PDRacer

Free Goat Island Skiff Wallpaper for your iPhone

2009-12-16T14:09:00.001+10:00

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!

2009-12-14T18:40:00.001+10:00

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

2009-10-01T12:28:00.005+10:00

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

2009-08-31T07:42:00.003+10:00

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

2009-07-13T10:55:00.001+10:00

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...
_______________________________________________

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
_______________________________________________

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

Plane to Salt Lake City - $90
_______________________________________________

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.
_______________________________________________

TEXAS! (maybe side trip to Florida to see cousins and Paul Riccelli PAR and others - funded by Storer)
_______________________________________________

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
_______________________________________________

17 to 18 October Texas Messabout.
_______________________________________________

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

2009-07-07T15:17:00.006+10:00

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

Texas 200 mile race has several ducks

2009-06-10T19:38:00.006+10:00

This year's event started on Monday - Texas time!

It is a 200 mile event with a fleet of boats making their own time up the coast to meet for the Magnolia Beach Messabout.

They meet together at a camp each night.

It is predominantly a downwind sail - PREDOMINANTLY!

The fleet numbers looked like being around the 50 mark with 5 PDRacers in the list.

From the top is Andrew Linn's Salem Electron, derived from the OZ Mk2 PDRacer. It is yellow now.

Gordo Barcomb from Texas and then Jason Nabors - with another of his extraordinary cabin PDRacers - TENACIOUS TURTLE. Just heard that Jason spent 13 hours on the water today making his 40 miles to cover the distance in the 5 days.

Kevin Allison "Duck 'n Out". Jon Kowitz and "Ranger"

I will post here as the event continues.

MIK

PDRacer launched in Slovenia

2009-05-14T23:56:00.000+10:00

We had one PDR launched in Romania last year. Now we move a little to the south.

Koala and Theodor are both building OZ PDRacers after building one of my Eureka Canoes last year.

Theodor was interrupted a bit because he and his wife have had a baby, but Koala invited him along to the launch.

Koala launched his green PDR onto a local river. Neither of them has sailed before ... and they had a great time.

They had better get some practice in. Csaba in Hungary is not too far from their favourite sailing lake and is build an OZ as well!

Well, we had a launch day on monday!!

Beautiful weather, nice wind at first. And it was great. Theodor and I each had a go. It was, well, beyond words. Have a look at how it went. There were a lot of kids arround so it was a bit hectic. But we have some shots of my start:

YouTube - PDR launch Slovenia

And here is Theodor:

YouTube - PDR launching, Mark

Later on I went in with my son to paddle a bit and the wind got stronger so it carried us to the other side of the lake. Theodor cam to rescue.

From Theodor (Mark):I am so sure Peter is holding a clip of the video showing my attempt at the 'Capsizing Drill', and then he'll say that I was a wreckless sailor and had no idea how to handle the boat, blah blah blah...

I think we both had a fantastic time trying to get a handle on things .. it never ceases to amaze me how many things you need to concentrate on while sailing - direction, mast tension, wind direction, what the centreboard and rudder are doing, etc. I think it'll take a few more attempts to get a good feel for the boat - I was completely surprised when the corner of Pete's PDR kept "digging in" (see the two times the back corner came up). So I'd love some Storer sailing hints before we get out again.

I must admit it was very inspirational to get cracking on my one.

From Koala

Funny, we did have a capsize drill. But Mark was so fast turning the boat arround that by the time video camera turned on he was already climbing on the boat.

I didn't want to show the whole world just that moment as someome might think Mark just fell off the boat

Yep, this is really a nice boat - thanks to Mike's detailed plans. Considering
1. I was a first time boat builder
2. I have never done any sailing.

This was the first time I stepped into a sailing boat and you know the feeling when it's your boat

The small boat is BIG enough to keep us buisy learning to sail and enjoying the power of the wind on lakes and sea.

Speaking of wind. I really had problems seeing the wind direction besides the fact that wind was changing speed and direction quite often.
Mostly I didn't see the white flag on the top of my mast so I was just looking at how and when the sail was behaving.

PDRacer Questions answered - Forum Index

2009-03-31T12:47:00.004+10:00

I have compiles a list of topics discussed on my forum. Hope this is useful.

To see all the images and information you do need to be a member, but it is free and you won't receive any annoying emails unless you ask for them!

OZ PDRacer – Puddle Duck Racer

PDR - OZ PDRacer Mast Timber Thickness - 10mm?

PDR - PD racer, outboard & row

PDR - A newbie PDR owner

PDR - A plywood centreboard and rudder for PDRs

PDR - Another OZ MK2 PDRacer build in Sydney "Wood Duck"

PDR - Building the PD Racer

PDR - Building the PDRacer in Slovenia

PDR - Cruising a PD Racer - 3 days on the Rhine.

PDR - Goolwa - the first Oz PDRacer championships

PDR - Jib on A PD Racer? Gennikers or "Code 0"

PDR - Luis Builds a PDRacer - a pro woodworker view from Mexico

PDR - New PDR build - Boston, MA USA

PDR - New Queensland PDRacer Build

PDR - Nick's PD Racer

PDR - Oz PDR build in Adelaide - sexy black PDRacer

PDR - OZ PDR Sails - using a Sunfish sail for some serious frostbiting - USA only

PDR - OZ PDRacer - Dylan's build in the Philippines

PDR - OZ PDRacer Sailing under bridges

PDR - OZ PDRacer Vids

PDR - Query concerning marine ply for OzPDR

PDR - The Rally Cars didn't make it to DAKAR but the PDRacers did

PDR Build in the Philippines.

PDR in Perth?

PDR newbie introduction and questions - TEXAS!

PDR Racer State Titles???

PDR Sail Rig and spars (or Boatbuilding in the Philippines)

PDR skids

PDR Storage/Moving by hand

PDR, a good boat for a beginner? Can I use Hoop Pine plywood?

PDR, Lug vs. Spirit

PDRacer - Comparative Performance

PDRacer - just starting out

PDRacer - Lug rig option - yard too short?

PDRacer - optional solid mast

PDRacer - Oz Mk2 Version plans released. Comments, Questions etc.

PDRacer - Painting Polytarp Sails

PDRacer - towing behind larger boats

PDRacer & Goat Island Skiff Trailers

PDRacer and all other boats - is a lug, sprit or lateen the best?

PDRacer bottom undersize problem. Also is the bottom long enough? - no probs and yes

PDRacer Hungary; Egyszerű vitorláshajó építése Magyarországon

PDRacer Mast

PDRacer OZ - Can I use metric ply sheets

PDRs in the USA - Long voyages, meet-ups

Puddle Duck in the UK

General Building and other stuff.
RE: Using the Metric System in USA - getting tape measures and others
A cautionary tale.....
A different slant on flat bottomed boats
An easier way to set off? Tricky Launch spot.
Another amazing Storer Innovation
Antique Wooden Racing Dinghies with original parts - Pics
Boat design for fishing??
Brisbane Timber and Working with Wood. Boatmik/PDRacer
Changes/lessons from storerboats
Clamps for boat builders.
Computer cut kits
Design Question: What characteristics make for a good planing hull for a scow
Dory Boat yahoo group - interesting discussion :-)
FAQ - does a shallow keel improve tracking or upwind performance - canoes
Finding stuff on Storer's sites ... new search engine
getting sails and sailing lessons
Goolwa Wooden Boat Show 2009
Hollow Square Section Masts
How to paint, repair then repaint boats with a minimum of labour
I'm teaching at the Duckflat Autumn School
Lug Rig Heaven
Lumber quantities and a cutlist for the GIS
Making a Polytarp Sail
Mast making - Grain direction for mast staves
Michael Storer WoodenBoat Plans Forum - WELCOME
Michael Storer's Interesting Boat Links
Mik the Aussie Bolger! You there?
Modifications to a Whilly Boat
Murray River Photos from flight 221 (er actually 756) - a bit scary
Ooops...Epoxy Mistake
Proa PJOA Baltic trip 2008
Painting an epoxy coated boat.
Roofracking Canoes and small boats
Rudderbox, OZ type - OZ and Goat and Storer style rudderbox - avoid breakages
Saw blade for thin plywood?
Similar plans
Single-handing Goats on the Ground - all boats
Slippery cockpit floors and easy non skid surface
Small application for the scale of ruder etc.
Solid wing mizzen on Beth, RAID41?
Storer Boat Photos - Launchings and others
The Goat Lug...another use
They Let Him Loose
Traditional rig costs vs Modern rig costs
Two Storer Interviews at furledsails.com - podcasts boat design lug rigs
underlayment plywood
Where can I get Gaboon Ply in Sydney?
Where to sail?

PDRacer performance - lug or sprit.

2009-03-19T20:31:00.005+10:00

Ok ... lug vs sprit

We finally had two PDRacers with either rig option on the same stretch of water. The event was the Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival.

The Sprit sail design and making method is in the plan for the PDRacer (a whole $20 for 90 pages - really a course on modern boatbuilding) and the lug rig is a free option for purchasers of the plan.

Mike on the beach ... look at that sail shape. Is there enough sail Mike?

You can see a story on his boat ... the "sexy black PDRacer" below on this blog.

This was the first time the boat had been in the water.

Waiting for the start gun ... I sooo missed the start. Was really late trying to get clear wind and too far away from the line.

Mike got a very nice start and may have been in the first one or two boats to the windward mark before he had to come back and pack up. You can see the pink boat (me) trying to catch up. In this light, less than 8 knot breeze the lug was significantly faster. It does have a bit of extra area with 89 square feet to the pink boat's sprit rig at 82 square feet. Of course we will have to see what happens in a bit more wind!

And for those who wonder about the mast pressing against the sail ... the windward leg had the sail on the "disadvantageous side".

In other words, no material difference.

I took the pink PDR through the whole race ... confused my friends in the TS16 after I caught them on starboard on the last windward leg.

The PDR had the legs of the balance lug rigged 16footer furthest out when going upwind ... the guy was a very good sailor - outfoxed everyone on the first downwind leg by heading high and coming down fast on a increase on windpressure.

That was a boat of some historical significance too built as a tender to a major shipbuilding area in ... um maybe Melbourne.

Pic right is Mike coming in with his rudder in shallow mode. That buoy was attached to a long length of rope that went off to the left and was tied to the wharf.

It made sailing out of this space pretty crap and in the stronger breeze of saturday it made it exciting coming into the area too.
photos of PDRacers
Photos of the Goolwa show

And now another sailing event with boats racing against each other with experienced skippers. Link below
Sprit rig won by a nose, but the lug sail was still faster. A bit more wind and the lug doesn't seem to be as fast - though it didn't really have enough downhaul tension.

The sexy black PDRacer, do I have to race against that thing?

2009-02-19T21:05:00.001+10:00

A new local (Adelaide) PDRacer has been on its way for a few months now and is getting very close to being ready.

The picture right is what it looked like a few weeks ago. however things have changed. You can click on the pic for a closer look

Mike wrote:

Bit more progress this week.

Got the side decks glued along with the foredeck, had to do a bit of filing along the bow as I cut the sheet too short AGAIN. Rough cut the mast hole and fitted the front coaming. So hull just about ready for final epoxy coat and some varnish here and there.

Decided on a hull colour "A Ducks Transom" shall be black. Yep I know it will show every bump and hollow and black is not a good colour over epoxy but black it will be.

