OZ PDR Sail Drawing - Correction and change

Hi All,

After sailing the Mk2 PDRacers several times there is a change to the sail patches in the corners. It can go over the top of the existing patches. It makes the sail tougher so it can handle the eyelets better.

Also don't overhammer the eyelets - if they start splitting they are overhammered. If the cloth is not clamped properly they are underhammered. Get some practice in on the line of eyelets down the luff of the sail and do the corners last.

Also at the same time I noticed that the drawings of the patches had become mis-scaled on the drawings on some of the plans that have been sent out. They have been corrected here.

Best Wishes
Michael

Another OZ PDR hits the water - BLU #124

Rob Badenoch Launched his OZ PDR "BLU" (PDR #124) for the first time last weekend.

This is pretty exciting news as Rob was not only one of the volunteers that helped build the three boats at Duck Flat but is a very good sailor. He started sailing in his teens with his brother in Rainbow class dinghies and then moved up the dinghy and yacht food chain.

He launched at Clayton - a stretch of open water on the Murray River. The port of Goolwa is to the right around 4 miles and the huge Lake Alexandrina is to the left.

He currently races a very pretty "Gem" class trailer sailer out of Clayton Bay Sailing Club - one of the little, friendly clubs that still survive as a family style club.

Last weekend was their famous "Rat Race Regatta" which normally goes from Clayton Bay up around Rat Island then through a shallow area known as "Duck's Hostpital" down the side of another island.

So even though he intended to race the GEM in the Rat Race he took his new PDR out for the first time.

His email is pretty ecstatic about the OZ PDR

Hi Mik Peter and others,

Went out for the first sail in the "Blue" Oz PDR on Saturday arvo at Clayton Bay South Australia. What a hoot.

It was blowing 10-12knots very little chop and reasonably steady. The mast as designed does a great job although it the amount of bend looks a little alarming at first from the cockpit but you can see how it reacts to changes in in pressure by falling to the downwind side and towards the stern spilling excess pressure nicely.

As you have said Mik the crew weight position has a great affect on the boat wanting to dig the bow transom in or get up on the plane. In 10-12 Knots the boat seems to be
on top of the water most of the time and with the short coupling between center board and rudder it reacts instantly to and changes.

I found the Oz PDR to be very stable and easy to sail and an absolute hoot. I was not able to join the dinghy races with Herons Mirrors Optimists etc to see just how well the Oz PDR performs as I was sailing my Trailer Sailer in the other races.

Well done Mik.

Rob Badenoch

Now looking at the pictures you can see in the first one that a gust has just hit and the boat is pushing water at the bow. In the second shot Rob moves a fraction back and the bow pops out and the boat starts moving well.

Generally you can let the bow pop up then move back forward again to stop it from getting too high. Once you are sitting in the sweet spot along the side you don't actually have to move backwards and forwards - you can simply lean your body forward or back.

Of course you don't have to worry about any of this if you are cruising.

The other thing I can see from the shot is that the snotter (the rope that tensions the boom at the front end) needs to be tighter. It was Rob's first sail in a PDR and he is a good enough sailor to have worked this out already. But in medium winds like this you need to tension the snotter quite tightly so the mast has about an inch and a half (37mm) of bend.

The picture right is of our original masts and sails which bent even more than this - but they do show the sort of thing I mean. Normally this sort of tension is added once the mast is in the boat.

Doing this flattens out the foot of the sail and reduces the twist of the leach - both important for upwind performance. Also a tight snotter reduces the amount of tension on the mainsheet as it doesn't have to pull the boom down to control the leach twist.

Brisbane Wood Show - Two PDRacers and a Eureka Canoe

I am please to say that we moved the two PD Racers into the Brisbane Timber and Working with wood show last night.

One of the members of the Wooden Boat association has a mostly complete Eureka Canoe on the stand as well.

I will be available for questions the whole weekend and the much travelled Peter Hyndman will be around for some of Saturday and some of Sunday.

For the full wood show details see the post below.

Brisbane Timber and Working with Wood Show

We will have two OZ PDRacers at the Brisbane RNA Showgrounds Friday 20 April to Sunday 22 April

Designer Michael Storer will also be on the Boatcraft Pacific/Queensland Wooden Boat Association stand at the show to talk about PDRacers and his range of other boats. He will be somewhat less damp than in the picture right - he is just skiting about breaking the sailing speed record for PDRs - raising it by 40% - see the post below.

"Timber and Working with Wood Show"
Brisbane - RNA Showgrounds - Fortitude Valley
Friday 20 April through to Sunday 22 April.

The website for the show is here woodshow

It is one of the biggest woodwork and timber shows in Australia.

See you there.

Michael's other boat plans can be seen at storerboatplans

PDRacer World Speed Record Attempt.

The world speed record for PDRacers is currently 6.5mph.

During the recent South Australian Wooden Boat Festival (pic of three of our five PDRS on the beach right) there was so much wind that many events were cancelled, but Michael Storer had a crack at the speed record for PDRacers.

Actually we briefly thought he cracked 14.2 knots and we got a bit excited till we realised that was when he was waving the gps in his arms celebrating the 8!

