PT Watercraft offers highly developed dinghy kits for unique designs that are efficient, functional, modern & attractive.

Welcome

 

Our boats are built from plywood and epoxy; our favorite boatbuilding materials. There are four main reasons for this:

Weight, Longevity, Ease of construction, & Minimal cost & waste.

One would have to use materials such as carbon fiber and honeycomb to produce a boat that weighed less, and these materials would only beat wood / epoxy in one of the four factors mentioned above.

Our vision with our kits is to provide an extremely well thought out package and the resulting boats are modern and smartly engineered to be tough, attractive and perform well over a long life of use. We are boaters ourselves and have high expectations of the boats we develop.

Our manuals are as much about the technology as they are about building the boats. Boatbuilding with wood and epoxy is not hard, but it is a science, and to build a lightweight boat that is both strong and long lasting, one must understand the materials.  


On these pages, you will also find original kit options and accessories;

There is a lot to explore here with specific information and reviews, videos and photo albums, brochures, blogs and Question & Answer pages, and links to associated local businesses and events. Welcome aboard.

copyright PT Watercraft 2009

PT Watercraft offers kits for new and unique boat designs that are efficient, functional, modern & attractive.

Our focus is on creating boats that answer the needs of serious cruisers, weekend camp cruisers and environmentally conscious boaters, sail and motor. Our teacher in the kit business was the fuel efficient 18.5ft center console , PT Skiff, now handled by the designers at biekerboats.com.  Russell Brown’s modern performance nesting dinghy and the non-nesting PT Spear come from his deep well of experience to create his personal ideal in a dinghy. This process has led to creating our own unique hatch toggles or ‘turn dogs’,  dinghy rigs, sails, dinghy foil kits, & original PTW stainless steel connective hardware. Preferring not to teach classes, Russell has applied his knowledge in his stitch & glue builders’ manuals and working-with-epoxy instructional books.

R&D by Russell J. Brown with various design collaborations with Paul Bieker and Eric Jolley of Bieker Boats, Jim Franken of Franken Design, Brandon Davis of Turn Point Design, Paul Zeusche of Antalya Inc., Sandy Goodall & Sean Rankins of NW Sails. Special thanks to our honorary consultants, John Marples, Dick Newick, Jim Brown, Brian Clark, Tom George, Sandy Goodall, John Harris, Alex Spear, Tim Nolan, Meade Gougeon, Ted Pike, Chris Grace. Okoume plywood and beautiful hardwoods from Edensaw in Port Townsend, WA and Andersen Machine Shop. Our preferred epoxy is WEST SYSTEM  from Gougeon Brothers. Lots of great stuff we use comes from Admiral Ship Supply in Port Townsend and  FISHERIES SUPPLY in Seattle. Publicity thanks to Wooden Boat, Professional Boat Builder, Small Craft Advisor, Epoxy Works, and our customers!..+


Port Townsend Watercraft & Chesapeake Light Craft

are production partners of the PT 11 Nesting Dinghy kit & the PT SPEAR

OrderingOrdering_from_PTW.html

Can’t find a page? Try the compass.

PT Eleven (11ft) nesting dinghy 
Designed to be a lightweight, space efficient,fun-to-use, and yet seriously utilitarian dinghy with sailing option.PT11Home.html
PT Spear (11ft) dinghy. 
The sister in hull shape and performance to the PT 11 without the 2-part nesting. A good choice if storage space is not an issue. Chesapeake Light Craft now produces the PT SPEAR kit.PT11_Spear.html

Learn about our kits; and how to get one by clicking on the pictures below. PT 11,(now in production)  PT Spear (soon to be in production again)

EXPLORE what else we offer and what people are saying:

Chalk Board NoticesChalk_Board.html
About UsAbout_Us.html
Builder Community CenterBuilder_Center.html

The PTW on each page will bring you back to the Welcome page.

Central links are at the top and bottom of each page.

Tabs indicate links and/or page topics.

We apologize if this site may not display correctly on Internet Explorer.

Small Boat solutions 
 Delrin(tm) turn-dogs, Fillet stick sets, rubber bumper...Hatches_and_Hardware.html
BOOKS & Manuals
Digital & printE-Books.html
VIEW 
Videos, Articles, Reviews, Brochures, Blogs ++ on our MEDIA pageMedia.html
Market Place
Specials, tools, boats for sale, hats & T-shirts, mugs, notebooks & puzzles & more gifts..Specials_and_Gifts.html

Our Media Page has lots of

Videos, Reviews, Photo Albums, Books, Interviews, our BLOG, and more.

Have more Questions? Try our FAQ pages or our Site Map,

Or you can Email info @ ptwatercraft.com

Featured customer created video

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Understanding the PT 11 nesting dinghy

There are many nesting dinghy kits available, but our PT 11 dinghy kit is a bit different.

Because our kits are quite expensive, we would like to offer some explanation. We would also like to make sure that our kit’s are an appropriate choice for anyone thinking of building one.  

We are long-time designers and builders of high-performance sail boats. Nesting dinghies have been a passion for more than 40 years, during which time our study of the compromises and possibilities have been a bit of an obsession.  Many prototypes have led to the PT 11.  

Could we have created a simpler and more affordable boat? Of course we could have, but it wouldn’t have the qualities that make the PT 11 such a great boat. As an alternative, the PT SPEAR non-nesting dinghy offers the same good looks and performance without the complexity inherent in nesting.

What features make this boat special? See the PT 11 Home page HERE

Is the PT 11 for you? If you are attracted to the boat and it fits your needs, then maybe. Are you right for the PT11? Probably, if the next sentences work for you.

-You want the performance that our kits offer and aren’t afraid to put in the effort and time required; You look forward to a good winter or summer project, and you are willing to carefully follow a very detailed building manual. -

Building a boat can be a very satisfying and rewarding experience; an experience that is increasingly missing in modern times. We ask a lot of our builders, but they get a lot in return. They get the experience, a new set of skills, and in the end, they get a very versatile boat. 

We completed eight PT 11s, built to improve the manual and fine-tune the kits. We do this so that our builders can get the most value, pleasure, and longevity from their boats. The kits and manuals get better with every update. 

It’s just the two of us running PT Watercraft, which means we can offer very good quality control and economy. Now with CLC doing the heavy lifting, we can focus on the fussy parts that we supply to them and the complete sailing rigs. WA residents can ask about picking up their sailing rig in Port Townsend.

We have a video series with Off Center Harbor, showing the more technical parts of building a PT 11.  We hope builders will follow the blog for important updates. Also see our Builders page for printables and suggestions.

Featured comment: “ I would like to reiterate one point as far as the value is concerned: I've yet to float in my boat, but I'm confident it will work as designed. The money spent was worth it, just to have "taken the class" on working with epoxy, and stitch and glue boat building, getting a sweet boat at the end is of course a nice bonus. The manual describes such nuance of technique, I feel like an expert, despite limited experience with epoxy and glass. That said by a working guy on a budget.” A.S. Stowe Vermont

We have worked extensively to develop innovative, high performance designs that translate well into premium quality boat kits for the home boat builder. We also offer accessories for small boats and instructional books.

Visit our blog 
HEREhttp://ptwatercraft.com/blog/