With this plan, you should be able to cut all your parts and build your boat in one day. If the last step of the day is to paint the boat, then you should be able to be sailing on the next day.

This is not the cheapest or the lightest way to build a PDR, but I do believe it is the fastest.

Micheal Storer, a real boat designer and not some schlub like me, had this to say about this design:

Howdy chaps ... sides from a single plank of real wood 1x12" is a really bad idea. If you build a plank boat you need ribs - the purpose of the ribs is to take the lateral loads of the timber swelling and shrinking and cupping and prevent them all from happening.

You cannot do a glue join in this situation as there needs to be some flexibility as the timber comes and goes - a glue join will be ripped apart by the changes in dimension.

The other way is related to cedar strip construction. Instead of ribs on the inside of the hull you have glass inside and out and you end with glass threads running across the grain to prevent any splitting loads from doing anything to the timber. The nice reason that all works too is the glass and epoxy will stop the timber from absorbing moisture or drying out - so you end up with a very stable shape.

John Wright is quite correct about the weight. (John said it would be heavier - AL)

One of the biggest things that sells wooden boats is weight. People are surprised how light modern wooden boats are - and when they pick them up they suddenly see that they will be easy to get on and off trailers or car roofs and easy to get down to the water from the carpark.

And then it increases performance (not that they will see that necessarily, but they might wonder why bigger and more elaborate boats seem so sluggish in the water compared to the PDR (built reasonably lightly).

Light weight is one of the best ways to sell boats to people who are new to the whole thing.

Best wishes Michael

The guy is probably right. All knowledge is good.

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