Making a PDQ Altair 34

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thinwater
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Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by thinwater »

After a perfect day of sailing in a brisk NW wind, I completed the blog post describing the process of extending our PDQ 32. Fun stuff.

http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2013/ ... ocess.html

Broad reaching at 7-8 knots. A very quiet wake.
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danhaun
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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by danhaun »

Impressive!


Well done and excellent blog post as usual. Congrats!
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maxicrom
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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by maxicrom »

Drew,

Looks really nice, are you still in Deale? We're planning on hauling at Herrington over the winter and it would be cool to check out your design. At some point I'd like to extend our stern but we would need a solution that would add some lift to the stern. II the Max sit's a little low aft due to the aft diesel, she sits a little better now that the belly tank is out (she sprung a leak and we really don't need to carry that much fuel for the bay).

I have a few other projects ahead of that...

Mike
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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by thinwater »

Yes, we're in Deale at Phipps Marina (Phipps Road, just south of the Elks lodge on the road that heads south from the Best Deal hardware).

I'm think the same approach make sense for the PDQ 36, just make the step a little higher (it already is). I would hesitate to go longer than 3' because of possible changes in balance. Much depends on the lines, but on the PDQ 32 the bottom is rising so quickly much more length would be silly. Hydrodynamically, you really just want to match the existing lines without any additional curvature. Higher sides will make the boat look bigger but also add more finishing time more critical mold construction. Something like the Sea Wind extension lines could be quite attractive; I did not do that because I was more interested in boarding utility. I think It could look good if you extended back from the second step up on the outside and then cut off the new transom at a steeper angle than stock. Something like that.

I would NOT curve the bottom up to achieve transoms above the water. Better to maintain the line and still have some submersion. This has been proven in computer modeling many times.

There is also the Pacifica approach, with molds. Because of the time spent building the molds ( several days vs 1 hour) and the time spent bonding (almost as much time as the basic lay-up took), and the fact that A single mold would require building one at a time, it did not feel efficient to me. As it was, I had the basic lay-up finished and trimmed on both hulls in less time than I could have constructed a fair mold. Yes, a molded part can be pre-finished, but you're going to be matching at the join anyway. I would only mold if I were making quite a few or if there were compound curves required.

Down load a PDQ profile and start scribbling!
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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by maxicrom »

Thanks Drew,

That project is near the end of our To-Do list - will start on the hard Bimini next week. Extensions would be a few years out, so there's plenty of design time.

8)

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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by thinwater »

Yup, hard top first.

This is an excellent post on the subject, with a design that may be very close to what you want.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f48 ... 09137.html
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Re: Making a PDQ Altair 34

Post by maxicrom »

Great info...

Very much like my vision of the final hard top project... this one will be an intermediate step and actually be a Bimini "firm" top.

Mike
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