PDR Bottom Replacement
By Gail #771 "Just Ducky" (1ar)Hello Shorty,
I just wanted to share my recent experience replacing the bottom of my PDR. I built my PDR in the summer of 2012 using 1/4" luann underlayment from Home Depot. The chines were glassed using titebond II. By the end of summer 2013 the luann bottom was getting pretty rough. It had been punctured by rocks and patched, the sole was delaminating and had a lot of oil-canning. I was afraid that I may step aboard soon and put my foot through the bottom. In October I planned to attend Sail Oklahoma. I needed to stiffen up the bottom before thr trip. I had a 4x8 sheet of birch faced plywood left over from another project I deciced to laminate over the current bottom making it 1/2" thick. I added a skeg and covered the chines in fiberglass and titebond II. After a week in the water in Oklahoma the birch ply inner layer had swollen like a sponge in places where water had gotten past the latex paint.
So this May I decided that both bottom layers needed to be replaced with better materials. I bought a new sheet of 3/8" BCX plywood and started the removal of the old bottom.
The bottom layers were held on quite well with a combination of ss deck screws, pl premium, fiberglass, and titebond II. This proved to be more work than I had envisioned. I started with combination of prybars, hammers, and putty knives. This was very slow going and eventually broke out the pnuematic chisel with a sharpened chisel. After cleaning up the bottom, I attached the new plywood with ss deck screws and pl premium. Chines glassed, I added a couple of runners.
Next it got a new paint job.
I finished the repairs in time for camping and sailing at a local lake on memorial day weekend.
My daughter and our dog on board trying out thr new lug sail.
Me, sailing away from the beach.
From David Baldwin
PDR #711
Palmyra, Nebraska