PDRacer Sailboat - Articles

Origin of the PDRacer
By David "Shorty" Routh
www.ShortyPen.com

What Is It?
Generally speaking, a PDRacer is a "box boat", meaning that it has a rectangular perimeter. Box boats have been around for hundreds of years, so far the earliest set of plans that we can find is from 1876, see the free plans page. One of the most famous box boats is the Brick, designed by the famous boat designer Phil Bolger.

We have defined a hull shape that all boats must use, atleast the lower 10" of the hull must conform to the shape with flat parallel sides. This makes it so that all the boat hulls will have the same performance. The fun part is that you can build everything else on the boat the way you want - you can put on any type of sail rig, under water fins, hiking board, bow sprit, multiple masts etc. Get out with others and run a race. If you didn't win, head back to your secret garage laboratory and make a new sail rig to try on the next race. Possibly you will have several sail rigs, and fly the one that works best in the wind conditions of the race day.

Where the idea came from?
We had a $50 Sailboat Race at the last Conroe Messabout. It was so much fun, we talked about it months in advance. Taunting each other on who would be the fastest, who would sink first, hinting at what secret designs we were building. Nine boats showed up on race day, and we finally saw what the others had created. Some where fast designs, some where slow, some where built completely from free materials. We were towed out to the starting line, and when the starting gun rang, the waterballons started to fly, because lets face it, there is no way that 3 guys in a 6' diameter hot tub shell are going to win, so might as well fire off a few rounds before everyone else sails away from us. After the trophies were passed out, there was that yearning for more. Having another race was pointless because the results would have been the same - the designs of the boats were so different that they would have probably sailed back in the same order again. We started thinking and came up with this concept.

Mouseboat Inspiration
Another factor that inspired our combination of fixed & open design was the Mouse, design by Gavin Atkin. The mouse is an open design kayak like boat that has certain characteristics. The mouse builders can make a boat however they want, and still call it a mouse if they keep it in those charactaristics. I created a version called the "Flats Rat" which was a flat sided, flat bottomed chine log version which had more rocker for a higher carrying capacity. Numerous other versions of the mouse have been created including flat sided ones like the PD. The reason we didn't go with a mouse sized kayak for the PD is because we wanted to be able to carry 2 people, a large sail area, and have it be very stable. A kayak at only 32" wide is fairly tippy and is difficult to sail requiring more acrobatic skills, where the PD at 48" wide is extremely stable.

Design Decisions
All boats are compromises, and we put a lot of thought into the reasons for picking this type of boat and coming up with our own design instead of using another stock design:

8' instead of 12 or 14 -- We wanted a very light and small hull, something that can be cartopped or tossed into the cockpit of another boat. Most of us visit messabouts and take other boats, so it was very important to have this racer be as small and easy to transport as possible. Additionally, most garages have an 8' ceiling, so it is possible to build a hull and stand it upright in the corner so you can protect it from the weather when not in use.

Fixed Hull Shape -- The part that takes the longest to build is the hull. We talked about having a limit where the hull would have to fit in a 8' x 4' footprint, but the problem with open hull designs is that if someone comes up with an obviously superior hull shape, then to stay competitive, everyone else has to build a new hull. Sail rigs and other attachments are much easier to change, so each skipper can customize their boat the way they want, and change it as they see fit. If one sail rig starts to win every time, then everyone else can make a similar or better rig in response.

Box Boat Type Hull -- Boats with curved sides are not that hard to build, it is just that a box boat is so incredibly easy and quick to build that it is an obvious choice. Not even seasoned builders can argue with how easy a PDRacer is to build. A couple of sheets of plywood, some titebond II glue, latex house paint, a few hours in the driveway and presto you have a boat. If you have another sailboat, consider borrowing it's sail rig and fins for an even quicker route to getting your racer into the water. A big draw back is boats with transom bows are typically slower than pointed bow boats. For our purpose, it doesn't matter because all of the hulls are the same, and we are trying to race in speeds relative to each other, not other designs. For that matter, it almost doesn't matter what kind of sailboat you have, there is always a faster one out there.

Size of hull / Carrying Capacity - We wanted our hull to be big enough to carry 2 full sized adults. For some builders, this will be their first and only boat, so being able to have a secondary use as a recreational boat to take another passenger is an important factor. Also teaching your kid or someone else to sail is high on the priority list, so our hull is big enough to handle 2 adults.

Differences between PDRacer and Brick:
Even though the PDRacer and the Brick are both "box boats", and they have the same outside dimensions, they are completely different boats:

	Brick	PDRacer
Rocker	8" max depth	6' max depth which will carry 630 lbs at the point where the bow and stern transom touch the water. With the shorter rocker, it has a LONGER water line length making it slightly faster.
Rocker Shape	Very round, makes it feel like a rocking horse when moving about inside the cockpit.	Fair sized flat spot in the middle of the rocker, makes it much more stable and tolerant of crew position. Also makes a good spot to lay down incase want to spend night on the boat. For more info on the rocker shape [click here].
Deck	The Brick does not have decks, it has corner braces.	The PDRacer has an open design that allows you to build any decks that you want.
Bulkheads & Internal Structure	The Brick does not have bulkheads or any other internal bracing, making it a fairly flimsy box.	The PDRacer has an open design that allows you to build any type of internal structure that you want. The more structure you have, the stiffer the boat will be.
Emergency Floatation	The Brick does not have emergency floatation, if you swamp it in deep water, you can NOT self recover it, you must wait for another boat to rescue you.	The PDRacer has mandatory emergency floatation.

Ideas For Your Boat
There are just tons of different things you can do to your boat to make it competitive and fun to race. You could add a very tall high aspect sail rig, a short lug sail, chinese junk sail, put a bow sprit and jib, fly a trysail, 2 mast with mizzen, ... and the list goes on. Personally, I have been eyeing an old bedsheet as a spinnaker. John McKissick sent in the concept of a "6 Armed Galeon" as shown here in this sketch. He will sit in the middle, wife at the bow, and daughter on the stern castle, all of the arms needed to control the sails and lob waterballoons.

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