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.

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

Puddle Ducking on Lake Allatoona, Georgia

 Nice little story from David Chamness. Just nice text ... no pics ....

I took "Whack Whack" (pic from launching day) out to Victoria Landing the other day for a sail. The

conditions were light and variable, with short periods of decent wind interspersed with longer periods of light or non-existent wind. The lady at the State Park entry gate smiled smugly as I came through and paid my $4.00 entry and parking fee. "Taking your little sailboat out again?" she asked. It's nice

to be noticed.

I got two other comments from people as I was setting up to launch. One guy said, "You must be the bravest guy here." and "I wouldn't go out in anything that small." I explained that it is actually quite large enough for my purposes, and support much more weight than I need. I let him know I've had the

entire family out in the boat before. He was, um, skeptical.

The wind was blowing in nice and steady, at maybe 10 knots, while I stepped the mast and stowed the gear in the boat. Since the wind was blowing pretty much directly into the boat ramp, I didn't raise sail until after I had parked my truck and paddled the boat away from the dock.

I put the dagger board down and raised my sprit sail and was immediately off, sailing directly past the end of the ramp. Oops. I know sailboat have the right of way over power boats in open water, but I've got a feeling cutting people off while they are coming into the boat ramp is frowned upon. Fortunately, I was only there for a couple of minutes.

I sailed Northwest on a broad reach, all the way to the opposite shore, all of about a thousand meters. I decided against turning to the southwest, since that would mean heading downwind, on a day when the wind was suspect, so I came around almost 180 degrees and sailed back towards the beach (just northeast of the boat ramp.)

Just after I made my turn and was feeling good, the wind died. Well, not died, exactly, but dropped to just a whisper. I was amazed that even in wind I could barely feel, I was still able to make some forward progress. Okay, so it was only a knot or two, but but I was still moving.

It was a beautiful day, and the lake was fairly busy, especially right around Victoria. Quite a few boats passed me as I was making my way back, some of them fairly large. It's humbling realizing that the wake off of a 30 foot cabin cruiser is larger than the sides of my homemade boat.

Being new to sailing a Puddle Duck, I wasn't sure how much of a "sea" my boat could take without being swamped. I shouldn't have worried. Whack Whack was stable and uncaring. The wind picked up and I felt her surge forward as the mast creaked with the new strain. I fairly flew forward and became a moving target to the motorized traffic. I must have been going five knots! The spray off the bow was almost as impressive as the sound of the foils cutting through the water.

Just as I reached the little island that marks the western edge of the swimming area, the wind died again. Have you ever tried to tack with no wind? It's...

embarrassing; I had to use my paddle.

Over the next two hours, I worked my way back and forth across the channel, making my way upwind with each tack. Okay, so I could have done it in about five minutes in my pontoon boat, but where's the fun in that?

All told I spend almost four hours on the water. It was my very first long sailing session on the new boat. I had a blast. I know sailing the Puddle Duck is old hat to most of the guys on this forum, but it's new to me. I don't have access to coastal waterways, steady winds, or long sails to the Caribbean, so

this will have to do. So far, in my limited experience, it's doing the trick.

stolen from the worldwide PDR forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdracer/message/29844

Michael Storer's shoestring tour of the USA

The PDRacer community and Duckworks have grouped together to collect small amounts of money to put together to bring me to the USA to go to various "messabouts" (messing around in boat weekends) as well as the Intergalactic Championships of the PDRacers in Georgia in October.

Duckworks is collecting and managing the contributions.
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/boatmik.htm

The PDR communitiy will host me at different houses and organise lifts between different places as much as possible - a real shoestring tour.

My aim it to pay back people's generosity by doing anything that they want me to (within reason!!!). So talks, discussions, Q and A, boat setup clinics, sailing lessons, boatbuilding workshops. All is fair game!

My itinerary is looking something like this...
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Arrive LAX around the 15th unless I can find a cheap way to stay in LA to catch a couple of museums/galleries.

Train or Bus to Oregon
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Sept 18 to 20 Coots Messabout Timothy lake – Oregon
http://coots.org/calendar/2009/0909/0909.htm

Plane to Salt Lake City - $90
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Hosted by Chuck and Sandra from Duckworks (my USA Agents) through to From Utah to Texas
http://www.duckworksbbs.com

Sept 24? to Oct 5? Jim Thayer's Kokopelli cruise – Lake Powell, Utah
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/09/gatherings/koko/index.htm

South East by Road to Texas with Chuck and Sandra.
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TEXAS! (maybe side trip to Florida to see cousins and Paul Riccelli PAR and others - funded by Storer)
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Hopefully get a lift from Texas to Georgia with one of the Duckers - John Wright has offered.

