OzRacer modified wins Puddle Duck World titles 2011

As many know the world titles have been won the last three years by boats either designed or modified from Storerboat versions. These boats no longer comply with the rules of the PDRacer class ... so you have to make similar changes to Brad Hickman's boat that won in 2011.

• 2009 - Georgia USA - Shawn Payment in an OzRacer Mk2 
• 2010 - Canada - Rick Landreville in what is now known as the OzRacer RV 
• 2011 - Oklahoma USA - Brad Hickman in a modified OzRacer Mk2 changed to fit the current PDRacer rules.  

This photo is Brad sailing his boat very nicely.  The information posted below are Brad's comments of preparation for the event.  He has a background racing conventional boats so took a little time to get adjusted to the lug rig.  But obviously he is quite adapted now.

Another nice side is that the boats are highly robust.  Built as designed every part is extremely reliable over the long term

Brad won from boats designed by Jim Michalak and John Welsford.  The interesting thing is that the professionally designed boats were up near the top of the rankings, though some self designed boats did well too ... I am thinking of Kenny Giles who always sails his self designed boat well too.

Anyway ... over to Brad Hickman ...

While preparing for the race at the Sail Oklahoma messabout I had two concerns. One was I'd been reading about a recently completed Kiwi PDR that was reported to be very fast. The other was some speculation that the 90 square foot OZ rig didn't perform as well in light winds as some light weight production sails with more draft. It turned out neither of those was anything to be concerned about.

The Kiwi with it's 55 square foot Lanteen rig wasn't able to keep pace with my OZ under any conditions, light or moderate to heavy winds. The 90 Square foot balanced lug sail will perform well in light wind if it's set up properly.

The owner of the Kiwi, who also has two OZs, told me there's a racing sail being developed for the boat but he also said that even with the racing sail he doubts he his Kiwi will be able to keep up with my OZ.

Things I did to prepare for what was forecast to be a light wind race, listed in order of importance:

1. I spent 16 hours sailing my OZ the week prior to the race tuning and training.
2. I removed the lacing from the yard and replaced it with zip ties (don't know what you call them in Australia but they're the adjustable plastic bands used to bundle wires). I set the zip ties at the middle of the yard for a 12mm gap between the edge of the sail and the yard then tapered the gap to 4mm at the peak and throat to give more draft in the head. I also eased the head tension lashings so there was very little tension in the head. My sail is made of light weight, 3.1 oz, poly tarp.
3. I got a Laser style mast mount wind indicator. I've tried tell tails at various locations on the sail but could never get them to work to my satisfaction due to the turbulence near the mast. The win indicator (http://www.apsltd.com/c-2322-laser-windindicators.aspx) gave me instant information on wind direction and shifts which I would not be able to detect in the very light winds.
4. I lightly sanded my bottom and foils with 320 grit wet or dry sandpaper. (Brad means the boat's bottom.)

I wear knee pads when sailing the OZ in light winds and kneel in the center of the boat as close as I can get to the centercase. The boat must be kept flat, even one corner of the transom dragging in the water will slow it down. I also keep any movement minimal and when I do move or trim the sail I do it as smoothly as I can. Abrupt movements can actually stall the sail in light wind.

I attached photos of my sail trim in light wind. The first four are of the head and foot close hauled, the other two are the head and foot on a reach. I have an adjustable outhaul.
Brad
Read more: http://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/oz-vs-kiwi-125432/#ixzz1qeufZQpr

Rick Landreville, the previous champion asked ...

I wonder out loud how transferable that info is with your aluminum (aluminium? Why not?) spars. I have quite a bit of flex with my tapered wooden spars which throw some draft or some flatness into the sail without resorting to retying the sail to the spars. The only thing I change is the outhaul tension on the boom to change the draft of mine, but I am using the heavyweight polytarp (12x12 weave, 7 oz perhaps?). Downhaul tension really loads up the spars in my case. I am using a 6:1 boom vang from my Geary 18 for the downhaul.

How much flex do you get from your yard and boom? They look quite, um, robust!

The photo above is Brad's rig.  The sail is homemade from polytarp for a cost of less than $50.  The OzRacer plans have full step by step instructions on how to make the sails yourself using a simplified method. Some of the sails at the regatta were professionally made or from regular sailcloth at much greater cost.  Brad did use aluminium spars but the designed wooden versions work well too.

