Puddle Duck Trademark Restrictions and Use Guidelines


PD Trademark Ownership Information

The terms:   "PDRacer",   "PD Racer"   "Puddle Duck Racer",   and "PDRacer.com" are a trademarks owned solely by David Routh. First used in commerce on April 5, 2003, which is also the same day the website PDRacer.com was created. All herein referenced as "PD trademark". David Routh's nickname is "Shorty", and is herein referenced as Shorty.


Any Exchange Of Funds Relating To The PDRacer club or PD Trademark

Shorty created the Puddle Duck Racer sailboat class in 2003 and has been maintaining it ever since - has always offered free plans, free instructions, free lifetime membership, hosted events free to enter and many more services to puddle duckers, all for free.

If you are interested in selling your products to puddle duckers, something you might consider is to advertise here at PDRacer.com I purchase ads on other sailing sites to attract sailors to come check out our club, and to reciprocate I have ads running on the pages here so that others can do the same at my site. Here is more info about advertising at PDRacer.com


Puddle Duck Racer Related Plans

I did not start (and continue to maintain) this club to provide an income source for 3rd parties. Any plans or building instructions which use the PD trademark in any way, must be offered for free, and the rocker shape must match the drawing on the class rules page. The plan publisher is solely responsible to make sure the plans meet the current class rules.

I am trying to prevent the problem OZ Racer Plans from happening again. If all plans are freely available, experienced boat builders in our community can review the plans to make sure they are class legal. If the rocker is shown with the exact same dimensions as on our class defined hull shape, then anyone can instantly see they are using our class hull shape.

The other problem is a sales gimick, some claim there is "secret boat building information" contained in the plans and you aren't allowed to know what it is unless you cough up $20 to some 3rd party vendor. This violates a core value of our club that we share boat building information and plans for free, and help each other build our boats.

For a professional boat designer, there are a lot of advantages to producing free plans to give to the club. Duckers will get to see what your design skills are like and what kind of instructions you provide. This is sort of like the free samples at the grocery store, after they get a taste of what you make, they may be inclined to purchase your other plans. But above all, you will be helping our community which has always been free to join and participate, so you can help and join the fun of what we do.

Since the PDRacer has a defined hull shape available for free on our class rules page, there is no real design work, simply add a sail, rudder & leeboard and presto they are done, making PDRacer plans very easy to make & perfect as free samples. It takes less time to make a set of PDRacer plans than it takes to build a PDRacer.


PDRacer Kits / Hulls / Complete Boats Etc.

For selling kits or complete hulls, every kit or hull sold must include an official HIN Plate that has been purchased from me. I also have a note about this on the registration page so duckers can let me know they received a HIN plate so I can update their benefactor icon. It is a simple arrangement and the funds I receive from the plates will help me continue to maintain and promote the class which we all benefit from.

Whether the hull is class legal or not, is a responsibility the supplier has to their customers. I suggest reading the class rules to understand what is (and isn't) class legal.


New for 2012:

Private Club Annual Membership Fee

As explained above, any ducker can simply contact other duckers, setup a time & place and get out there to go sailing, racing etc for free and never have to submit any fees as long as they are not soliciting funds in any way for the events or gatherings they organize. This is the original concept of the club, and all of the tools and structure built into the class are aimed at supporting this.

There are certain difficulties with the free organization model that increase with size, and this has unfortunately limited our events. Conventional sailboat clubs that charge fees to support their organization have shown how a little funding can go a long way to providing a much larger venue and range of services. To allow organizers to adopt this operational model, we are now allowing events / races / local clubs to be formed that charge entry for participation. This is to give duckers more opportunities.

To host puddle duck event(s) / race(s) that the organizer charges entry to or solicits funds in any way (any exchange of money), the organizer is required to remit $15 per PDRacer hull. The fee covers that hull, to partcipate with that organizer, till the end of the calendar year (expires on December 31st). When sending in the fee, let me know what the ducker's hull number is so I can apply the amount to their benefactor icon level and also send them a thank you email.

Our official world championship continues with the requirement to allow free entry and participation to any registered class legal ducker and their crew. (more info) I realize that sailboat clubs do incur a lot of expenses (like I do), and it will take financial expenditures to provide this race. So in business terms, think of it like a loss leader, you can host the championship and show them a good time, and if they like you, they probably will sign up for your regular racing which would be where you charge your regular fees.


Notice to Change of Terms

The terms listed in this document and/or class rules & definitions may change at any time at the sole discretion of David "Shorty" Routh.