9 to 11 October - Georgia PDR 2009 World Championship
The location is the Victoria Campground on Allatoona Lake near Atlanta, GA. Here is a link to details about the campground: http://tinyurl.com/m4meuo
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17 to 18 October Texas Messabout.
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NE (Maine, NY etc - need to check with contacts - don't have any messabouts or events set up yet).

Now a bigger version of the OZ PDRacer

The PDRacer international forum started discussing a longer version of the humble PDRacer - and I had some drawings on hand already for a 12ft version because of Bob Alston. He actually thought up the name, which I quite like.

We really do recommend the OZ PDRacer for most people and you do need to purchase the plan for the OZ PDR to build the new almost 12ft PDGoose.

For $20 extra you get an additional plan and license to build a 12ft version of the OZ PDR.

The Story
Bob Alston contacted me a couple of years ago wondering how to change the just under 8ft (2.4m) Oz PDR into a just under 12ft (3.5m) boat more suitable for two people. The standard OZ does take a passenger fine and sails well, but it is not a particularly participatory place to sit.

However, stretching the boat to 12ft allows two people to sit side by side as in the cover illustration. So it would be simple to share the sailing responsibility. One with the rudder and one with the mainsheet. Much better for sharing and learning.

The nice point about the PDGoose (Bob’s name for it) is that it uses ALL the bits the same as the OZ PDR – so rudder, tiller, centreboard, mast, the same two sail options. So if you have an OZ ... you can build a OZ PDGoose hull and go sailing with friends

The 12 footer will be able to carry quite a lot of weight and might make a good boat for events like the TEXAS200 event, though a lot of preparation and knowledge about the boat is necessary for tough events of this type. We recommend the lug sail with an extra reef point.

A bigger boat when friends drop round
The PDRacer is the ultimate in cheap, light and easy. It is a boat that a sailor can dominate because it is so small, simple and light. Not to mention easy to store and transport.

There are lots of arguments for not getting a bigger boat if you really don't need it. Listen to them! The great thing about the original PDRacer is that it is so simple and quick to use. The hull only weighs about 65lbs.

However I think some PDRacer owners will enjoy having a PDGoose as well as more people can go sailing with you and it will be a little bit faster than the PDRacer which might be useful sometimes.

The goose has the same enclosed side tanks as pioneered on the OZ PDR so if you do capsize the boat will float on its side and then will come upright with very little water aboard. See the capsize sequence for the PDR here.

Uses the same bits as the OZ PDR
Everything for the OZ PDRacer and the OZ Goose is identical except for the hull. This means if you have a PDRacer, you can just build the Goose hull and transfer all the working bits across.
One Caution
The mast for the OZ is strong enough for one person leaning out hard – so you can sail the PDGoose very hard singlehanded. However when sailing Two up I would recommend that the crew only sit comfortably on the side decks and not lean out hard – otherwise the mast might break. If you do want to build a real two person OZ PDGoose mast I will be designing a new mast for it later.

From Bob

I will bet you thought I dropped off the end of the world when I never got back with the results for the PDR Goose version.

I must confess I did not take the boat out at all last year, but, the goose is FANTASTIC!!! I had a bout with the "big C" last year, and didn't get much done at all.

However, the hull you designed is so great I intend to build another one just for use with a motor.

In 2007 I took the PDR GOOSE out a couple of times with a motor before my health probs kicked in, and I went in the water, on purpose, and brought all 155 kilos of me up over the side of the boat with NO problems. got caught out in a sudden blow where the wind was hitting 38 miles and hour with my wife on board and took no water in. the hull design is fantastic.

(Michael says: this is probably an exaggeration as to wind speed and probably represents a high point for the day taken from the weather report in the evening. I don't recommend that beginning sailors go out in that wind strength and some experienced sailors will probably decide not to as well!)

Do I owe you something for the hull I am building now? this one is only for use with a motor, but adhering closely to your design.

Sorry I took so long to get back in touch, but just thought you would like to know about the goose.

Have a great day, and have some FUN with it

Bob Alston