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SPT Bulldog launches this weekend

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Paulrjordan:
I spoke to the builder of SPT "Bulldog" yesterday evening at our
Club's semi-annual "Boat sale" (ohhh the Bargains!!!) and he told me
he'd be launching her this Sunday for her first "sea trials".

This follows two weeks of "bathtub" testing which saw the model lose
ALL its ballast and major superstructure lightening to get her
waterline level and paddle plunge correct. The builder says he had to
also lower her C of G substantially to stop that awful "rocking
motion" for which side paddlers are so well known.

These are all the peculiar challenges we face in building paddle
wheelers, and certainly ones which I too had to overcome when
preparing my own "Director" class Tug for her "sea trials"...and it
took me almost three months of trial and error..lots of ERROR!!! The
subject of waterline, paddle size/shape, rotation, plunge and C of G
are all critical factors in Paddlers and I'm hoping our group will
explore all these areas of discussion to avoid some of the pitfalls.

Incidentally, my paddler has been gutted to her bare hull again (now
that I know she's a great performer in the water!) to prepare for the
hull restoration and construction/superdetailing of the topsides and
superstructure.

I posted a picture of "Bulldog" for you all to see (She recently took
some top honours at our recent public Show) and its in our file
section which I'm sure all of you know how to use...and if you don't
then email me.

I've also shoved up a quick temporary Web Page for Paddleducks at

http://334648.home.icq.com//////index.html

and there's a picture of "Bulldog" there too.

Will keep you all posted..meanwhile have a great weekend wherever you
ARE!!

Paul J
Victoria BC Canada

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