From Pair of Ducks to Paradox

Guest Blogger : Dale

Lezlie is out in the garage fiberglassing the water tanks on the Paradox "TARDIS", and asked me to think about putting up a blog post. So with password in hand, I decided to post some photos of something besides epoxied plywood, namely from our vacation in Belize. If you look closely, there is a channel marker at the top ,so it's not completely off topic. Incidentally, after she sees this, it may be my last blog post.


Moving from arid West Texas to the Gulf Coast four years has been a real exercise in adjustment. You see, in West Texas there is very little water unless you have it shipped in, and quantities large enough to sail in are prohibitively expensive. Wind is cheap, though. Little did I know when we started sailing Galveston Bay where it would lead. When I stumbled across Matt Layden's Paradox, I daydreamed a bit, and thought it would be fun to build one. Then when Lezlie asked for plywood for Christmas, I knew it was going to get serious. Despite us never having built a boat before, and barely knowing how to sail, soon there was an intimidating pile of plywood stacked in the garage. As a warm-up exercise, she decided to build a Puddleduck Racer. Joining the forums at Yahoo helped a lot by introducing us to people who had tried this sort of thing before. Discovering Chuck's Duckworks saved us countless amounts of time with information and small boat hardware. What the heck is a gudgeon ? They got 'em! Fast forward now, a year and a half later, and there are two Puddleducks on a trailer, and a Paradox named Tardis growing in the garage.



The plumbing design on the Paradox will allow the water tanks to be both filled and emptied with a small electric pump and a combination of valves. Both water tanks will be used for ballast only, not a source of drinking water. The pump and valves will allow draining or filling of either port or starboard water tank, as well as serving as a "convenience" bilge pump in the event of water from entry through the hatch or over the transom baffle in following seas. I found some nifty 3-way valves from US Plastics , that greatly reduced the amount of plumbing necessary. The plan is to do all the plumbing and electrical work before the deck is installed. Yeah, I know, something will be forgotten and have to be installed lying down in the boat, in the dark, in an inaccessible spot, with special tools., by a contortionist. But at least at the present there is a plan to do it right.

Two weeks until the Centex messabout at Lake Bastrop, Texas on April 23, 2011. We plan to have both Duckish boats there, assuming a new leeboard for gOZling to replace the one cracked during the last sail at Lake Somerville. I hope we get to see some people from SailOklahoma! , and get a close look at that world-famous Scamp !

Fun begins when you push away from the dock ....