Wet sanded the foils ready for the final pox coat the spars are ready for varnish

Did I mention Shorty sent me the hull # ..........220

Mike

I did suggest to Mike: I don't know if you have taped the two short butt joins in the deck and glassed them yet.

but if you haven't ... if you are really careful not to go through the top veneer when you sand the slight hollow for the glass - if you just use unthickened epoxy to do that glass taping of the join - then it won't show except as a line.

Remember that any boat over 8ft has to have some sort of join in the deck - and the line that creates is almost never noticed ...

So you could have clear varnished decks and a black hull. Or if you REALLY want to cover that join I'd do the hull and foredeck in black but bring the black foredeck back along the sidedecks slightly in a premeditated way. I'd be reckoning it would look more than slightly cool.

And cooler for you bum too.

FINALLY yesterday ... Mike appeared again this time with pics. The PDRacer and materials were supplied by Duck Flat who ship all over Australia.

He accurately recognised that he was being very smug ... because the boat looks fantastic!!!

Um.....update time finally. I'm afraid the final finishing has taken a lot longer than anticipated but today I have been fitting bits and pieces.

Still have a some things to tidy up but it's pretty much done and I will be picking up my Lug from Duck Flat this week. I chickened out and got the tarp stitched up by a pro

Started on the bowsprit for the soon to be made code 0 today as well, cut out a pattern and marked onto a board ready for glue up no pics.

Cheers a smug Mike

Since then ... everyone has been congratulating him on his beautiful PDRacer!!!

In the end I had to write ...

Ducks are pretty humble ... but this one is rather gorgeous!!!

And you want ME to race against that thing!!! It looks fast sitting in the shed!!!!

Look at the shine on that centreboard and rudder! I think I need to do some sorting through of my pink boat.

It will be interesting when we meet because all the other local OZ PDRs - five boats are sprit rigs and this will be the first with the optional lug rig.

PDRacer launched in the Philippines

2009-02-10T23:00:00.002+10:00

Dylan has been building his PDRacer for several months and finally launches it in the Philippines on a lovely tropical beach.

But look what happens ... in the next set below. This could happen to you!!!! But only if you build a PDRacer. The fun thing was that none of it was planned.

2009-02-10T22:20:00.000+10:00

Fitting a simple towing ring for club racing.

2008-11-26T06:42:00.003+10:00

Most boats will not need that industrial grade solution above.

Click on the picture right for a larger view.

For (occasional) emergency towing the crew stays in the boat. you need a guide ring or fairlead on the bow. Club racing in Australia requires that it is 25mm internal diameter as a minimum.

The tow ring on the bow is much simpler!!!

This is because of lower loads. The tow rope goes through the ring - pull about the same length as the boat through. Take a full turn around the base of the mast then crew should sit behind the centrecase and hold the rope.

I have just added it to the plans and put it up on the blog. The attachment can be two 5mm (3/16") metal threads glued in carefully (wash the screws with solvent dry them, put thickened epoxy in the holes with a pipe cleaner dip the metal threads in the glue and screw them home. You can use a plastic fairlead for non club racing or attach the regulation tow ring with a saddle. Put washers underneath the saddle to prevent the deck from being crushed.

For non club racing ... a fairlead like this is neater

Towing Eye for the PDRacer

2008-11-25T12:09:00.001+10:00

Howdy,

Towing behind another boat can be one of the highest loads that a small dinghy can face.

Imagine if it fills with water and the mother ship is surging ahead in bad weather.

So how to distribute the load into a lightweight skinned structure like the OZ PDR.

OK ... here is how.

It might be overkill with respect to the two runners that go up the height of the bow transom, but everything else is quite minimal. The load is spread through the mast step structure and the bow transom. That is quite a bit of surface area.

Generally it is good to keep the towing eye down to help keep the bow of the towed dinghy out of the water and hopefully to make it stand on its tail a bit.

Going a bit TECHIE

2008-08-22T10:07:00.002+10:00

Some questions about centreboards and rudder design for PDRacers prompted this reply.

Most PDRs continue to be self design and self build, though the OZ is a boat with advanced features that doesn't mention them at all in the plan.

People just build the thing and find it works .... very nicely.

But ... here is some of the thinking about one aspect mostly - foils, but there is a nice list to prioritise any boat's performance at the end.
_________________________________________

A few decades ago everyone used to talk about getting an "elliptical
planform" for sails and foils.

In the racing classes it has not worked out that way at all.

This is largely that it is not really about the planform (what you
see) it is about the pressure distribution - which is invisible.

A foil with an initial parallel section near the hull, then a simple
taper below that has a pressure distribution so close to elliptical
that you will need a serious computer to find the difference.

So racing boats and sailplanes just don't care about looking
elliptical these days.

But ... tapered foils are cr@p to build ... so there may be another
way, with another bunch of compromises.

Because of the shaping of the OZ centreboard and rudder ... with the
flat spot between (it is the result of a computer optimisation done by
an aerodynamicist and is easier to make than the NACA foils and loses
only a tiny bit BUT is much more economical on materials - whew!) it
allows the flat area down the middle to be narrowed easily.

So that is what we do. The leading and trailing edge can get closer
together toward the tip of the boards!

Now ... the "tip vortex" of foils (usually called "induced drag", but
we are practical folk who like practical labels) is constant for
similar boats in similar lift/drag situations.

.... the reason to make them long and thin is that the standard vortex
will be conscentrated over a smaller proportion of the board, so you
will get more lift from the board.

Remember the tip vortex is created by high pressure water on one side
moving over to the low pressure side on the other.

If you have two ... then you have two tip vortices that will affect a
greater area of the setup.

List for performance ... Ive written this before so there may be some
differences...

1/ getting centre of effort lined up with the centreboard/leeboard
1/ enough depth and area for the centreboard/leeboard and enough sail
for the weight being driven.
1/ moving to the right position fore and aft to keep the hull ends
ends out of the water.
2/ sail trim on the water
2/ steering accurately
2/ setting the sails properly on the spars.
2/ sitting on the side deck when racing
3/ good foil shapes - made with a template like the OZ or using the
NACA00 series - there is no comparison for foils made by eye.
3/ Good sail shape and spar/sail interaction.
5/ A hull that is light and does not deform too much
7/ Aspect ration, elliptic sail plan
9/ Hull finish ... just so long as it is not really rough!

Best wishes MIK

First OZ PDR with the lug rig option launched

2008-07-03T22:46:00.004+10:00

Just got an email from Dan Taylor in Washington State, USA.

He is the first to provide pics of the OZ PDR with the lug rig option. The sail looks very nice indeed and the light wind and a perfect sunny day were the other necessary ingredients.

Here are his email and the pictures - thanks Dan

Michael
I finally launched my PDRacer last week. Enclosed are three pictures of my wife sailing it on a nearby lake, me on the inaugural sail in the bay two days before, me setting it up, and the boat on our Mini.

I am very pleased with the sail even though I ended up with about seven oz polytarp. This was more than my wife's old sewing machine could handle, particularly because I had forgotten your comment in the email about leaving the double sided tape back a little, so the needle didn't have to pass through it. So this is a sail without stitching, but so far, so good.

I love the looks of the sail. Every designer seems to use a slightly different profile. Yours is the one that grabs me the most visually. As far as the lug goes in general, it is really nice to have all of that sail area in light airs and it jibes like a dream.

The boat was built exactly to your design with the addition of rowlocks and a small seat over the centerboard trunk. (Good Idea!!!)

So far we only have had it out in light air, but are very pleased with it. Fortunately only light air, because we both have a lot to learn and we need to do some tweaking. My wife is a very good Sunfish sailor and small boat sailor in general. I am a more casual sailor with most of my experience in larger boats. Right now we have the sheet led like the sprit boom version, but I am going to re-lead it the way you have the GIS. (Good idea too)

My wife at 62 and me at 72 also have a hard time scrambling about in that small cockpit. She wants me to build a rudder box with a tiller that raises--particularly because in light air she likes to sit on the cockpit sole leaning back against side tanks and would love to just scoot her bottom across when tacking. I can't argue with that, but generally just think we need more practice so we are not tripping over the tiller and sheet and getting the tiller extension jammed in the corner of the cockpit as we stumble around.

I would probably recommend shortening the tiller by about 50mm (2") and see if that helps. I think it might make quite a difference.

If you want a lifting tiller .. If you attach the tiller to the top of the rudder blade then this idea will work. Problem with a hinging tiller on the open back rudder box is that the box will break when the tiller is swung up as it relies on the tiller to take the sideways loads. Thanks Gil Kolan for that idea!

On my inaugural voyage the square knot on the lashing for the boom block came loose and I had a difficult time getting the boat into irons so I could get the block re-fastened to the boom. I finally succeeded, but then heading back towards the dock pointing in lighter airs, I unintentionally got in irons and ended up drifting up against a pedestrian ramp to another dock. Fortunately the light winds allowed me to fend off without damaging the sail.

All of which says nothing about the boat, which is terrific within the limitations of it size, and says everything about us, particularly me, and the practice we need.

I suspect that if the boat gets hung up in irons then the sail is a bit too far back compared to the mast. If it is moved forward slightly .. maybe 50mm (2") or 100mm (4") then I think the "in irons" problem may go away.

As our summer here has finally started (Bellingham, Wa, in the Pacific NW), we should be able to do that. Intentional capsizes though will have to wait for another month to let the water warm up a little.

The boat with four oz glass on the bottom, but no other epoxy coating used, and with the addition of the rowing seat ended up weighing about 75 lbs.

Some say that glass cloth over the bottom of the boat adds negligible weight. However experience indicates otherwise. Not because glass is so heavy, but because wood is so light. So small amounts of glass make quite a bit of difference.

Dan has done the smart thing and reduced the weight of glass, but I have some new information that indicates he could probably have gone lighter still.

Dan's weight for the boat indicates a weight increase of around 10 to 12lbs. Normal 6oz woven glass cloth(200gsm) would add about 15 to 18lbs. Quite a lot in some ways. I have done a bit of chasing around and have found that some quite large cruising trimarans (Jarcats) use very light glass cloth and plywood weights not much greater than the PDR with very good results on a much heavier boat. So for people wanting to glass I would probably be recommending 2oz (75gsm) glass just to keep the weight increase down to around 5 or 6lbs. A very good solution!

Anyway just wanted to let you know I finally launched.
Dan

To modify an OZ PDR transom for a small outboard.

2008-07-01T19:04:00.004+10:00

I promise in the plan for the OZ PDRthat I will do a modification for a small outboard. This is a big enough reinforcement for a very small outboard or maybe an electric trolling motor.

A small motor would be under a couple of horsepower. Something bigger would probably not make the boat go much faster, but put a lot of load on the transom.

There are a couple of other mods I would recommend if you wanted to go bigger than a couple of horsepower - including a knee to attach the outboard reinforcement to the hull bottom for the smaller outboards the side tank faces will have the same effect and spread the load through the structure.

Thanks to David Gomm for making pushing me along on this.

You can get a large version of the drawing if you double click it with your mouse.

An alternative solid mast for the OZ PDRacer

2008-06-05T16:10:00.005+10:00

The OZ hollow mast is the bee's knees - the nicest mast we can come up with at this stage. A simple long box with the faces made of 4 planks 12mm (1/2") thick with a taper.

