Bolt On Accessories & Configurations

Bolt On Accessories & Configurations
Most people are very relucatant to drill holes in boats they have purchased for fear that they will mess up the looks of the boat and ruin it's resale value. Not so with the PDRacer !!! The PD is just about the most likely boat you will ever tinker with because they are so easy to make, and most people paint them so if you drill a hole to bolt something on, later if you change your mind you can just fill the hole with epoxy, sand it down & paint over.

Grout
Phil Bolger designed an joiner called a Grout that is used to combine 2 of his Bricks together. For more info on this design [click here]

Motor Grout
Happen to have 2 PDRacers and would like to have a single, really long motor boat? Bruce Hector sketched up this idea, he is the organizer of the TIMS project, it means "The Infinite Modular Sharpie" where he and a number of other folks joined a bunch of 4' wide by 8' long "Tims Units" to create a single power boat that was something like 100' long.

Drop In Cockpit
Here is the problem, if you are going to wander into big water, you are going to get a lot of spray and chunks of waves over the bow, which will influence you to build a self draining configuration with huge side air boxes. The drawback is that you won't have as much room in the cockpit as you would with the simple bow / stern airbox configuration. This is an idea for a concept that would allow you to have both with the same boat - it is a drop in cockpit that would seal off the entire open cockpit and create a small, sealed foot well. As you take water over the bow and sides, most of it rolls off the deck, but some would collect in the foot well which you can either just sail with wet feet, or every now and then bail out. The drop in cockpit also has a hatch on the forward side to keep your gear out of the weather, and if for some reason water got down in there, you can bail it out. Furthermore you might expand this concept to integrate a small cabin so you can curl up inside there at night, away from the mosquitos.

Bow Extension
The PD hull shape can carry about 630 lbs. If you subtract 115 lbs for the typical hull weight, and a little more for the rig and gear, you still have plenty of capacity for 2 adults plus a kid or two. In the event you would like a little bit more room, a bow extension could be made as a place to kick the kids out and give them their own area to sit in. Further more, you could setup a simple umbrella as shade, so they can get out of the sun.

Add On Catamaran
Ever since John McKissick created a super simple catamaran for the $50 race, there has been talk about somehow making a catamaran from a PD, or some kind of add-on hulls to convert it into a catamaran. (see cat box at our first $50 race) John Wright was the first to build a set of add-on catamaran hulls, these are just simple hulls that fit the bottom profile of the PD hull and are attached to the sides.

Another option might be to make an add-on pair of catamaran hulls that were already joined to each other, and the stock PD would fit in there like a foot going into a shoe. Also the catamaran hulls could be wider and longer than the PD. If you live in a state that required boat registrations for small boats like the PD, the add on catamaran hulls might be a way to have 2 boats but only one registration.

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