Passagemaker Take Apart Option

Builder's Forum
1

This may be a really silly question, and I'm certainly in no way second-guessing JH, but I had a thought.  I've got a really bad back, but I really love the payload of the PM.  I just finished an Eastport pram build (non-take apart).  Currently, the PM take apart separates at the first bulkhead under the front seat.  This creates approximately a 2:1 ratio of the weight of the two parts in question (93" stern & 45" bow).  I can't see any compelling reason why the doubled up bulkhead can't be located at the second station, alongside the centerboard trunk.  This visually creates two much more evenly weighted sections.  Can anyone disabuse me of this as I'm in the planning stage of my next addiction fix?  The front seat overhang gets cut in the original version.  Why can't the center thwart do the same thing?  It would interfere a bit with the skids, but the skeg stops at the trunk slot anyway.

Thanks,

Chris

Eastport Pram "Tot Yot"  

 

2

There's absolutely no technical reason you couldn't move the cut point to the 'midships bulkhead.  That bulkhead (or rather, two bulkheads) would need a redesign:  it would need to be solid from the seat down, for example.  

There have been ruminations here of doing for the Passagemaker what we did a few years ago for the Eastport Pram: create a genuine, Russian-dolls nesting version.  Like the Eastport Nesting Pram, this would require a different interior layout compared to the stock version.  Getting there is a heap big development project so it's a ways off.

Meanwhile there's no particular engineering problem with shifting the cut points around on a Take-Apart Passagemaker Dinghy.  Having three pieces is another possibility.  

Passagemaker Dinghy Take Apart