Build your own little sailboat and sail

[Pythagorean]

pdracer.com

Three sheets of plywood and a couple sticks of lumber. Some titebond II, a tarp, and you have a sail boat.

From personal experience I can tell you that these things sail upwind great, even in very little wind (as long as you sit back on the rocker and know how to sail upwind, where the physics are more like airplane wings than parachute scoops).

The directions on the site are horridly arranged, bilut if anyone interested, I'll guide you through it.

We need more people to build and register pdracers!

 

[Danger]

And I can tell you from personal experience that it will sail in whatever direction I am facing (provided that there was no shortage of salsa at lunch).

 

[zoobyshoe]

I want the "cabin cruiser" on this page:

http://www.pdracer.com/hull-config/cabin/

 

[Danger]

That's just disgusting, Zoob.
If you're on the thing long enough to sleep, you're on it long enough to need a ****. Where's the plumbing?

 

[Pythagorean]

over the side, of course!

some have been known to carry a bucket

 

[Danger]

Now I'm even more disgusted.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I kind of want to build one of these, but I know that none of my friends would.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Now I'm even more disgusted.

You wouldn't have made it as a Viking.

 

[Danger]

You wouldn't have made it as a Viking.

That's why I had the foresight to be born in 20th-century Canada.

 

[zoobyshoe]

That's why I had the foresight to be born in 20th-century Canada.

Very circumspect of you.

I think the ugly little 8 foot boat with its sloop rigged pretentions to being a yacht is hilarious.

 

[Pythagorean]

she's ready to sail, tomorrow morning she shoves off!

I used shorty's simple 18" plans at pdracer.com

 

[zoobyshoe]

she's ready to sail, tomorrow morning she shoves off!

I used shorty's simple 18" plans at pdracer.com

Awesome! Did you use a tarp for the sail, as per specs?

 

[dlgoff]

pdracer.com

Three sheets of plywood and a couple sticks of lumber. Some titebond II, a tarp, and you have a sail boat.

From personal experience I can tell you that these things sail upwind great, even in very little wind (as long as you sit back on the rocker and know how to sail upwind, where the physics are more like airplane wings than parachute scoops).

The directions on the site are horridly arranged, bilut if anyone interested, I'll guide you through it.

We need more people to build and register pdracers!

she's ready to sail, tomorrow morning she shoves off!

I used shorty's simple 18" plans at pdracer.com

Are you sure you're not an engineer? I love seeing a project coming to completion. Good luck on it's initial voyage.

 

[Pythagorean]

She holds water and sails upwind (after several tacks)

@zooby: yeah, I ordered a lightweight orange tarp online (couldn't find any locally). Had to be orange! And I use gorilla tape instead of duck tape. mixture of sawdust and glue to coat the plywood edges and cracks. And that's more than you asked for.

@digoff: I wanted to be an engineer at one point. But then I was bored to death by the engineering classes after getting a physics degree. And the engineering teachers weren't really interested in the kinds of questions I asked like my scientist profs were. So I went back to science :). The school here is not very interdisciplinary, I've had to do a lot of work to integrate physics and biology (which should be a know-brainer, right?).

Anyway, the engineering here is pretty humdrum. All of our engineering is industrial masses (mining, oil routing, civil engineering). Not a lot of creativity or curiosity about nature involved.