Easy enough to build about 35% to 40% lighter than a solid mast. Making the mast out of a number of pieces of timber also reduces the risk of a hidden defect in one of the mast planks bringing the lot tumbling down.

HOWEVER ... many people want to get the boat on the water quickly. I have drawn up a solid mast that will have the same bending characteristics as the OZ so will suit the sailshape that comes with the plans to give acceleration and nice handling when the wind gets strong.

MATERIALS
The piece of timber you need will have to be a minimum of 60mm square (just under 2 1/2" square). This might mean that you have to glue it up out of two pieces to get the width. I would recommend the timber be free from knots or major grain deviations and be around the density of oregon (fir) or pine (Hoop or good Radiata (Monterey Pine in the US).

It does require that you consider some hull modifications with the mast partner - READ ALL OF THIS ARTICLE!!!

CHANGING THE PLAN DIMENSIONS
You can click on the image on the right to get a better view. You simply have to look at the mast design in your OZ plans and cross out the numbers on the drawing that match the measures in the first column and replace each one with the number in the second column.

This works for both the masts for both the lug and sprit rigs - just replace the numbers with the corresponding ones in the second column. The third column indicates how much extra weight you are putting up with at each height by choosing a solid mast. eg at the 62mm height you are carrying an extra 48% of weight. This is the downside.

HULL MODS
The mast base can be made the same way as the plan - but make sure it finishes the same width as the original hollow mast at the tip using the same method.

The partner opens up a bit of a question:
1/ is it worth using the standard partner so that a hollow mast can be used later if desired or needed. This can be done by bulk up the sides of the mast by wrapping several layers of glass cloth (you will need around 4 to 6 layers and it only needs to be about 50mm wide (2"). Or you could use some thin bits of timber or some other method, or ...

2/ making the standard partner a couple of millimetres narrower widthways and fore and aft? You can leave the back block in the mast at the designed position but move the forward one back the 2mm needed.

I think I would choose the first option just for the flexibility of use it offers.

It is important not to just put the new narrower mast in the old partner thinking a couple of millimetres won't matter. It might as it is good if there is not too much slack. The risks are more water getting in the front tank - mast moving more when the boat is tacked with more wear and tear on the mast and partner.

If you are a big person and plan to sail the boat hard - with lots of leaning out to keep the boat flat then I would strongly consider adding a couple of extra millimetres to the bottom half of the solid mast.

Correction to OZ PDR lug yard drawing - non critical

2008-06-03T10:11:00.003+10:00

The first lug rig OZ PDR is almost on the water - only a couple of weeks.

However the builder noticed that unless the holes at the ends of the yard are squeezed out to the end then there may not be sufficient space to tighten the sail.

If you haven't shaped the yard yet you can use the drawing on the right - just click on it and print it out.

For those who have built the yard already or bought a shorter piece of timber ...
If you have glass taped the ends of the yard there is no chance of it splitting in use so the holes can go quite close to the ends. If the edge of the hole is 15mm from the end it will be OK. And if the area between the two holes is glassed their edges need only be about 15mm apart. I'd probably advise drilling a pilot hole with a 6mm bit before going through with the final size though - but work out the distance according to the final hole size.

Best wishes
Michael

Now a 2nd Interview on Net of Designer Michael Storer at furledsails.com

2008-05-26T13:02:00.001+10:00

Furled Sails - They call themselves the "World's First Sailing Podcast" based in North America.

Anyway, last week Christy and Noel called me up chatted to me for a couple of hours.

So they have an interview with me on their site followed by a part 2 next week.

This looks like the permanent link
http://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=760

They also asked a lot of questions about lug rigs which will be in next week's separate program.
http://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=761

I was frightfully nervous - I am much happier typing than I am talking.

Best wishes
MIK

PDRacers in South Africa.

2008-05-24T10:04:00.000+10:00

This is a blog from Roy McBride of CKD boats who make kits for Dudley Dix designs, Optimist Dinghies and others.

He likes the PDR because he feels that most club racing boats are getting out of the reach of normal people.

We can fix that!

(I hope Peter forgives me for the non standard formatting ... but it is a quote - right?)

This is Roy' blog entry about the PDRacers.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Monday, May 5, 2008

PDRacer The new dinghy idea!

This idea came from Michael Storer in Austrailia, try him at http://www.storerboatplans.com/ its a step up from a similar shaped well known design but aimed at keeping prices down and not pushing them up,the class rules are simple,make it yourself ...

... and dont even think about asking a sailmaker to cut and sew your sail,thats banned right at the start,so is spending too much money,even the plans are at rock bottom price.

(actually you can get the sail made by the sailmaker but the rules prevent them from making a sail any better than you can build it at home - Ed.)

The nice thing with this boat is it is very family friendly,even mum and dad can fit in this design.We sell both the plans and the PDRacer kits.

May 12th update:

The plans are U$25 we can email them direct to you,please email me for a quote to the kit and its various options kits@comlumber.com

Posted by Mc Bride at 10:59 AM
____________________________________________________________________________________

I won't be available this weekend.

2008-04-11T14:51:00.000+10:00

Unless you come to the Port Vincent and Stansbury Boat Festival.

I'll have a couple of PDRacers there. Unless the weather looks really bad.

We expect it clear tomorrow - so will be at the festival from around 11.

Best wishes
Michael

Three PDRacer Sailboats Launched in Senegal West Africa

2008-04-02T20:19:00.005+10:00

I was going to put more pictures up here but decided not to.

The story is much too good to make a short version valid. In a way it is nothing special - just a family building three little boats - but I think there IS something special.

The Story is here with all the photos and the main parts of our conversation.

Maybe it is the photos, maybe it is because the location, maybe the yearlong process of gradually getting the boats together.

The three kids Caleb, Laurel, Isiah built the hulls and I am really impressed by the great colour schemes.

Their Dad Jonathan built all the bits - centreboards, rudders, masts, booms and rudderbox.

That's about it for a PDRacer.

Oh - except for the sails which are made out of polytarps - probably the biggest selling point for boats being built in West Africa!!! We use the same materials in Australia and are impressed at how a $40 sail can push an efficient boat in all directions. You can see our Australian sailing videos if you don't believe it works. Our sails are two years old now and still going fine.

The UBeaut forum site is real gem for digging out information about boats and woodworking. UBeaut Woodworking.

Also what we did about the rudder failures on their first sail and the easy fix.

Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did!

Second interview up on FurledSails.com

2008-04-02T12:19:00.001+10:00

The first part was up last week.

This week we talk about traditional vs modern sailtypes - everyone knows I am a fan of trad rigs because of their low cost - but here I go into the influences on the other side.

I love the efficiency of modern rigs so I use all the same methods on the traditional rigs to get brilliant performance.

Also I'll tell you EXACTLY why you should never name a boat in haste.

http://www.furledsails.com/article.php3?article=761

Thanks again to the Furledsails.com crew - Noel and Christy - and you should have a good look at their archive of brilliant interviews.

Can the OZ PDR use a Sunfish Rig - Frostbiting Sunfishers?

2008-03-31T21:43:00.004+10:00

Several people have used Sunfish rigs on PDRacers. But would they work with the OZ's centreboard position.

David Parker chased this one up with me.

He had a Sunfish sail already and needed to see if it would fit on the OZ PDR.

The dimensions of the sail he had were
Luff - 4m
Foot - 4m
Leach - approx 4.28m

It looks like it works according to the picture right.

I would make the mast an extra 50mm longer than the measurement shown for a total length of 3184mm. If using the OZ plans to make a square hollow mast it needs to be the same width as the standard mast at all the same heights. So it is sorta like the standard mast has been cut off.

Remember while the general PDR rules condone the use of second hand sails, the OZ rules do not as we feel it will lead to an eventual arms race of moving from old sails to only slightly second hand ones.

However, you can sail with the general PDR fleet. If you set the boat up for the OZ type square mast you can have the bigger OZ rig and drop it in the same hole.

Yes, in other words this rig is about 10sq feet smaller than the standard OZ. This won't matter too much.

However there is one slight defect - the boom ends up a little bit lower than the standard OZ, but you can't take it up too much higher than shown as it will make the boat harder to hold up because of excessive heeling moment.

Anyway - this means that a whole bunch more people can use, sail or race PDRacers. Some Sunfish sailors might want to sail something a bit dryer during the colder months. Yeah - it won't be quite as fast - but it still goes upwind fine and you'll be able to step ashore with dry feet.

Sunfish sails are also available as kits from Sailrite for around US$180 (May 2008)

PDRacer sailing days in South Australia 6th April and boat festival 11/12/13 April

2008-03-29T16:27:00.011+10:00

Now we haven't had a huge amount of luck with our PDRacer days in South Australia. While I did make a new PDRacer speed record, the conditions were mostly too strong at the Goolwa wooden boat show.

However there are a couple of opportunities to see (and possibly sail) an OZ PDR if you are in South Australia in the next fortnight.

WEST LAKES
Date : 6th APRIL
However Rob Badenoch and I are looking at going to West Lakes on Sunday 6th as a practice run to make sure the PDRacers are all working OK for the Stansbury Wooden Boat Festival the following weekend.

Still finalising time, but similar low key approach to last time. Start around midday, go for a couple of hours, "hang out" and watch the boats and sail a bit.

Oops - I had better check to see there are no rowing comps.

Planning to have two or three PDRs for starters - so all others are welcome too.

But watch here for further information. I'll also put a post up there if the weather is doubtful.
More information as it develops here.

STANSBURY/PORT VINCENT BOAT FESTIVAL
Date: Fri, 11-13 Apr 2008
Most of the small boat activities on Sat and Sun.

It is a great local festival in an area with a great maritime heritage. I'll be over there as part of the Duckflat contingent and then dashing back to Adelaide for the Duckflat Autumn Boatbuilding School.
More information about the festival here

How to have the best looking boat on the bay!

2008-03-17T18:26:00.002+10:00

For many people building the boat is the easy bit, but they really shy away from finishing off with a nice bit of signwriting. Vinyl lettering isn't too expensive, but it's not really in the Puddleduck spirit, and particularly now that computers are commonplace it's pretty easy to get a reasonable job with just a bit of patience.

Have you ever noticed how all the girls flock round the best looking boats, and the best looking boats have all got terrific signage that looks as though it was professionally done, and great sail logos as well?

Then you will obviously be wondering how that can be done for almost no cost using a few basic implements without actually having to own a signwriting store.

Read on, and change your life!

Warning, the skills that you learn hear, will equip you to become a rabid street artist. Please resist the urge to tag every building with the PDR logo. Just do the places that have high visibility!

For more information go to the "signs" menu under the "building" heading on our main menu.

High Praise For Steve!

2008-02-19T17:24:00.007+10:00

From Jim Michaels on the PDRacer Group:

After we get this one knocked out, I'll work on an OZ PDR for myself - take my time and strive to build it in a truly craftsmanlike manner.

Has anyone else seen the new paintjobs on the OZ PDR page?

That red-orange duck with the white interior struck me the same way I felt when I saw my first Schwinn Sting-ray bike as a kid, or '65 ragtop Mustang: The epitomy of class and fun - I want to build that boat.

