Sunday 9 September 2012

A Roller Blind on a Dumpster?


Which of these boats is the most recent design? 

Well remembering that there is nothing new under the sun, the one on the right, the Puddle Duck Racer was devised in the last few years while the Enterprise dates back to the fifties.  


This is Bob, he's a bit of an inventor, he built this PDR in his shed and called it Dumpster. The thing about the PDR is that the only restrictions are the underwater shape which is pre-defined, the rest you can pretty much do what you want. Bob's is a very conservative design compared to some.  Neat and functional. You can find out more here. http://www.pdracer.com/ 


Bob had great fun sailing his little boat all over Chichester Harbour, however Dumpster is a bit slow, so he always tried to leave about an hour earlier than everyone else. The Roller reefing design was borrowed from Al's Paradox, below, and it works like a dream. Pull the string and up she goes, pull another and down she comes. Simples!


4 comments:

Thumbs said...

Does this fall into the "just because you can, it doesn't mean you should" category?

Like many, if not all the - sheet of ply x 'n' - designs, they might be ingenious but pretty they aint; and isn't part of the joy of owning a wooden boat having something appealing to look at?

Still if you're in it at least you can't see it!!

Graham Neil said...

I normally go with the "Boats don't have to be ugly, so why make them ugly?" argument.
I like this because of its absolute simplicity and total functionality. Bob reckons he could sleep aboard and he's over six feet tall.
I suppose it falls into the "I wouldn't do it but I respect your right to."

doryman said...

I insist Phil Bolger was playing a joke on us when he designed the "Brick". He wanted to see how far human folly would take us and he must be having a good laugh from the other side by now.
So, what of the Enterprise? Now, that's a simple boat that goes like a rocket (I have one - how it got from England to the western Pacific coast of the US is a good story).
And it's pretty too.

Graham Neil said...

You'll have to tell us the story sometime. Unless you already have?

I agree, the design is elegant in its simplicity. The Enterprise, not the PDR.