I'll get the trip story done this week sometime, but the speed record shouldn't go any longer!

We've got a big weekend coming up with Mik and the boats in Brisbane at the Timber and Working with Wood Show, should get another 100,000 or so visitors!

Here is Mik's take on the day.

I was hoping to run away with the Australian National PDRacer titles and was a bit relieved to not have to face the actual test of racing the others because of quite a bit too much wind. Three of the boats were to be launched for the first time and the various owners were not keen on debugging the boats in 20 to 25 knots of breeze and a big chop (as you can see from the photos).

Despite the big show and large number of boats attending you can see there were no other boats out at the time despite a number of planned events - it was just a bit too windy for most.

But it was important to fly the flag in front of all those people. So I decided to have a crack at the PDRacer world speed record. I had to beat 6.5 mph - a record held by Tim Cleary

I attached a GPS belonging to Rob Badenoch near the top of the centrecase - an area that wouldn't get wet if I went over.

It was a little tight getting out of the corral formed by the beach and a wharf each side - particularly considering that the river was shallow because of the drought and I kept hitting rocks on the bottom as well.

The good side of the river being so low was that there was no current in any direction whatsoever - there hasn't been any flow out of the Murray for a couple of years - so any speed measurements were not assisted in any way.

So I squeezed out between the two wharves and headed out into the river. First I sailed a bit upwind. The big centreboard and rudder giving good control - the boat felt very handleable and with a bit of a heel to leeward it climbed up over the chop with little trouble.

The extra speed and power in the sail did mean that I had to sit a lot further back to prevent the nose from digging in. Because of the curve of the PDR bottom - if you are a little too far forward the bow digs in as a gust hits and the boat gets bogged in its own bow-wave. But if you move just the right amount back the bow will lift up into the air as the gusts hit and the boat accelerates.

So to downwind sailing where the speed attempt would be made. I couldn't actually see what the GPS was reading through all this - I was more interested in keeping the boat upright and intact in front of the crowd of probably 3 or 4 thousand at the wooden boatshow.

Bearing away and easing sails I quickly found what the more experienced American sailors had told us about - that you had to move a REALLY LONG WAY BACK to stop the bow digging in. Even if it did dig in there was plenty of buoyancy and water never came over the top of the bow to fill the cockpit - actually almost no water got aboard in the half hour I was out there and control was good because of our deep and large area rudder.

So moving back a lot more, the bow popped up to a crazy angle as the boat accelerated down the face of the first wave as a gust hit - this was not half hearted planing like in the video on the website - this was the proper thing. It felt much like any other boat on the plane - looser but still with good directional control.

The picture right shows both the point of sail and the trim for the speed runs. I wasn't able to see the GPS while sailing - but I think the fastest run was one of the first when I was heading in the opposite direction from this. A couple of nice waves and a big gust coinciding.

A funny thing happens when the gust finishes. With a boat this short with such a wide stern and lots of rocker it just goes back to normal displacement sailing - the V8 suddenly turns into a ride-on mower - most boats have a transition as they decelerate - but the PDR just jumps suddenly from one mode to another - it feels like 4 knots or .

This was fun.

But was it faster than 6.2 knots? I did a couple more reaches backwards and forwards - tacking the boat was quick and easy - the large rudder doing its job - a few more waves and gust and accelerates and decelerates.

It was certainly a lot faster than I had been on the Mooloola river in front of Peter's house.

So either it was enough to beat the record or it wasn't.

So change of plan - the big test for a decent sailing boat is always whether it will go upwind in a decent wind and sea.

So I headed upwind toward the south into the eye of the wind. No problems at all - at least for someone with a background in small boat racing. The only thing is to sit back far enough so that bow doesn't dig in. The boat trucks upwind nicely - making good ground and not much leeway and tacks quickly and reliably. Once or twice I time the tack badly and hit a wave which stops the boat mid tack - but there is no feeling of immanent peril - because the stability is so good. Just ease the sails a fraction and steer onto the right tack by sailing backwards - an easy and old dinghy and catamaran racing trick. In around 12 tacks I think I missed two of them while covering the best part of a kilometre dead upwind.

When I went to head downwind again the wind had risen noticeable and I was a bit worried abour re-entering the corral at what would have been considerable speed. So I took the safe approach.

I went ashore where I was - about 2/3 of a mile upwind from the launch point, took off the boom and reduced the sail by about 2/3 by simply wrapping it around the mast - it was a dead run downwind to go back home and just needed a bit of rag to give me steerage. Down to the opening at a couple of knots, turn in and feet back on ground again.

Pulled the GPS off. Remember the target was 6.2mph. It showed 8.0. Then someone pointed out that it was measuring in Knots.

This converts to a tiny shade over 9.2mph. It's now time to get the record ratified!

Adventures of a travelling PDRacer

Like all good road trips there's more than one story to tell. Unfortunately due to a computer misfire the night before we left, communication is still difficult, but hang in, it may well be worth the wait!

In the meantime, here's a shot taken on the second day of 30, before things got really dry!