Cheapest and Easiest PDRacer sailboat I can think of

Cheapest and Easiest PDRacer sailboat I can think of
By David "Shorty" Routh

Hull Configuration
The easiest I can think of is the basic brick design. It is just the 2 sides, the bow and stern transom, and a couple of triangles in the corners to brace it. It can all be assembled with just the plywood, titebond II glue, and then painted with latex exterior paint. For emergency flotation, you can strap a couple of buckets in the corners. You can get buckets for free from pool cleaning companies, or from the grocery store (they get cake icing in 3 gallon buckets).

Mast Step and Partner
You can put your mast on the side like the original brick does, but I have never been a fan of offsetting the mast more than 25%. To make it a centered mast, you could run a simple 1.5" x 1.5" stick across the beam and attach a couple of blocks to it to form a mast partner. Bolt something to the floor to make a step.

Cut Plan
It is possible to squeeze this boat from 2 sheets of plywood, and several 2x4's or other scrap wood. You should make the sides 17" high (or smaller), that way the strip down the middle of the sheet will have enough left for the bow and stern transom.

You can make the bottom from a sheet of 1/4" plywood, but I prefer 3/8" which makes it more stiff. Also you should put on atleast 3 evenly spaced skids on the bottom to add stiffness.

If you really wanted to be cheap, you could get pieces of plywood from construction yard waste, and butt join them together to make your own full sheets of plywood. Just take 2 smaller pieces of plywood, put the edges together, and then glue / screw a strip about 4" wide over the seam. Allow the glue to fully cure before doing anything with it.

Chine Logs
One simple method to join plywood together is to use a chine log (or frame log, if used on the deck). It is a strip of wood about 3/4" to 1" square that both pieces of plywood are attached to with glue and screws / nails. Typically you would attach the log to one piece of plywood, then sand it flush so that the log and edge of plywood is smooth, and then you attach the other piece of plywood to it. After the 2nd piece is attached, you trim and sand it flush. A very simple method that is fairly easy to do with loose tolerances, yet makes a very clean and strong joint.

Types Of Chine Logs
For my chine logs, I rip a strip that are .75" x .75", and bend them around the entire perimeter of the side. A cheap and simple alternative would be to acquire some pallates or construction yard waste, and put planks along the edges of the side. Then you can trim them with a saw so it matches the curve on the bottom of the plywood. For the gunnel, you can take smaller strips of wood and then scarf them together (cut them at an angle, glue them end to end).

Daggerboard
The cheapest thing to do is borrow a board from another boat and make an external daggerboard slot. Well, I should say daggerboard holder, it is really just a couple of strips of boards that are screwed onto the side with standoff blocks to make space for the board. One neat thing is that if you plan on using several different sail rigs, you can make a daggerboard holder on each side of the boat, one for each sail rig. For sizing the daggerboard, designers typically specify 4% of the sail's square area. So if you had an 80 sqft sunfish sail, you would want to have 3.2 sqft of daggerboard underwater. You could probably get away with less since the side of the boat will naturally act like an underwater fin and produce some of the lateral resistance on it's own.

Rudder
The cheapest thing to do is borrow a rudder from another boat. You might have to purchase another gudgeon to install on your pdracer, but it is still a really cheap solution. Another cheap solution is to make a simple rudder from a single board, and then make a gudgeon and pintle set from some angle iron (you can use angle aluminum instead - so doesn't rust). You would mount 2 pieces of angle, horizontally on the stern. The rudder blade would have angle mounted to it so is perpendicular, as shown in the drawing.

Mast
There are many free masts out there - such as small trees that need to be cut down, or pieces of bamboo. The dump should provide a variety of mast material like shower rods, fence posts etc. Most hardware stores have very long 2x4's that can be tapered down into a mast, or you could get the 14 foot 1x4's that are typically used for forming concrete - then glue and screw a couple together to make a thicker mast.

On an "unstayed mast", when the wind blows against the side of the sail, the force is concentrated at the mast partner where the force tries to break the mast horizontally. If you find some long material that would be a good mast, but it isn't strong enough at the base, you might consider making it a stayed mast. This will convert the horizontal force into vertial compression, so that when the wind blows on the side of the sail, the force then pushes down the mast and concentrates it onto whatever the mast is standing on (such as a bulkead).

You would need 2 side stays on the aft side of the mast, one goes to each side of the boat. You should place these so that they hold the mast up, but are forward enough to allow the boom to swing out to the side. Next you will need a forestay (or pair of forestays) to keep the mast up, and have a knob or step for the mast to stand on.

You can also add spreaders to the mast, these are small sticks that connect the mast to the spreaders. When the wind blows hard against your sail, and the force on the mast gets to great for it, the mast will start to bend like an S. The spreaders will help keep the mast in column (straight up and down). You can add 2 spreaders and create a "double diamond", which will make some very wimpy material a lot stronger.

Minimal Tools
If you don't have any tools, I would suggest using the minimum of:
Circular Saw
Power Drill
5" sanding disk, chucked into drill
Big roll of stick on 80 grit sand paper
Hammer, Screwdrivers
Galvanized sheet rock (drywall) screws

If the screws stick out the other side, you can use the sanding disk to remove the points. I once ran out of dremel cut off wheels, and used a 5" sanding disk disk to sand down 1" worth of a screw that was too big. The reason I say get a big roll of stick on sand paper is so that you can change it often, and spend more time cutting the material than trying to squeeze the last few grains off the surface of a smooth piece of sand paper.

Final Words On Simple and Cheap
Whatever you do, don't be afraid to be creative !! There are many ways create the components of this boat. The rules are designed to encourage experimentation, and use of alternate materials. If you scrounged around enough, you might be able to create an entire boat for free. For inspiration, take a look at the $50 sailboat race we had, most of them were built for far less than $50, and Andrew Creamer's "Dill Pickle" was made from completely free materials.

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