But now, before my kids turn into teenagers and while they still want me to goof around with them, I think I'll build the boat we can build together most easily and get out on the water. The three of us together have outgrown the Sunfish, and with the quick PDR we can all be on the water at the start of this season, and maybe even catch a messabout at Rend lake.

Jim in St. Louis

Jim is of course talking about Steve Wagstaff's beautifully crafted boat that features in a few of our recent photos! Steve likes it a bit too!

We interrupt this blog

2008-02-15T22:53:00.002+10:00

To announce that we've finally finished, or not exactly finished, but at least it's on it's way-

The Eureka Canoe Website

So when you've finished your PDRacer and want a bit of paddling in a backwater somewhere, or just want a bit of late night reading, feel free to pay us a visit there.

No need to worry, there are links directly back to here, so you're never far from home!

NEW! Storerboats and OZ PDR Forum

2008-02-07T22:44:00.000+10:00

Well, I'm excited.

One of the biggest woodwork sites in the universe has decided that it is OK for the Storer Boat Plans FORUM to be on their site.

This is great because there is already a lot of Storer Stuff about

The EUREKA CANOE
The OZ PDRacer
The GOAT ISLAND SKIFF
BETH Sailing Canoe
The NEW ROWBOAT that is being built

There are builder's reports, places to ask questions, space to put photos.

See you there!

PHEW!

2008-02-05T19:02:00.000+10:00

I'm fairly sure that all pages now work. All 195 of them! If the odd popup doesn't connect or if you see a bit of a discrepancy somewhere in the site, I'd appreciate contact either by email via one of the links in the pages or via the comments form below.

Hopefully I can fix a few upload glitches, and we'll be back to a monthly upload shortly!

Thanks for your patience!

Please accept my apology for the disruption!

2008-02-03T21:18:00.000+10:00

Today, at last, I thought we had made all pictures clickable as promised so long ago, and indeed we had, until the site went live, and then they just for some reason default back to one picture of Michael checking fairness of a curve!

Of course we haven't yet got the words to go with them, so there's no great loss, but that would have happened this week providing we don't have any major issues with the current upgrade.

There are plenty of new articles and videos if you scan down this column.

The disruption extends to our other sites, the Two Foot, and Goat Island Skiff Pages particularly, so there may not be much sleep next weekend either!

If you poke around in the menu, you'll also see new sections on building spars, foils, sails, painting and repairs, although these are currently mostly pictures without accompanying text.

The One Minute Guide has now also got its links permanently to the relevant pages.

So... I'm feeling as though I haven't wasted all of the weekend at least!

Cheers,

P

After the Storer Boats BBQ

2008-02-03T16:42:00.000+10:00

Duncan, who was one of the people that came along to the BBQ by the river on Australia Day decided to swap his affections from a kayak to an OZ PDRacer.

I was a little surprised to see this item suddenly appear on the Woodwork Forums only a few days after.

I have reproduced one of his pics right, but there are more in the thread above.

Nice to know another PDRacer is underway.

Latest Site Updates

2008-01-31T17:28:00.001+10:00

We are continuing with the gradual update of the site, so at last there is new content and the hope of more shortly.

The latest upload includes our new video gallery with connections that actually work now, as well as our photo gallery pages.

We hope you enjoy them, and don't forget to check out more photos on our Flickr pages.

Sailing Demonstration Video

2008-01-27T20:24:00.000+10:00

This clip demonstrates the lovely manners of the boat, (to replace our aging "doing donuts" movie).

Note that Michael does a gybe or two while standing, this is as much a reflection of the stability of the boat as it is of his cat-like agility!

If ever there were any doubt about the ability of these boats to sail well, surely this movie should end them!

New Capsize Video

2008-01-27T18:38:00.000+10:00

We've been busy playing with all sorts of things, but have now completed the new PDRacer capsize drill video.

Steve launches "Two Dogs" and Duckworks in OZ

2008-01-24T15:36:00.001+10:00

I am currently in Queensland staying at Mooloolaba.

It is a part of my Christmas break - or at least a sort of break as I have to keep working on my trusty laptop to catch up on my current backlog of work.

One of the more pleasurable aspects of being in Queensland this time was to meet Chuck and Sandra Leinweber - the proprieter's of Duckworks - one of the largest internet sites for the building of wooden boats.The three people inspecting the OZ PDR rudder on the right are Chuck Leinweber, Steve and Peter Hyndman

Chuck and Sandra also happen to be my agents in the USA and are in Australia on what they call their "ONCE IN A LIFETIME AUSTRALIAN TOUR".

They came and stayed a couple of nights at Mooloolaba too - in the house on the banks of the Mooloola River.

On Saturday Chuck and Sandra were present for a boat launching and a day of sailing some of my designs on the river.

Steve Wagstaff launched his "Two Dogs" another Australian PDRacer.

We had a look over his orange boat and noted a number of cool changes from the plans.

1/ He had shaped the centreboard aperture to match thecentreboard shape. This will reduce drag. I was a little annoyed (in a good way) as I wanted to be the one to introduce that to the PDRacer class. A bit less drag is a bit more speed.

2/ He also had created a nice transition between the coaming and the side tank face by working the change in profile neatly to recess the plywood into the coaming. I think it is a little beyond most builders and it is not essential either - but it is great he has tried it.

Steve is a old hand at racing Lasers - so the PDRacer is nicely rigged as well.

In general the boat was much more nicely built than I can do.

Perhaps that is why I am a designer and not a builder any more ...

Steve took his orange OZ Duck out and Chuck and I chased him for photos in the larger and faster Goat Island Skiff. I was a bit concerned until Chuck pointed out his camera was waterproof.

Peter joined us with the yellow PDR and we took some nice pics of the two Ducks sailing South.

I then took Steve's boat out for a sail after lunch and capsized it while he was sailing the yellow PDR so he could see how easy it is to right. Simply lie down in the water and pull down on the tip of the centreboard - that light hollow timber mast makes all the difference.

Steve is a naturally cheery type of person - but he seemed to be grinning extra broadly in many of the photos.

A full collection of photos is here.

Site Update

2008-01-21T19:21:00.000+10:00

It's been a while coming, but over the next few days there will probably be short periods of disruption to the PDRacer site, while we finish a number of updates, including those perennial "under construction" pages that we shouldn't have even put there two years ago.

In the meantime, here's what Steve Wagstaff thinks of his new PDRacer!

We hope you enjoy our site fixes as much as he enjoys his boat, but until they are complete, please forgive us if a few hours of broken links or even inaccesable pages happens over the next few days.

The Ducks of Spring are Upon Us!

2007-11-12T22:54:00.000+10:00

I got an email from Stever Clutterbuck a few weeks ago with pictures from his initial forays in #141 "ARFA" - a name that makes me giggle every time I hear it. I'm never sure whether it is a Cockney accented "Arthur" or a play on "Half a Duck". He tried it out on Melbourne's mighty Yarra River in conditions that sound very challenging.

He says:
"I only have a few snaps of my PD under sail and they are not the best quality.

They were taken on the first day in the water. It was blowing from zero to about 25 knots in very gusty conditions.

It handled the conditions really well until I got the tiller extension jammed against the side tank. At least I found out first hand how easy it is to right.

I also love the way the boat is so manouverable. When I returned to the jetty and rounded up into the wind I ended up about 10 feet short because it tacks so

quickly."

"Hope the photos are of some use."

Thanks Steve,

Perhaps it is again worth noting that the OZ PDRacer seems to be the only boat on the water in the challenging breeze on that day. This is what happened at the Goolwa wooden boat festival in similar conditions.

The mast/sail combination appears to work quite well in gusty and variable winds and makes good use of the hull's high initial stability. The large rudder also provides excellent control when the conditions get rough.

Lug Rig for OZ PDR

2007-10-22T18:04:00.000+10:00

I have just finished additional drawings for a lug rig version of the OZ PDRacer.

I would like to think I am something of an expert on lug rigs ritted to small boats. I have sailed countless hours with such rigs including weekly club races against conventional boats through to classic boat regattas.

My website has probably the best resource on the web (and maybe anywhere) for setting up lug rigs to sail really well – almost equal to “modern” boats.

So why has it taken me so long to draw up a lug rig for the OZ PDRacer?

The only answer is the time involved!

Timber Requirement
The timber list in this section is a complete replacement for all the mast and boom material in the standard OZ PDR plan.

Experience sailing a OZ PDR with a lug rig.
I did put the much larger Goat Island Skiff sail on one of the Queensland OZ PDRs earlier this year as an attempt to take the maximum sail area record from the Americans (right). I was only game to sail in quite a light wind as the standard OZ PDR mast is too lightweight and flexible for such a large sail area – I was worried about breaking it.

As you probably know the sail area on the OZ PDR is quite large as standard (82sqft) but lug rig was much larger (105sq feet).

The PDR handled the big lug rig beautifully, sailing upwind and down sedately under control and accelerated quickly to quite high speeds in the light breeze. It tacked and gybed reliably as well.

I don't think there is much point in going smaller than the standare PDR rig as the lug rig is easy to reef to match the wind.

Advantages and disadvantages.
The lug rig has a number of advantages and only one disadvantage that I can think of. So let's talk about the disadvantage first.

There is an extra spar to make up and I do recommend that it be made round to make best use of the flexibility to get an improved gust response for sailing in strong and fluctuating winds.

It probably adds around 2 to 3 hours to the building time.

The advantages are
1.The sail can be reefed easily for different wind strengths and sea conditions. I have made use of this capability by making the sail slightly larger than the original sprit rig. There is no discredit in sailing around with the sail reefed in moderate winds – particularly when you can use full sail in light winds and blow everyone away with the performance.
2.The spars are shorter allowing for easier stowage and cartopping – a maximum of 3.9m (13ft) – three feet shorter than the original rig.
3.Shorter spars reduce the timber cost and maybe reduce the weight slightly.
4.The centre of effort of the sail is a little lower allowing a larger sail to be carried.

The lug rig plans are available to all purchasers of OZ PDR Plans at no cost. Any other PDRacer owners can get a copy which includes all the information for the spars and the homemade sail by purchasing an OZ PDR Plan for $20 from duckflat, duckworks or seawing boats.

There seem to be some problems with this page

2007-10-19T11:39:00.000+10:00

If you have problems getting to our OZ PDRacer page from here please click on this link.

www.pdracer.info

Dakota (age 11) builds a PDRacer.

2007-10-19T09:51:00.000+10:00

Dakota built one of my OZ PD Racers with some help from her dad Larry.

It took her three lots of school holidays - about 8 weeks - fitting the work between all the other things an 11 year old has to do.

The middle two weeks holiday it was tooooo cold to do much boatbuilding and they felt a little sad and depressed about the whole venture.

However along came Spring and another school holiday and they finished the boat.

Larry seems like one of those great Dads who can stand back a bit and let someone else find their own way to build a boat - but also to keep the quality up.

The people at the PDRacer Association think that her boat is much nicer than the ones I have built!!!! :-(

It certainly does look smart with the green hull and the white deck.

They took the boat sailing for the first time last weekend. Larry was waiting for a perfect day to introduce Dakota to sailing for the first time. It also sounds like it was an introduction to Larry as well - but I think his background in ultralight aviation will give him a real headstart.

This is what Larry wrote:

Sunday gave us an opportunity to put it in the water for the first time. A very light southerly (5kts) at Goolwa and away we went.

