly at this point but the corners are well glued. I had glued the little wood bands on the back and the front a bit beyond the edge of the plywood to allow for the curve of the bottom. Now I have to shape the piece so that the bottom panel will fit smoothly over the front and back. |
I squared the frame, and carefully put the bottom on. I made sure the bottom was still square then put a few temporary screws in. |
Once the bottom was temporarily screwed on I checked the alignment. Then I removed the screws at the front and glued about 4 feet. First I painted the surfaces with liquid resin, then added the thickened stuff. I put my screws back in but not overly tight. Epoxy likes to have a loose clamping so that it is not starved of glue. I then went to the back, removed the screws there, put my glue on and tightened the back. That way my boat was more rigid and kept its alignment. At this point my boat was 3-D and I was entitled to apply for a hull number. I sent an email to Shorty, the designer, and he sent me back my hull number. I have hull number 457! My boat will be called Kwaker Jack. |
I used the router with a cutting bit and a guide ring to cut the bottom even to the sides. |
I used my Makita router to cut the bottom to size on the sides since they are at right angle. The front and back I cut with a japanese saw. I then used the orbital sander to smooth out the cuts. I now have a bottom that fits.
I expect I will round the edges a bit because I plan to use very thin fiberglass cloth on the bottom and bring it over to the sides about an inch. My boat club is quite rough on boat bottoms. |
Making the flotation compartments |
I had prepared 2 additional "sides" to make a flotation on each side. These panels were cut to the same size as the sides also with wood curved to the bottom and front and back. I used old underlay plywood I had around. it is nowhere near as nice as the baltic ply and has only 3 layers. I'm hoping that the strain on the inside panels will not be so great as on the hull. I expect they will help make the hull stiffer and support the deck. The underlay was a bit warped and I will have to struggle to make it straight before I attach the deck. Here the 2 sides have been glued and screwed temporarily. |
| Although it is not necessary to glass the bottom of the PDR I plan to use it where concrete ramps and steel beamed docks are the norm so I put a thin layer of fiberglass. This is 4 ounces weight. I looked at the 2 oz cloth and found it a bit too thin. I had sanded a very small radius on the edges and the 4 corners. I'm using slow epoxy and have lots of time to spread the resin. I'm finding that after wetting the cloth the plywood started absorbing resin and I had to add some more. |
Glassing the hull bottom. |
Bottom and 1 inch of side have been fiberglassed. |
In order to get the fiberglass cloth to turn the corner and stick to the sides, I had stretched and stapled the cloth to the sides. This worked very well. It was a bit tricky to do because the cloth seemed animated with an evil spirit, but eventually I had it stretched and stapled. When I put the resin on I did not cover the staples. I only turned the corner and glassed for about an inch. After the resin had had a chance to set somewhat, a couple of hours later, I went and cut the cloth and removed the stapled and the sticky extra cloth. It just pulled off nicely. The staples came off with plyers, it was easy because they had not really gone in very far. The cloth was nicely stuck to the side even though my radius is not very big, less than a quarter inch for sure.
I added another layer of resin to fill in the weave better. |
| Detail of staples holding the cloth to the hull while the resin sets. The staples were not in very deeply and pulled out easily. I did not worry too much about the width of the glass on the side. It is important to protect the edge from concrete but I expect the sides to be fine. I just ran my knife about an inch from the edge and pulled off the strip of extra glass and many staples as well. The rest came off with plyers. |
Details of stapling the cloth to make it easier to stick it to the sides. |
Edges of Kwaker Jack get a stip of bias cut fiberglass tape. |
After cutting a whole lot of bias strips I stuck these to the edges. They went on with no argument and stuck down well. I am now confident that I can grind my little PDR agains the ramp and not kill it completely. I suppose I will keep a jar of paint handy for touch ups.
The boat is carefully levelled and will sit for a day or so. I checked my measurements and found that the diagonals were a bit off. Annoying because I though I had been careful. Sigh! Oh Well! |
Side tank cover / inspection port. |
I'm putting slightly larger inspection ports in the side. I found in my Skerry that it was tricky to get my camera and other junk in the compartment because the port was too small. I supported the edges with a bit of fiberglass cloth. I don't trust the plywood much. The inside sides are only underlay and not very strong. |
| | Daggerboard Case |
Daggerboard case glued and clamped |
The Daggerboard inside faces got 2 coats of epoxy and were glued together. I'm using cut up pipe for clamps. When I want extra pressure I just tape 2 sections one inside the other.
I had a pleasant surprise. Old shelves I had in the basement turned out to be Douglas Fir 1 inch thick, with unfinished surfaces. Nice wood with some knots.
I decided on the daggerboard rather than the leaboard. I'm used to them and they seem a bit more solid than the lee boards. I'm told better performance but I don't know. Since I want to be able to put a seat across for rowing or a passenger then it makes sense to have it there. |
Daggerboard case glued to bottom. I'm using weights to keep it in place while it sets. I checked that it was square and properly lined up to the boat.
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Gluing the daggerboard in PDR bottom. |
Support pieces glued up and placed. |
2 Crosspieces will support the Daggerboard case and also a seat.
I had to cut the crosspieces and re join them otherwise I could not have placed them through the boyancy tank side. I did not trust the plywood of the tank to support the case and seats. It's underlay ply and not very good. My joint is not quite long enough so I added a bit of fiberglass cloth to stiffen it. |
| Support is glued and taped with a strip of fiberglass. It will support a seat. |
Joint in support. |
| | Mast Step |
Mast Step gets glued in. |
Mast step gets cut and glued. There are various reinforcements still to go in. |
