Swoopy Puddle Duck Racer
The "sheer line" is the top part of the hull along the gunnel. For most of us, the simple flat top boxy look is very attractive in a unique way. Partly a "only a mother could love her" type effect, and also the flat sheer makes ducks very distinctive & easily recognizable, separating us from all the other boats that you will find on the water. Over 90% of ducks are built as flat tops.
One of the biggest advantages of a flat top, is they are much more competitive to use when racing. The puddle duck is best sailed flat, and if you have a flat top, it is great to use as a reference to see if the hull is level on the water.
But as said many times, we build puddle ducks the way we want to, and some prefer to make a more swoopy, conventional salty looking by making a curved sheer line. Because of our rules, a wide variety of shapes above the 10" line are allowed. Here are a few interesting ones.
The picture to the right is Ken Abrahams sailing hull #2, ironically named "Ugly Duckling", and is the inspiration for many swoopy looking puddle ducks.
Ken noticed that if he cut his side panels from the center of a sheet of plywood, he would end up with 2 pieces that would make perfect side decks.
Here are those side decks as they were being installed.
As you can see from the pictures below, others have used Ken's technique, and expanded by curving the sheer line (top surface of the hull) in various ways to make a very swoopy, elegant looking ducks.