Although I have no Dinghy sailing experience to compare with all seemed good and the boat went well.

Wind dropped off and we were idle for a while. Then a westerly came in around 8kts and we had a couple of good runs and then spent some time trying to get back to shore with a head wind.

Learnt a lot in that short time and had fun.

We packed up just as a light sea breeze started, thought about going out again but decided we had achieved what we set out to do and headed home ready for our next big adventure.

The full photo series is on my Flickr site.

New UK and European Agent for OZ PD Racer.

2007-09-25T21:07:00.000+10:00

The OZ PDRacer now is available in the UK!

I would like to Welcome Philip Plowright of Seawing boats to be a new provider of my plans range in the UK and Europe.

This is a link to the Seawing boats online store.

I am particularly happy because Philip is a person with lots of experience in building light and beautiful boats so will be able to help customers with not only plans and advice but a good range of quality boat building materials.

It has been a great few months for Storer Design in the UK. We were able to introduce English readers to the wonderful Goat Island Skiff through the pages of Watercraft Magazine in the August/September Issue. Now we have an agent to provide on-the-ground support to those wanting to purchase plans and build modern lightweight boats.

I am thrilled to bits!

Oz PDRacers around the world

2007-09-20T12:07:00.000+10:00

PDRacers abuilding.

Well - winter is coming to an end and also it is some time since the Mk2 OZ PDR plan was launched.

So quite a few OZ PDRs are appearing around the world. At least as far as registered boats. The fleet in Australia is now a dozen. Not all OZ PDRs but almost so.

I do know of another 3 OZ in my hometown of Adelaide whose builders have not got round to registering - or just aren't too worried about that side of things. So the registered numbers are less than those being built

The latest OZ PDR to be registered is Gyula Ferenzc's in Romania, but they are appearing in strange and wonderful places.

AUSTRALIA (not the complete list - this is an update)
Peter Sutherland unnamed #129
Steve Clutterbuck "Arfa" #141 (see article)
Nick Foreman "I'm Quackers" #144
James Elcock "J2" #159
Dakota Jones "Passing Wind" #188 (see article)

ONTARIO
Kelly Trafford - "Hammerhead" #183

ROMANIA
Gyula Ferencz - "Rut Kiskacka" #184

SENEGAL
Caleb Bornman - no name $170

WEST AFRICA
Isiah Bornman - no name #164

RUSSIA
Well it is not a full sized boat but a great thread discussing the virtues of the PDRacer - and photos of a bunch of models.

The Discussion is on the website of the main Russian boating magazine

The questions are the same in russian right down to being harrassed by the usual suspects - skiff sailors and catamaran sailors - about...

"Why would you build a boat like THAT?"

Only to have someone on the forum point out that

"It's the same cost as the jib on your catamaran, mate".

New downloadable rigging list for OZ PD Racer

2007-08-30T11:08:00.000+10:00

I have just updated the rigging list for the OZ PDRacer.

It is downloadable as a PDF file - here.

It is meant to work together with the rigging pictorial on Flickr on the right of this page - here.

Note that the pictures are of our Mk1 boats. The Mk2 boats are a little simpler with fewer added on bits

Don't change some things on the OZ PDR Plans.

2007-08-07T22:11:00.001+10:00

Howdy all,

One of the things that people get tempted to change is to omit some of the through bolts in the rudderbox and tiller arrangement.

As you know I try very hard to eliminate screws, nails and bolts from all my designs, but where I draw them in - they are most certainly needed!

The rudderbox is the result of a very long evolution going back to when I first saw it on a Paper Tiger when I was 12 years old (1972)- I knew good design when I saw it!

I've used rudderboxes of similar design on around 12 boats of my own (mostly racing boats) since then and know exactly how to make them light but robust. I've gone through the process of breaking boxes, breaking tillers, ripping rudder pintles out, having blades fall out - so you can all have blissfully trouble free sailing and not have to think about the rudder at all - apart from making sure it in the boat when you drive off to go sailing.

The bolts all have to be there! There have been two rudderbox breakages I know of and both of them had either decided not to fit the bolts or changed their setup.

The one pictured to the right is non standard too but there are many invisible layers of fibreglass doing the job of the two bolts that normally hold the front of the box together as well as hold the rudder fittings to the rudderbox.

So if you want to change something feel free to give me a yell. There is a question form at http://www.pdracer.info or you can go to the woodwork forums link shown in your plans.

Another video of a couple of kids heading off in their PD Racer

2007-08-05T00:28:00.000+10:00

I've gone all light hearted all of a sudden! Another great little video made by two kids who have headed off in their PDRacer. The story below has a video of an adult doing much the same thing.

Great little boats!!!

PDR Royalty! A Cruising video and a Interview with "Shorty" Routh

2007-08-04T15:41:00.000+10:00

If there is royalty involved in the PDR world - then it is "Shorty" the fellow who thought the whole thing up.

While us OZ PDR people might like to get performance at a modest cost Shorty Routh doesn't give a damn - he just wants people to get away from their TV sets and onto little boats - actually we want to do exactly that as well.

Here is a video of the great man himself - and it pretty well shows what a day spent Puddleducking is really like. The footage is of Shorty breaking the distance record of the time with 13.79 miles. The story is here

Also there is a radio interview with Shorty explaining the whys and wherefores of the PDR. The podcast explains all the great things we love about PD Racers!

Thankyou Shorty!

OZ PDRacers at Adelaide Timber and Working with Wood Show

2007-07-26T20:36:00.000+10:00

Storerboatplans and Duck Flat Wooden Boats are sharing a stand at the
Adelaide Timber and Working with Wood Show.

27-29 July from 10am to 5pm at Wayville showgrounds.

We have a 16' Goat Island Skiff, two OZ 8' puddle ducks (PDRacers - a pink one and a yellow one) , a 31' Bolger Tennessee Riverboat (it's is being refurbished after 12 years of use), one part built CLC kayak on the stand.

Boat books, wooden boat magazines, plans, slideshows and stuff.

Epoxy and polyurethane glues.

And not to forget friendly and knowledgeable service (on a good day!) :-)

OZ PD Racer video problems

2007-07-25T09:20:00.001+10:00

It seems that the links to the videos of our first two OZ PDRs sailing are not working - our host has changed their directory structure (again!). So until we get to do some work on this website you can view the videos here

OZ PDRacer Videos

(Now fixed by moving them to YOUTUBE)

They show just what good little sailing boats they are in a range of windspeeds. The biggest change in the boats since that time (and the major change for the plans for the Mk2) was to revise the mast design. The good sailors can probably see it is bending too much.

In fact we did break one on one of the planing runs but that might be because Peter, cut one of the scarfs too short (about 2:1 rather than the normal 6:1)

The revised Mk2 masts (in all the plans) are around double the stiffness. The picture right shows me sailing the boat in around 18knots of breeze gusting to around 25. The mast now stands up much better sideways but still has a good fore and aft gust response - largely because of the prebend induced by the snotter tensioning the boom aft.

The boat is easy for me to hold up despite 82sq ft of sail on an 8ft boat and a good chop - proof the mast/sail combination is working well.

We are now members of technorati

2007-07-15T22:51:00.000+10:00

Technorati Profile

No nails or screws makes repairs easy.

2007-07-14T22:29:00.000+10:00

The article is here.

For a long time now we have been fans of eliminating permanent fastenings in boats. We use plasterboard/drywall screws to hold the parts of the boat together until the glue sets up then remove them.

There are several good reasons.

1/ Fastenings always acta as a potential way for water to get from one part of the structure to another. With epoxy construction there is always a waterproof glueline between the parts that make up the boat - but a fastener will always pierce that glueline.

2/ Often you launch a new boat but after a few years you can see the outlines of the fasteners - they can even crack the paint sometimes which allows water to penetrate the structure.

3/ The reason we are looking at in this article is that having no fastenings make it really easy to remove large parts of boat with high speed tools like routers, powerplanes and circular saws without the risk of hitting a fastening with them and risk damaging the blade the timber around the fastener or the operator.

We built our $350 OZ PDRacers out of a really terrible quality hardwood ply - not only was it brittle but it had significant interior voids with the result that Peter put his foot through the bottom - he doesn't have my catlike agility!

So I used the methods in this pictorial to repair the bottom of one boat overnight then the other boat the following night. That way there was at least one boat to sail all the time!!!

The bottom of the boat was completely removed by router. The router was set to the same depth as the plywood thickness. I then worked over all the frames and the remains of the bottom just fell to the floor.

I used the wet on wet method to fully coat the inside face of the replacement bottom then glued it in place.

One of these two boats went on to become the one that holds the world speed record for Puddle Duck Racers - 9.2mph. They have also travelled around 2500km on their trailer.

OZ PDR Sail Drawing - Correction and change

2007-04-29T13:10:00.000+10:00

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

2007-04-25T10:20:00.000+10:00

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

2007-04-20T08:20:00.000+10:00

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

2007-04-16T15:21:00.000+10:00

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.

2007-04-16T08:16:00.000+10:00

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

2007-04-02T06:58:00.000+10:00

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!

Three boats built and heading to the National Champs and Wooden Boatshow

2007-03-09T10:24:00.000+10:00

The scene right is the Duckflat shed last night.

Today two PDRs are in the back of the Duckflat van ready to go to Goolwa.

Just a normal Japanese van fits two PDRs EASILY.

So we are heading down the road about 60km to the river port of Goolwa - the site of the South Australian Wooden Boat Show.

We will be rendezvousing with Peter Hyndman with the two boats that have made the much bigger trip from Queensland.

Three days of sailing and talking boats not to mention sailing and lots of pics of the PDRS on the water and in groups.

(Well I'm happy about that!)

Queensland PDRs on way to Australian National Champs

2007-03-03T10:06:00.000+10:00

Just received an email from Peter Hydndman who is bringing his two PDRs down to Adelaide for the inaugeral National Titles.

He and his wife Jo are driving over 1300 miles to join other owners of PDRs at the South Australian Wooden Boat and Music Festival.

All very exciting - as is his trailer setup. (Pic Right)

It has to be good - he is crossing desert, dry river beds and all sorts of obstructions to get there.

Here is his parting email

It's real!
The boats are on the trailer, the spars on the roof, now all we have to do is pack the tent and fill up with petrol..... and drive for a week or so!

More details of the trailer coming to a thread near you!

Cheers,

P

Sailing starts in a week and I (and my trusty team) have three boats to paint, masts to drill and then boats to rig.

Ain't it grand!

National Championships - Goolwa SA - March 11/12

2007-02-25T09:41:00.000+10:00

The South Australian Wooden Boat and Music Festival is hosting the First National PDRacer Championships.

The Festival runs from the 10 to 12 of March and is a Major Festival generally drawing around 15,000 people with hundreds of boats on the water.

It is very much a participatory festival with lots of shore and water based activity - as it is on the river the action comes up to within inches of the shore (and sometimes even closer!!!)

There will be a race on the Sunday and the Monday and other smaller races to be organised as well.

There will be at least 5 PDRacers there - with the opportunity to borrow a boat to try one out when they are not involved in events too.

Entry forms are available from this website
http://www.woodenboatfestival.com.au/
Click Registration to download the form.

See you there - any additional info you can get from me on

Rigging Guide Pictorial for OZ PDRacers

2007-02-11T18:03:00.000+10:00

While staying at the famous bitingmidge's place I have had the chance to put together a rigging guide for the OZ PDRacers.

