I’ve just mailed in a deposit for a build-it-yourself fiberglass dinghy! The PT11 from Port Townsend Watercraft.
I first heard about this kit from a fellow cruiser while hanging out in Ensenada. At the time, I thought, “wow! cool! I’d love to do that.” But there’s just no place for a project like that on a cruising boat, so I figured no way it would ever happen. But when we decided to stay in the Bay Area, near home, for a few more months, a window of opportunity suddenly presented itself.
It’s a dream. But as with so many dreams, there are those who will question my sanity.
On the one hand, it’s the absolutely perfect dinghy for cruising on Gardyloo.
It’s 11′ long, making it large enough to comfortably ferry people and groceries between the boat and a dinghy dock or shore. Yet it’s only 90 lbs, so two people can handle it easily. And I plan to put wheels on it, so even one person alone can get it on and off the beach.
It’s a “nesting” dinghy, which means that it comes apart into two pieces, and one of the two fits inside the other. That means it will fit perfectly (a whole 2″ to spare) in the limited foredeck space we have under the staysail Hoyt boom. But it’s also tough enough to be towed, even in fairly rough conditions.
It’s designed to be so easy to row that you don’t need an engine. Which, assuming it proves to be true, means we can get rid of our electric outboard, which is neat itself, but requires storage, is one more thing to break, and consumes electricity from our limited supply.
And as an extra added bonus, it also works as a sailing dinghy, with a removable rudder, daggerboard, and 13 lb carbon fiber mast and sail. Certainly not a requirement for a cruising dinghy, but definitely a source of much potential fun.
On the other hand, it’s a do-it-yourself kit that’s estimated to require 200-300 hours of work to assemble (despite many prebuilt pieces). And I have no experience at all working with fiberglass and fairly little working with wood.
But there’s even an upside to that: It comes with a meticulous 280-page manual, that’s described in one review as being virtually a course in how to work with fiberglass. So I’ll finish the project knowing a lot more than I do now about fiberglass. Not a bad thing if you’re living on a fiberglass boat and depending on it to keep you safe and afloat.
I expect there will be more than one future post covering my progress with this project. Stay tuned.