Brad replied to Rick

I don't know how the aluminum would compare to wood since with wood there is a wide range of stiffness depending on species, grain spacing, grain orientation, and other variables. The yard I'm using has the same dimensions and alloy that Needlespar uses for the Keyhaven scow, which also uses a balanced lug. The yard is robust but I can easily get enough bow in it to flatten the head with the 8:1 downhaul I'm using.

Your 7oz polytarp is more than twice the weight of the 3.1oz I'm using. I think the heavy weight tarp was a major factor in the "90 sf balanced lug sails don't work well in light air" speculation.

I can change the draft in the head using the downhaul but I wanted a little extra for the light air conditions that were forecast, and fortunately the forecast was right for a change. Using the zip ties I could have quickly changed back to my original setup.
Another thing I've done that I didn't mention is put an eye strap on the yard to run the throat to yard lashing through. It seemed that when I would apply downhaul tension the head would slide down the yard and flatten out before there was much bow in the yard.

I'm still experimenting and looking for the optimum setup so I'm not sure what I'm doing is exactly right, but it seemed to work well last weekend.

I'm looking forward to hearing what Mik has to say after looking at the photos I posted

 The above pic is Brad's boat in a gust.  The lug rig does have more twist than a more conventional racing rig.  But the whole boat only cost as much as a spinnaker pole or a jib for one of the senior racing classes.

The below was Michael Storer's take

My feeling about this is that the OZ plans lead to the putting together of a very good package. Everything is not too far away from how someone would turn up to a national champs in one of the more competitive racing classes - that's where my head was at when we worked through everything from the plan to the rigging setup - it takes decades of lessons from competitive sailing into account.

That is within the constraint of the cheap materials and polytarp sail of course - even though the materials are everyday - and the sail cloth and cutting is relatively crude - the actual detail is quite highly refined - four masts and four sails for the sprit - and the lug was just great from the first one.

The plans cover all that stuff - so that if someone follows the plan they end up with a very sophisticated and optimised boat.

Something that can be raced in a championship next day (almost).

It is hard for someone without the background to put something together that will work this well.

The other side is Brad has also tricked the boat up with a vang and some other adjustments to make it faster still. As you all know I always struggle a bit with the complexity issue - but everyone else seems to decide what they want pretty easily - simple or sophisticated. No probs!

And the practice counts for a lot too. Before the worlds that they won I think rick in Canada and Shawn in the USA spent way more time out on the water than anyone else.

Put with a good boat it is a very effective mix!!!

MIK


Finally ... a nice video of Brad a few months early "motoring" (ie sailing fast) and pulling away from a much larger boat in his tiny 8ft OzRacer.  The main lesson from the OzRacer experience for me is that the hull shape almost doesn't matter if you have good foil shapes and a good sail/rig interaction designed in.  The real advantage of the hullshape is enormous stability that allows it to carry a bigger sail than the Laser.  The stability also makes it an almost foolproof boat for beginners - but it is refined and responsive making it an excellent teaching vessel.

OzRacer Mk2 sailing boat plan info is here - not a free plan - $20

OzRacer Mk3 sailing boat plan info will be here soon - not a free plan either - $20

OzRacer Mk3 revisited - simple sailboat by Storerboatplans

I recently found this blog about building a OzRacer Mk 3 sailboat (it doesn't comply with the PDRacer rules).

It was stillborn a couple of years ago. The wonderful Rick Landreville built a Mk3 prototype.

However I handed the plan as it existed to a number of builders who had bought the OzRacer Mk2 plans for them to combine the details of both to complete their own version of the OZ Mk3.

This blog is about one of these boats.

The advantage of the Mk3 was meant to be

• a much simpler construction than the Mk2 - at the cost of an extra sheet of ply.
• a leeboard rather than a centreboard - sacrificing a little bit of performance to have a big open cockpit
• a second mast position to allow for a smaller sail to suit kids better than the one position mast of the Mk1 and Mk2 Ozracers.

The boat keeps the same advanced features of the Oz Mk2 - the foils and carefully developed rig (we built four masts and four sails until we got the combination right - including breaking one of the prototype masts. Something that hasn't happened to any of the final version masts.

The 4 x 2 are temporary spacers

This gives the performance benefits for either racing or cruising that made the OzRacer the winner of the worlds in 2009, 2010 and Brad Hickman followed closely to produce his 2011 world title boat.

The benefits for cruising is that whatever happens to the weather conditions or the direction you will sail to get home or to safety that the OZ variants will be able to do what you want better than any PDR that doesn't have correctly designed foils (centreboard and rudder) or not so optimised sail/spar interaction.

But don't worry about that - it just means the boat will go where it is pointed and any experienced sailors will be bowled over by the ability, performance and feel of the boat.