Rigging Guide on Flickr

Coincidently the information there will help most people set up their sprit rig a lot more neatly and effectively.

Generally the problem with getting a boat to go well is twofold. One is that it has to be designed properly. The other is that the sails are set up correctly and all the other bits work effortlessly.

We took quite a few pictures and I've also gone through to comment on each photo.

By the way if you want to experiment with a lug rig on an OZ PDR you can find quite a lot of information about lug rigs here. The main way that page will be wrong for a PDR is that most of the rope sizes suggested will be too big. Just reduce them one size according to the chart that lists the rope diameters.

Now for a short intermission

2007-01-31T21:20:00.000+10:00

Life hasn't been all beer and skittles in the last week. In between terrifically enjoyable bouts of sanding, priming, filling, sanding and painting, and while the PDRacers are out of action, Michael has been forcing himself out on Peter's now 12 year old but as beautiful as ever Goat Island Skiff, "Gruff".

The Goat Island Skiff is a perfect adjunct to any self respecting PDRacer's fleet! For more information click the "link" link, or visit Michael's home page at Storer Boat Plans

Getting ready for Goolwa

2007-01-29T00:04:00.000+10:00

Our boats are in the final stages of getting their pretty bits done in time for the Goolwa wooden boat festival and PDRacer "Australian Nationals", thankfully Michael has arrived with paint brush in hand, and the poor little things are getting their gleaming yellow at last!

More news as it happens, but suffice to say a trailer rebuild is in order before we travel 2500 miles each way to play boats!

Another PDRacer on the way

2007-01-24T15:09:00.000+10:00

Michael has arrived at the home of the bitingmidge, and hopefully that means we'll have a few weeks of PDRacer fun and games. Maybe not to the same extent as last year, which resulted in all of this, but who knows?

In the meantime Peter Sutherland from Canberra has forwarded pictures of his lovely boat, even more credible as it is his first attempt at boat building. Peter is hoping to get to Goolwa as well, and I think as it's only a mere 1000 k's for him, he's got no excuses!

In the meantime we are making our own plans for the 5,000 k return journey, hampered a little by the absence of both a trailer and a suitable towing vehicle, but I'm sure something will sort itself out!

Hopefully we'll have our two boats resplendent in their duckling yellow livery on the start!

Rigging Guide for PD Racer Now Available and another boat nears completion #127

2007-01-06T20:54:00.000+10:00

Howdy All,

Well, the good news is that I have written the rigging guide for the OZ PD Racer.

It wasn't really my intention - I have a big paying job that I'm working madly on but I was contacted by Iain Johnson who has finished the hull and just about all the other bits and needed a rigging guide for the fittings kit he received from Duck Flat.

He seems to be steaming along quite quickly and needed some sort of written guide to tell him where all the bits went and what is to be used where. The pictures right are the ones Iain sent me.

You can get a copy simply by emailing me at my email address but we will be putting it up on the www.pdracer.info website soon so people can download it directly also (I'll announce it here and tell you where to go).

I will be back up in OZ PDRacer territory in a couple of weeks and we will be doing a big pictorial of rigging - the photos will make it even better - but I've drawn up diagrams of most parts of the rigging.

The other projects are to:
1/ paint the 2 Mk1 boats their final yellow
2/ build a couple of new masts to the Mk2 plan
3/ maybe build a couple of new sails out of the new cloth
4/ set some new PDRacer Records
5/ take lots of pics and film clips of sailing so show what the boats can do.
6 update the website with all that information.

Did I say I was just going up there for a couple of weeks!!!!!!!!!!

While on the subject of FAQs - the PD Racer FAQ

2007-01-03T07:37:00.000+10:00

By the way, while we were developing the OZ PDRACERS last year we had a number of vigourous debates on the worldwide PDRacer forum

I ended up grabbing most of the interesting material from there and putting it in a FAQ devoted to our development of the Mk1 and Mk2 OZ PDRacer.

The OZ PDRacer FAQ is here storerboatplans PDR FAQ - if that is not too many acronyms for you!

It covers a lot of the thinking behind the boat - how we made it light and strong and the decisions that were made with most components. It also covers the initial sailing trials and some general PDRacer sailing advice as we started to understand the boat's performance

Fibreglassing methods - Fiberglass for large and small areas

2007-01-03T07:28:00.000+10:00

Howdy,

This won't be new information and pictures for those who have purchased the OZ PDRacer plans but might be useful to other visitors who are considering building a PD or other boat.

I have just updated my FAQ with some "How To" sections on different methods of using fiberglass.

Storerboatplans FAQ

These sections are taken directly from the OZ PDRacer plans and might give some idea of the detail the plans provide.

The FAQ covers the different methods for small areas and large areas and also a method for getting glass to lie flat over complex curved surfaces.

There are good photos for some of the sections to make the methods clear.

For experienced builders there will be little new here - but the snap lock bag method (though I can't take the credit) of mixing and spreading glue with little mess might be new to many.

The picture right is to counter those who say "you can't get a good finish on epoxy". I can get a better finish with paint or varnish certainly but the basic epoxy finish need not be too bad - and after a sand and final paint and/or varnish an epoxy boat can look like a real goldplater.

The FAQ also contains a lot of other information useful for general boatbuilding

Best wishes
MIK

Could It Be Done?

2006-12-29T06:19:00.000+10:00

Three PDRacer Basic Hulls Built in 4 working days?

Before going our various ways at Xmas Robin Badenoch and I with considerable help from Geraldine and Lukas had a shot at getting three basic PDRacer Hulls together in four working days.

Geraldine and Lukas were work experience students from the local highschool that were working with Duckflat. Geraldine was from Adelaide but Nathan had come all the way from Switzerland.

Our timetable was ...

Three weeks before Xmas
TUESDAY
Me - sand the epoxy coated plywood and cut all the plywood panels for three boats. Clean up chine logs that were laminated the week before.

Two weeks before Xmas
TUESDAY
Geraldine, Lukas, Me - dry fit all framing onto the plywood
Rob - Continue shaping rudders and centreboards - help others as required

WEDNESDAY
Geraldine, Lukas, Me - glue all framing onto the plywood
Rob - about half time on the foils and half time on the gluing

THURSDAY
Robin, Geraldine, Lukas, Me - Assemble the 3 hulls dry to check for problems then glue them up.

It was a desperately tight deadline - if one thing went wrong and caused any sort of delay - we'd be all heading off to our various Christmases leaving a pile of plywood sitting at Duck Flat getting dusty.

Here's the link
3 x PDRacers basic hulls built - thread on Oz Woodwork Forum. It also contains info on making masts and foils.

I must admit that the pics to the right give away the fact that we did get the three basic hulls together in that short time.

A very large part of it was, as I quickly found out, both Geraldine and Lukas were better woodworkers than I am!!!

I could still whip them with general assembly and handling of epoxy - but at woodwork I was a distant third. Actually, thinking of it - Robin Badenoch is better than me too!!!

More pics and description of building details

2006-12-15T12:06:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

I have just added more pics and description to the photodiary I am keeping for the PD Racers being built at Duckflat Wooden Boats in Adelaide.

See the woodwork forum at this link

It goes into a bit more detail about

1/ Making the Foils - the centreboard and rudder blades
2/ Laminating the timber for the chinelogs. A lot of people get a bit psyched out about laminating, but it is one of the easiest boatbuilding processes - and OH so satisfying!!!

Best Wishes

Michael

More fun than Disneyland!

2006-12-14T08:11:00.000+10:00

It's official!

PDRacers are more fun than Disneyland!

It has to be true, there's a picture on the internet that proves it!

(CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR EVIDENCE)

We've bought a pig!

2006-12-05T08:45:00.000+10:00

Thanks to all who have purchased shirts, stickers and other useful items from our store, and thanks to our outrageous $1.00 margin, we've raised enough to buy a pig!
Well we've almost raised enough, so we bought a pig anyway, so hopefully somewhere, someone in a less fortunate position will be a little better off in the coming year, and all because you bought a shirt!
Thanks!

Duck Flat is building 3 OZ Mk2 PD Racers

2006-11-30T19:27:00.000+10:00

Well, I've just had a big day up at Duck Flat Wooden Boats doing some work on the 3 PDRacers they are building for the nationals at Goolwa in March.

I'm not the only person working on them. Robin Badenoch has been in and more or less finished the masts and is on his way with the foils (centreboards and rudders). He had also made a good start with precoating the plywood sheets with epoxy.

The picture right shows the blank with grooves routed to provide a guide for an accurate hydrodynamic profile. The second shows Rob sanding the foils down to the routed grooves after coarse planing. Normally you use a template that is supplied with our plan - but I made up the router jig for use at Duckflat - they can supply routed blanks if you want to save time and effort.

Duckflat are aiming at keeping their boats for the long haul and minimising maintenance - so a full three coats of epoxy over the panels makes a lot of sense - that way they will be less maintenance than a fibreglass boat.

My job was to get the hulls underway.

I was up there yesterday and laminated three pairs of chinelogs - here are one of the pairs pic right.

The first part of the day was sanding. Just going over a number of sheets.

Then I started to mark out the hull panels on the plywood. Duckflat have made some templates and I decided to use them as guides for a power router. The router is a very impatient tool - but used carefully I was able to produce side panels and deck panels for 3 PDRacers in an afternoon.

I tried first to cut the panels out completely with the router - but it was just too slow. So I ended up rough cutting the panels a little oversize and then running the router round the outside to produce the shape.

I actually think it would be pretty possible to cut most of a PDR approximately to shape and attach the pieces of timber framing. Then use the timber framing as a guide for the router.

But in this case I made completed panels for three boats in an hour or so. The biggest advantage is all the panels are very close to identical. The picture rightshows the results of a couple of hours labour. About half the time was involved in working out the best way to do it.

I'll be up there again next week to do some more. I hope to get the boats to 3D stage next week before I head up to Sydney for Xmas. That means they can be registered.

This will double the current number of registered Australian PDRs to 6 and bring the worldwide number to 123!!!

More pics and details here.

Michael

Detailed Photos of PD Racer Assembly

2006-11-22T23:21:00.000+10:00

I have put the full photo series from Rob Johnson building his OZ PD Racer up at Flickr.

I have also added comments to many of the photos. There is a lot of detail here to assist people building the Puddle Duck from our plans.

180 photos of building the PD Racer

This is what Rob posted after he looked through the series of him building the boat in 12 days last October.

MIK advised me tonight that he has got all of the photos together of me building PDR118 at the spring boatbuilding school put on by Duckflat Wooden boats at Hindmarsh Island.

Gee , it makes a clown like me look like I might even know what I'm doing !.
I guess its up to MIK if he makes it for general viewing , although I suspect you could get to it via his site.

If you do get to see it , look for the obvious cockup I , repeat I made , and later , you can see it corrected , no damage done .

I'll admit to being "all at sea" with this initially , I could only improve , and I did a bit , but if I can build a PDR , anyone can !.

You will note in the photos the "book" , it sure helped having such instruction available , and i'm sure MIK is improving it all of the time !.

I was steadily working away on what remains to be done , but we got a bushfire fright last night , so the boat is unfortunately on the "backburner" for now.
But congratulations MIK on putting this thing together (is it called a BLOG?) , its good !.

