PT11: Leo’s new nesting dinghy

[Frogmogman]

At the risk of being accused of being political, might I suggest that one of the reasons the PT11 seems so pricey is the exchange rate….

maybe the builder would be open to someone over this side of the pond making and selling kits under licence.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Dinghies that can be Putin the water quickly to run out a kedge or run a line ashore beat hands down inflating a rubber boat or assembling a delicate nesting craft.

You have not watched his video on the PT11, which demonstrates its speed of assembly and strength. Its a great solution to his needs and wants and would not be a barrier to speed in preparing a dinghy for that.

 

[Wansworth]

You have not watched his video on the PT11, which demonstrates its speed of assembly and strength. Its a great solution to his needs and wants and would not be a barrier to speed in preparing a dinghy for that.

Yes I saw the video,just offering another point of view,on my engineless 26 footer I carried a two man dinghy on the foredeck

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I wonder what sort of discount he got after all the advertising.

 

[gregcope]

Our 3.8m nesting dinghy does just that whilst being nested. It pouring with rain here in Curacao but front hatch is open under the dink.
The dinghy is solid glass hull with cored bulkheads and buoyancy compartments. Unlike The PT11 that has a 2hp engine limit, we use a 15hp two stroke. It rows and sails as well. We know of a few nesting plywood dinghies around but they are not robust enough to take the knocks of liveaboard life. View attachment 144377

@geem I might have missed it, but which one do you have? Is it cored/glassed and DIY?

 

[geem]

@geem I might have missed it, but which one do you have? Is it cored/glassed and DIY?

Ours is glass hull cored bulkheads and buoyancy chambers. Built by Chris Morejohn in the USA 30 years ago. He sells the plans online. Turbot 14. It can be built from 12ft to 16ft. Depends what you want. Then cut to make nesting. A Dutch friend has done a 12ft version. Very happy with it. Finished it last week. He is running a Yamaha Enduro 15hp, same as us. He built his as all core construction. It will make it stiffer than ours

 

[Resolution]

Has anyone here been on any of the Fyne courses up in Cumbria? A couple of fellow ancient ex boat owners and I were looking at this last week, thought it might be a sociable way to learn a bit about West systems and woodwork. Comments?

 

[gregcope]

Ours is glass hull cored bulkheads and buoyancy chambers. Built by Chris Morejohn in the USA 30 years ago. He sells the plans online. Turbot 14. It can be built from 12ft to 16ft. Depends what you want. Then cut to make nesting. A Dutch friend has done a 12ft version. Very happy with it. Finished it last week. He is running a Yamaha Enduro 15hp, same as us. He built his as all core construction. It will make it stiffer than ours

Thanks

 

[Kelpie]

The PT11 has to be one of the prettiest boats ever. It's borderline pornographic.
But... cost aside, it does look very tender, with the multi-chine design. The raised deck in the bow section must also come at the cost of internal volume.

We chose a Spindrift 11N and we're very happy with it. Using an ex sailing club scrap dinghy as a donor (rig, rudder, hatches, etc) total cost was about £800 including Robbins Elite ply, and I still have about a third of my epoxy left over.

It motors about 6kt with a small 2 stroke, I can row it at 4kt, and it sails about 4.5kt in gentle conditions. I've had it out in stronger conditions once which was... sporty.

It's already used up two of its nine lives- once when we were rear-ended by a motorboat, causing extensive damage to the dinghy which was in the davits, and once when it went walkabout in the night but was located not far away bumping against the rocks. Being ply epoxy it's not too hard to fix even major damage.

One thing about these dinghies which I think gets overlooked is the importance of adequate fendering. If you want it to be a genuinely practical tender, it needs good fendering. We went with split PVC hose over the gunwales, plus a 4" pool noodle just under that. The pool noodles are sacrificial but provide very good fendering and a little reserve buoyancy.

 

[geem]

The PT11 has to be one of the prettiest boats ever. It's borderline pornographic.
But... cost aside, it does look very tender, with the multi-chine design. The raised deck in the bow section must also come at the cost of internal volume.

We chose a Spindrift 11N and we're very happy with it. Using an ex sailing club scrap dinghy as a donor (rig, rudder, hatches, etc) total cost was about £800 including Robbins Elite ply, and I still have about a third of my epoxy left over.

It motors about 6kt with a small 2 stroke, I can row it at 4kt, and it sails about 4.5kt in gentle conditions. I've had it out in stronger conditions once which was... sporty.

It's already used up two of its nine lives- once when we were rear-ended by a motorboat, causing extensive damage to the dinghy which was in the davits, and once when it went walkabout in the night but was located not far away bumping against the rocks. Being ply epoxy it's not too hard to fix even major damage.