For the ultimate performance the Mk2 plan is still the best because it is one sheet of ply lighter and the central centreboard has some small advantage as well.

We hope to be releasing the Oz Mk3 as the OzRacerRV in the next month or so. But that's another story.  The news will be on this blog or you can email me on storerm@storerboatplans.com


More photos of the OzRacer including rigging guides and construction logs on Flickr

Like a Duck!

After six years of being ignored, I have finally begun revamping the PDRacer.net website.

Hopefully it's history of broken links and failing to deliver anything will soon be turned on it's ear, as I attempt to turn it into a genuinely useful resource for ducks, racers and boats generally.

Keep an eye out for big changes in the coming weeks.

Righting small sailboats from capsize. OzRacer, Goose, PDRacer and many other small sailing boats

The OzRacer and OzGoose are very easy to right from capsize because the rig is quite lightweight and floats, making it easy to pull the boat upright.

It usually means you can just lie in the water and pull the tip of the centreboard down towards you and the boat is upright in seconds.  See video below.




The other thing is that both boats come upright with very little water inside.  So usually no bailing at all, sometimes one or two bucketfuls with the MK2.

With the finishing of the OzRacer RV plans which is simpler than the OzMk2) I was reminded that the leeboard would be out of reach when the boat capsized sometimes.

So the righting method is different.

I have put together a page on capsize recovery for both centreboard and leeboard sailboats here

Free Goat Island Skiff Wallpaper for your iPhone

Well folks, I couldn't leave it at the PDRacer could I? I'm not sure how many GIS owners actually have iPhones, but there are probably lots of iPhone owners who'd like a Goat Island Skiff!

For instructions on how to install, see the previous post or contact us.

Enjoy life, go sailing (or phone your Mum!)

Cheers!

Free PDRacer iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpaper!

I was just sitting here facing my computer wondering why I wasn't out there sailing or at least dreaming up some new thing to send Storer off on a wild goose chase, when the thought suddenly arrived in my head, that it's not much use having one of the worlds most desirable boats, if one doesn't have a photo of it on the iPhone, so here for your listening pleasure is the PDRacer iPhone Wallpaper Range 2009!

Don't worry about the url, it fades to an almost invisible watermark when it's installed!

To install, click on the image of your choice to enlarge it to full size, then simply drag the full sized image to whatever folder on your computer you keep stuff you sync to your phone.  If you don't know how to do that, well just leave a help question in the comments!

Enjoy!

Al Zuger in NY impresses his sailing friends with his OZ PDR

From Al Zuger in Brooklyn, NY who is extending the envelope of operating his PDRacer.

So I finally took my little ducky out in a real bay yesterday. I went down to the south shore of long island about an hour out of the big city, and man was it ever nice!

Up until now i Have only taken it out near my shop on a small estuary of the east river. It is still a lot of fun, but the wind is unpredictable and the tidal current can be very strong. Not to mention there is a decent amount of barge traffic. (though the tug crews get a pretty big kick out of the little guy and are very friendly)

This time i was out with my friend who grew up sailing, and skippers a 40' charter cat in the Caribbean (dirty job but someones gotta do it!) and we had a blast. The wind was good and strong with puffs that really made the duck get up and go. Hiked out a few times it felt like we were up on plane! I had been out with two before but only in lighter wind and always fighting a current, so in contrast this was unbelievable. No one around there had seen anything like it, and the passers by couldn't believe it when one person hoisted it off the car, then 10 min to rig and we were off. My buddy loved it, and wants one as his dinghy on the big boat. I keep getting more and more impressed with the simplicity and ease of the design, and can confidently say that i have caught the bug!

One thing i have found though, is that especially with 2 full sized adults in a strong breeze tacking back and forth, is that it is hard not to get tangled in the tiller. I'm gonna make a second rudder box with a pivoting tiller and see how it works soon. I don't think it would take much to get the handle up out of the way a bit, and make it easier for me get under it without having to go so far forward on every tack. Just an idea.

Gotta say I'm super impressed, and haven't had this much fun with something in a while! I have to start my Goat this winter, as I've been checking out the charts and waterways around here and have found a bunch of little islands and waterways perfect for weekend long beach camping expeditions with my fiancee.

(Callsign- that is indeed a girl in the boat with me, but just so no one gets the wrong idea, she's a good friend, and Sasha, my girlfriend, and as of very recently fiancee, took the picture. Sash is quite entertained by and supportive of my newfound obsession with boat making and sailing)
Best,
Al