Rob J.

118th PD Racer is OZ

2006-11-03T13:32:00.000+10:00

No Story about the DuckFlat Spring School is complete without a bit of a spiel about the first of the Mk2 OZ PDRacers being built. It was only one among the 12 different projects - but, hey, it is MY Design!!! (My other designs can be seen by clicking the links in the left column.)

It is the first one to be built to registration stage from the revised Mk2 Plan. The builder was Rob Johnson, a farmer from Victoria. That's him starting to put together the first bulkhead (panels acrosst the width of the boat that hold the sides apart. The next picture shows you what a bulkhead looks like when it is fitted between the two side panels. Everything is held together using a cordless reversible drill to drive in gyprock (drywall) screws. They don't need pilot holes and they pull out afterwards. Modern glued structures don't need nails or screws.

He has decided to make a big lifestyle change and move from the inland to the coast and wants a boat (or boats) to use. He was allocated the international hull #118 when we registered the boat at PDRacer.com

Rob told me he had some experience with building things in his youth, but freely admits that he had forgotten almost everything he'd ever known about using woodworking tools. Nonetheless he managed to build both the hull and the mast of the PD Racer in the 10 day class.

He took them home in the back and on the roof of his twin cab ute.

I was very happy with the way it all went together - quite a big improvement over the original two Mk1 boats I built earlier in the year. All that work calculating the true shapes of components and how they fit together seemed to have had positive results - there only needed to be a little bit of adjustment of one of the side tank faces - everything else just dropped in place.

Also the boat looks neater and stronger than the originals. Some of the changes to the boat (and the plans)

1/ to extend the sidetanks a little more forward to they hide part of the floor stiffener - makes the boat look tidier and more integrated

2/ Increase the angle of the side tanks from 12 to 18 degrees. This moves the face of the tank more into the middle of the boat where it can stiffen the bottom more effectively.

3/ Some changes to the mast making procedure to make it much faster - also to suggest that those who have routers should use them.

4/ A slight change to the hull rocker to reduce the sudden nose up attitude the boat takes when it starts to get onto the plane.

5/ The mast was beefed up slightly without increasing weight by much. One of the original Mk1 masts had broken and both were a bit bendy. By increasing their outer dimensions without increasing the wall thickness they are much stiffer (about 60%) with a weight increase of around 8%. Of course the sail had to be redesigned to match the new mast bend as they work as a unit.

All changes worked out well and have been incorporated in the plans.

The other thing that has been incorporated in the plans are some of the pictures of Rob building the boat. The sequence of building was changed between the Mk1 and Mk2 boats to make things much simpler and we didn't have photos for the plans that reflect the new method. Rob allowed us to fill in those gaps nicely - though you can see him grinning that sorta indicates that he would like the photographer (me) to stop taking pictures every 20 minutes!!!

Anyway, it all worked pretty well and the boat is nice and light and feels immensly stiff and strong.

By the way he has christened his boat "Overundersidewaysdown".

Thanks Rob!!!

A New OZ PD Racer

2006-10-27T14:38:00.000+10:00

I thought I had better get some pictures up of the latest OZ PDRacer built at the Duck Flat Spring School at Goolwa. They will be doing more schools in future - everyone was pretty rapt.

Anyway, back to the little boat. The builder Rob has decided to call it "Overundersidewaysdown" and its international registration number is 118. So now 118 boats registered worldwide. And 11 Oz PDRs underway - or at least those are the ones I know about.

Rob did a great job of getting the hull and the mast together - it all looks really "shmick". After the class was over he chucked it in the back of his ute and drove the 10 hours home to his farm in Victoria. He has to do a bit more, but perhaps not too long before it is all nicely together and sailing.

He is a long way from the water but one of his neighbours has a very big dam on his property.

As far as the development of the OZ version PDR goes the Mk 2 boat goes together so much easier than the original Mk1 versions that Peter and I built at the beginning of the year and has a much neater looking interior.

The big differences are in the order things are put together - the whole centreboard and frame structure is made out of 3 flat assembled components and goes into the boat in a half hour or so. Also the fronts of the sidetanks have been more neatly integrated into the floor support structure. A final change has been sloping the side buoyancy tank faces further into the middle of the boat - this stiffens up the bottom further for better performance.

The masts have also been beefed up with an increase of stiffness in the region of 30% with only a 8% increase in weight so still very light but able to stand up better to sailing loads. The sail design has been changed to reflect the changes.

Anyway - Welcome Rob and Overundersidewaysdown!

MAST BUILDING - A Fast Option using a Router

2006-10-23T15:52:00.000+10:00

It finally penetrated my limited wit that if you have a Router it speeds up the mast making considerably and it is really accurate requiring no special setups or jigs. Many home woodworkers already have a router.

Also you only need to mark out one of the narrow stave rather than both which saves time.

For those who don't have plans yet there are 4 pieces of timber that make up the mast length in the form of a long (lightweight) hollow box. Each piece is tapered so the mast will bend the correct amount to give the boat its nice sailing characteristics.

Tapering the first narrow stave
After measuring the taper up the height of the mast as per the plans simply clamp a heavy batten along the points. You could use
1/ One of the other staves if it is straight enough or
2/ Angle aluminium - (thin walled about 30 to 50mm - er 1 1/4 to 2")
3/ Anything else that will bend in a smooth curve and provide a flat surface for the router to follow.
Simply clamp it accurately along the marked taper with enough clamps to stop it wandering between clamps (I'd clamp it to the edge of a table as well).

Then use a router with a trimming bit (the ones with a ball bearing at the bottom end) to cut quickly down to the batten - the bearing runs along the edge of the batten. Then move the clamps and finish off the bits you didn't get to.

Move the batten to the other edge of the stave and repeat. And that is one stave finished.

Copy the first stave using the router
Drop tha finished stave onto the other one and clamp. Run the router around using the finished one as a guide - and done!

Follow the plans to make the ladder frame (the core of the mast - see picture right)
Make up the ladder frame as per the plan. Then glue the wide staves on its faces. Take care with the clean up of epoxy ooze.

Router the excess off the wide staves
Use the router to remove the overhang of the wide staves. The roller bearing will run along the surface of the ladder frame. Sand off any glue ooze and round the corners as per the plan - and PRESTO - one lightweight mast!!!

Oz PDR built at Duck Flat Spring Boatbuilding School

2006-10-18T23:45:00.000+10:00

I am just back from the inland port of Goolwa at the bottom end of Australia's longest river - The Murray.
During the last two weeks I've been one of the Instructors at the Duck Flat Wooden Boats Spring School. There were 12 different projects being built. A number of boats from Oughtred, Isles, Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC), Phil Bolger and one of the OZ PDRacers.

It was particularly interesting because this was the first OZ Mk2 PDRs to be built from the plan - and though I did watch with a bit of nervousness from time to time it all turned out quite well. No major problems at all and I suspect the boat is somewhat better built than the original two built by me.

The builder was Rob Johnson, who drove from his farm over in Victoria to attend. His boat "Overundersidewaysdown" was the 118th boat registered internationally. One of the good upshots from the experience is that with all the photos I took of Rob building his boat I'll be able to build up some of the visual detail of the plan.
And Peter will be adding them to the construction sections of the website.

Where is all this new info I keep promising?

2006-10-15T10:07:00.000+10:00

I don't know if I need to apologise, but it must seem to our many returning vistors that not much has happened on the site for a few weeks, and I guess they 'd be right on that score!

Michael has been flat out at the Duck Flat Spring School, and we hope to have news of the new Oz PDRacer built there and well as for me...it's just that things have been a bit busy at work, and the weather's been too good to let updating this site get in the way of things, and I needed a dose of shed time too, so built a small cricket bat for the as yet unborn grandson. Apparently there are other things to life apart from small sailing boats!

Not that any of these excuses helps those who are desperately holding onto page three of the "how to" and waiting for page four to upload!

Today may just be the day it all happens, or at least the hull assembly pages are nearing completion so we should be right on that count.Look out for yet another new tee shirt in the coming days as well! (As long as we look good, who cares about the boat!)

Hull Number Decals now available

2006-10-06T21:20:00.000+10:00

In a rather shallow attempt to disguise the fact that we haven't actually made any progress on this site in the past week, we've completed the long awaited hull registration stickers for all PDRacers, and made them available at our online store. These aren't compulsory, but will of course look fabulous on your transome!

In the meantime, we've almost finished the text for all the assembly pictures, and should have enough new stuff to satisfy even the hungriest information seeker by the end of the weekend, so stay tuned and stay patient!

Hull Assembly Photographs Uploaded!

2006-09-30T21:29:00.000+10:00

I went sailing today, firstly in my Goat Island Skiff, which was absolutely magical in the relatively light conditions, but then of course in the PDRacer which is sitting on the river bank tonight waiting for another swim in the morning. I never cease to amaze myself at how much I like this little boat. It's just sooo responsive and easy to sail that in the confined space of our river I don't think there's another more appropriate vessel on the planet.

Sure the Skiff is bigger, faster, more comfortable, carries more people and is fantastic in every way, but by golly the PDRacer exudes "cool" in the same way a Fiat500 would look cool parked next to a Mazerati, and in terms of manouvreability, there are certain parallels as well, the skiff is sure footed and precise, the PDR is just...well...nimble!

Finally we can report some progress on the content front! Not as much as we'd like, but progress just the same!
We have now three extra pages under the "building" menu, although not currently visible on this page (please go to the "building" page and follow the menu from there.

Presently we have thumbnail photographs of the entire hull building process, and while they are quite clear, they are currently not available in larger size. We expect that most of the text will be completed over the next few days, and by about Wednesday next, all text and large photo pages will be available, adding roughly 60 more pages to this site (phew!)

We hope you enjoy your visit, and come back often, as we have LOTS more information to bring online over the coming weeks and months!

It takes a BIG MAN to sail a little boat

2006-09-24T06:49:00.000+10:00

Just when we thought we've got to every bug in our web page template, Blogger announce they are moving to Blogger Beta, and our blog template will need a revamp!
Oh well, to celebrate fixing what we think was the last bug in the rest of our web template, we've released what we think is our best PDRacer range!
Our "BIG MAN" message is for people of all sizes (even girls) and sends exactly the right message when your superyacht owning neighbour pops around for drink.
You'll never be asked to justify your choice in watercraft again!

Can you fish from that thing?

2006-09-21T16:39:00.000+10:00

Can you ever!
Yes folks, not only did the Routh family smash the world record for the largest fish ever caught from a Puddleduck Racer, they did it while living in the desert!
Now of course we are biased, but we are certain that a contributing factor to this supreme angling feat was the fact that Routh family (and PDRacer) patriach, Shorty was wearing one of our PDRacerWear 25 Questions Tees!
I think it's fair to say that the answer to question 10 on the shirt "Can you fish from it?" has now been well and truly and unquestionably anwered with a Resounding YES!
The picture above is just the tiddler that Dad caught, click the link button below to check out the real records that are held by Darby and Morgan, and the full delightful story.
Congratulations to all!