One thing about these dinghies which I think gets overlooked is the importance of adequate fendering. If you want it to be a genuinely practical tender, it needs good fendering. We went with split PVC hose over the gunwales, plus a 4" pool noodle just under that. The pool noodles are sacrificial but provide very good fendering and a little reserve buoyancy.

You are correct about fendering on a hard dinghy. Our gunwhales are grp tubes of 1 1/4" diameter. Standard toilet sanitation house is nice and soft. Once split and pushed over you get good fendering but it marks easily and picks up bits of grit when you go alongside concrete jetties. We sleeved the sanitation hose with sunbrella. We now have nice dark blue fendering that is practical and durable. See post #5. For bow protection we made a sunbrella nappy. It is closed cell foam that wrapped over the bow in matching sunbrella. It's mk3. Took a while to get the design right. We also carty a couple of small fender in the bow locker that we hang over the side on grotty jetties.

 

[Kelpie]

You are correct about fendering on a hard dinghy. Our gunwhales are grp tubes of 1 1/4" diameter. Standard toilet sanitation house is nice and soft. Once split and pushed over you get good fendering but it marks easily and picks up bits of grit when you go alongside concrete jetties. We sleeved the sanitation hose with sunbrella. We now have nice dark blue fendering that is practical and durable. See post #5. For bow protection we made a sunbrella nappy. It is closed cell foam that wrapped over the bow in matching sunbrella. It's mk3. Took a while to get the design right. We also carty a couple of small fender in the bow locker that we hang over the side on grotty jetties.

How have you attached the sunbrella cover?
My PVC tubing is fixed using small screws and washers. It was a PITA to do, dribbling epoxy in to every screw hole, and it still bulges out in places between each fixing.
I thought about using a thin strip of hardwood, or maybe even a sail batten, to provide a continuous fixing. That would also be quite good for pinning down a fabric cover. But it's quite a lot of work.

 

[geem]

How have you attached the sunbrella cover?
My PVC tubing is fixed using small screws and washers. It was a PITA to do, dribbling epoxy in to every screw hole, and it still bulges out in places between each fixing.
I thought about using a thin strip of hardwood, or maybe even a sail batten, to provide a continuous fixing. That would also be quite good for pinning down a fabric cover. But it's quite a lot of work.

You sew up a sunbrella tube that is equivalent circumference to the both surfaces of the split sanitation hose. Slide it over the sanitation hose and push the sanitation over the dinghy gunwhale. Dinghy is upside down on the foredeck at the moment. If you need a photo, let me know and I can send you one once we remove the dinghy off the deck. We launch tomorrow

 

[Kelpie]

You sew up a sunbrella tube that is equivalent circumference to the both surfaces of the split sanitation hose. Slide it over the sanitation hose and push the sanitation over the dinghy gunwhale. Dinghy is upside down on the foredeck at the moment. If you need a photo, let me know and I can send you one once we remove the dinghy off the deck. We launch tomorrow

Gotcha. And how do you secure the hose itself?

I made a silly mistake when I did mine. Without really thinking it through, I sat down with my coil of hose and slit it with a stanley knife, along the outside of the coil. So I've had to bend it against the direction of naturally wants to lie. When I come to replace it I will slit the inside instead...

 

[geem]

Gotcha. And how do you secure the hose itself?

I made a silly mistake when I did mine. Without really thinking it through, I sat down with my coil of hose and slit it with a stanley knife, along the outside of the coil. So I've had to bend it against the direction of naturally wants to lie. When I come to replace it I will slit the inside instead...

The sanitation hose is a tight fit. It doesn't come off easily but to be safe I have a large self taper on the inside of gunwhale at the stern. The front end of the aft section of the nesting part is held by the rowlocks. On the forward part of the nesting dinghy we have another self tapper for the aft end and the nose bumper holds it in place forward

 

[john_morris_uk]

Dinghies that can be Putin the water quickly to run out a kedge or run a line ashore beat hands down inflating a rubber boat or assembling a delicate nesting craft.

That’s why ours is on davits with the outboard attached, and ready to go.

 

[Derek ide]

A nice toy but not much use for taking crew ashore and bringing stores aboard. He will end up with a rib of some kind to cope with future charter passengers and crew.

 

[Hacker]

He did say that he would have a rib as well, but that it would be stored deflated.

 

[Kelpie]

He did say that he would have a rib as well, but that it would be stored deflated.

I wonder if he actually means a RIB, which is still pretty bulky with just the tubes deflated.
Of course a folding RIB could work. I think he wants to be able to hide it away since it would spoil the look of the boat.

 

[Wansworth]

As I said a proper clinker stem dinghy upturned over the skylight

 

[geem]

.

As I said a proper clinker stem dinghy upturned over the skylight

There won't be much sky if he did that?