Linking to this site

2006-09-21T10:52:00.000+10:00

While it doesn't particularly look like much has happened over the last week, we've actually been doing a bit of housekeeping which will result in a site-search facility happening in the next build, something that was one of those "get it done before we get too much stuff up" jobs, and more importantly due entirely to our (my) amateur status as a web master, I'm still changing some of the directories to make future growth of the site more logical.
All of that means, if you are presently linking to our site, please adjust your link to ~http://www.PDRacer.info~ rather than the page address visible at the top of the page. If you do that, you'll always find us!

Site under constant review!

2006-09-16T15:37:00.000+10:00

We apologise for the occasional missing graphic, it's a temporary situation, brought about from time to time by a number of tiny tweaks across the site and we fix them as soon as we find them. Please let us know if there are one or two we haven't fixed.

Hopefully it will all be fine now for another week, and we can work on getting more information online!

Building the PDRacer - Another ONE MINUTE GUIDE!

2006-09-12T23:09:00.000+10:00

It seems I don't get time to let the ink dry on my computer screen before I get requests to change stuff. So due to popular demand (and in no way to my dodgy java rollovers) I've rehashed the ONE MINUTE GUIDE so all but the most primitive machinery should be able to view it simply.

In the fullness of time, I'll get all the real bumph behind it as well and the clicky links will mean something, but so far I'm halfway through the week, and all I've done is checked spelling (at last!) reformatted everything behind the scenes, redone the menus and the entry page and of course the one minute guide.

For those waiting for instructions on how to actually build... well just keep coming back!

The pic above is probably a bit meaningless to anyone who hasn't snuck back into the garage halfway through the night to check that the work they did during the day is still there, but if you have, you'll understand!

Building the PDRacer - a ONE MINUTE GUIDE

2006-09-10T23:08:00.000+10:00

If you are the kind of person who just wants to get in and get out, to cut straight to the chase, have we got a deal for you! Now you can follow your own virtual PDRacer build on our site in one minute (faster if you have a super broadband connection!)

Just follow the links in the building section, (or click the "link" tab below if you really only want to go there, and enjoy yourself!

Apart from the "quicky" we've also completed the "Kits and Bits" pages where we have outlined the services that Duckworks boat Builders Supplies and DuckFlat Wooden Boats can provide to the PDRacer community, and also our first detailed construction page "Marking Out".

If you are one of the people who have purchased plans this week, welcome aboard and please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. On the other hand, don't forget to send us progress shots, our gallery pages are very very bare at the moment!

Another promise not kept!

2006-09-09T10:35:00.000+10:00

We have our state elections happening today, which is probably why I am feeling a bit like a politician! There is an offical political party in the far north who are registered as the fisherman's party, because they think that as fisherman they have the prerequisite skills to be a politician: they are all consumate liars!

Now I wasn't lying when I said I intended to start uploading bits every day or so, but I certainly misjudged the amount of work to get things online! Instead of getting the new stuff online in a half-working state, I've been concentrating on ironing out the glitches, so for the many of you who have been dropping by (thanks greatly to the crew at Duckworks Magazine and their front-page article), your patience should be rewarded this weekend, with a few more additions.

Thus far we have finished Michael's design overview page, and have a whole compendium of construction bits almost ready to go (but probably a few days away).

I'm thinking that a largish weekly update may be a more realistic goal for me in future, rather than several small mid-week ones, so let's try that after next week!

NEWS - Oz PDRacer Boat Plan - cheap, creative having fun on the water.

2006-09-06T14:25:00.000+10:00

It's been a series of looooong days and loooooonger nights for me doing the final run to finishing the plans.

I know it has been the same for Peter as far as finishing the website.

But All is running quite nicely - and more content pages will be added over the next few weeks.

In the end we decided to add the sailmaking section to the plans - but the rigging detail - including Peter's ultra low budget homemade fittings will be on the website.

One good thing now the plans are finished - SOME SLEEP.

4.30am bedtimes just don't agree with me.

The iPod Perspective

2006-09-06T09:12:00.000+10:00

Today while driving to work I saw a bunch of kids walking and listening to their iPods.

It occurred to me, that the PDRacer planset actually costs about the same as a complete album download, and that was fine until I discovered that I built TWO PDRacers for less than the cost of ONE super dooper top of the line iPod!

It's not beyond the reach of a reasonably handy person to finish a boat at the cost of an iPod Nano, but of course if you buy first quality materials that might stretch to the Nano plus a powered dock with speakers.

So how many kids do you know with an iPod?

They could all afford their own international class sailing yacht, AND if they built one of those instead, they'd lessen their chance of going deaf at an early age too!

Thank-you for your patience

2006-09-05T22:39:00.000+10:00

A big thank-you to all who have found us in the few days that we've been "live", we trust that you will have seen enough to make you want to come back! Presently we think we have all the bugs out of the site, and will concentrate on getting more information uploaded within the next week.

Stay tuned for our Free Sail Plans and a complete tutorial on constructing your own dinghy sails from Polytarp. This will be available as an example of the quality of information contained in Michael's $20 planset, which has gone to more than 100 pages by my current count.

Also almost ready for upload are our pages on material selection and tools, including a sharpening how-to for raw beginners as well as some sharpening tips for more experienced builders.

Once we have those pages together we'll work solidly on the buiding construction and boat building hints and tips, until then please amuse yourselves by reading our "live" construction diary which we published on the Australian Woodwork forums. Just click on the link below (after you've visited the rest of our site of course!

As we have previously promised, we'll announce all new content on this blog, so if you don't know how to use the "RSS" link in the address bar above, now would be a really good time to learn!

PDRacer.info is ALIVE!

2006-09-03T15:44:00.000+10:00

After what seems like forever, PDRacer.info is up, and while not quite "running" yet, is certainly there at a slow crawl! We've got about 15% of the final content up thus far, and since this is after all a hobby, I think it is safe to say that it won't all happen in a big rush.

It will happen though, and happen regularly. I presently expect to upload new content at least every two days, so check back often, and with each issue, we'll post a synopsis here.

A further note on Nautical terminology

2006-08-17T08:44:00.000+10:00

Why do we need to use jargon anyway you may ask? Well it's not jargon really, it's just using the appropriate words for the task in hand.

The motor car or (automobile) is something that's very familiar to us, and we are very comfortable using unique terminology to describe many of the parts. "Hub Caps" aren't. The bonnet, (hood) is really "the lid over the engine". Headlights, have nothing to do with heads, in fact on a boat one would expect to find the headlight over the toilet.

While it can indeed be difficult at the beginning of the learning process, like all things it gets easier with time, and it's part of our objective to make that as easy as possible. All of this means of course that the website expands like the universe, until eventually like the universe it will dissappear into a black hole. Which is sort of where it is right now come to think of it.

On another but related note:

Lots of people mistakenly look at all of the ropes on a sailing boat and think that's what they are "ropes". Unless someone can show me the error of my way, I am of the firm belief that the majority of small sailing boats don't actually have a rope on board.

In fact the only piece of "rope" that is called a rope on a boat, is the litte bit hanging from the donger on the ships bell.

Donger of course is not a nautical term, and could be confused for something else, but I used it merely as an example of how important it is to use the correct terminology. Heaven forbid that one should walk around with a bit of rope hanging from one's donger if one was not on a ship.

Thanks to Beta plan participants - and UPDATE TO MAST CONSTRUCTION

2006-08-16T19:29:00.000+10:00

A big thanks to the 20 or so participants in the beta program for the almost free plans - $20.

Most of your suggestions have been included in the plans. The biggest job was to go through to make sure that nearby diagrams or pictures had an arrow to show what the jargon word means. There is not a huge amount of jargon anyhow - but our aim is to make these the best, most easily understood cheap boat plans available.

SIMPLIFIED MAST BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS - 25% less labour

The other thing is that the assembly method for the mast is much improved - thanks to David at Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide. If anyone wants a copy of the updated section just email me here

Again thanks for all your help.

Michael Storer

Oz PDRacer plans continue development

2006-08-15T12:50:00.000+10:00

The first release of the "beta" verison of the Oz PDracer has been carried out, with a dozen or so builders now assembling bits of material and providing feedback, while we finalise details of the web distribution system.

Work goes on though, this website is unlikely to be in a state to provide any useful information before the end of August.

We were thinking of having the rig and sail building sections as a free download from the www.pdracer.info website but that would have meant that people buying the plans would have to get the information from two different sources. So when the mast and sail section are complete they will be a part of the complete plan

If only we could make nights longer, and work days shorter, all this would happen in a blink of an eye!

Duckworks Magazine to distribute plans

2006-08-15T10:21:00.000+10:00

Yep, as reported below, we are in serious discussion with Chuck from Duckworks magazine to distribute our OzPDRacer plans via his website.

We are all quite excited at the prospect of actually providing a service to which has the potential to get a heap of new faces on the water and building as well.

Chuck is no stranger to the Puddleduck, having built his own version early in the piece, and has been the host of the World Championships held in conjunction with the Duckworks messabout.

We've even scored an article. Check out the link below to Peter's sail building/decorating story.

International Interest

2006-08-15T00:16:00.000+10:00

It is quite exciting actually - it looks like Duckworks -THE Major amateur boatbuilding site in America will be promoting our Oz PDRacer plans, selling them directly through their website.

Meanwhile in Australian, Duck Flat Wooden Boats will offer a page of parts - fully made up and partially made up to make things easier for some potential PDRacer Builders who may not have the resources to make all the bits from scratch.

We are also talking to a kit company in Norway about having a page of materials and parts for the PDR for distribution in Europe.

We have no idea what the Norwegian word for "Duck" is, but since it seems obligitory for anyone handling PDRacer bits to have at least some family tie, perhaps we can suggest "Norwegian Wood - Duck" ?

Puddleduck or PDRacer

2006-08-14T11:39:00.000+10:00

Well you might ask! Of course we were originally attracted to the quirkyness of many of the Puddleducks built, some with cabins, some with sailing rigs so small that they were cut out of left over bits of teatowels, but the one underlying theme running through the group was the huge amount of fun for almost no expenditure.

Surely the PDRacer term was coined as masterpiece of self-mocking, and then we come along, and realising that we could steal a march on everyone, actually build boats that perform brilliantly! That's not fair really, our boat is only mildly advanced from Ken Abraham's #4, and there have been one or two others in that first hundred that would give us a real shake.

What no one had done until now, was to thoroughly document the process, and because the class by its nature is one of experimentation and trial and error, there didn't seem to be any need for "proper" plans either.

I seem to have changed all that, by producing highly detailed drawings and comprehensive instructions, so now no matter what previous experience in building, there is something to be gained by all.

Of course profiting from the class would be completely contrary to the spirit, so Mik is selling his plans at a loss! $20 per set makes them the best value free plans on the internet!

Update to the almost FREE plans

2006-08-13T17:02:00.000+10:00

First of all thanks to everyone who helped with the pre-release plans and all the feedback.

I have just about finished going through the whole lot again (as you know 60 odd pages of text, pictures, well meaning advice showing the whole process of putting the boats together.

For the moment we have decided (Haven't we Midge) that the "Sailmaking" and "Fitting out the hull and spars" sections will be on the website instead of in the plan pack.

The idea behind that is so potential plan buyers can see the quality of what we are trying to achieve - just so that when they pay their hard earned $20 over that they KNOW the plans are worth it.

Those of us who have seen them know that they are. In fact they know the information about the masts alone, or just the rudder and centreboard alone is enough to make the plans very valuable indeed.

Anyway - I am 90% of the way through the final edit.