Defined Hull Shape:

This is our defined hull section. The shape can carry 630 lbs and still keep the bow and stern transoms out of the water. The hull panel is 8' long, 18" high (suggested height, minimum required is 10" high), the station marks are 12" apart, from left to right (stern to bow) they are: 6", 2-5/8", 5/8", 0", 0", 1", 2-3/8", 4-3/8", the last point is 6" from the end, it is 6" up from the base line.


The Rules:
1 - All boats must use the lower 10" of the defined section for the sides.
Q - If I just made a 10" high hull, could I extend the corner of the bow chine forward ?
A - No. The lower 10" of the hull must conform to the same shape as a boat built with the exact same 18" high defined shape, and it has to have the same bow angle of an 18" high boat. So if you placed both hulls next to each other, the lower 10" of the hull would match. The hulls are the most complicated and time consuming part to build, so it is very important to keep them all alike. If the hull shape was allowed to vary, then older slower hulls would become obsolete and if people would want to stay competitive, they would have to build new hulls - which destroys the entire concept of this racer.
Also - You can make the hull as tall as you want, or alter the shape above 10" as much as you want. For more info about how to cut the bow angle, and examples of legal hull shapes [click here]
Q - What is the acceptable dimensional tolerance range?
A - 1" tolerance, so you can be off by 1/2" in either direction.
Q - How do you measure a hull's rocker to see if it is within the tolerance?
A - The proper way to measure the rocker shape is from a straight line between the bow and stern transoms, where they meet the bottom. You can easily tape a string between the two, then measure the distance from the string to the bottom.
Q - Can I have an open transom ?
A - The stern transom has a special exemption, it can be partially or fully open to the point where the bottom meets the stern transom. That way the stern bottom 6" is alike with all other boats, but the sides must still be the full 10" high.


2 - All boats must have flat parallel sides, and flat bow and stern transoms like a Bolger Brick.(maximum of 1" rounding on the chines and transom edges)
Q - How about curving the sides just a bit to strengthen?
A - This would definitely make it stronger, but also introduce variance and complication to the construction of the hull. Our main focus is a super-simple "box with curved bottom" boat. The box shape is plenty strong enough for our purposes, and can easily be built & checked for uniform shape. Also the curved sides would interfere with the grout concept which is a feature we will be using.
Q - Explain the rounding more - is that the radius of the router bit?
A - The 1" rounding of the chines (and edges of transoms) refers to the amount of material removed from the chine. If you started with a perfect 90 degree chine, cut 1" of material away (at a 45 degree angle from either the side or bottom), then smoothed that corner, it would still be class legal. For a drawing of this [click here] This rule is intended to allow for fiberglass boats to be molded, they need rounded corners rather than sharp ones.


3 - All boats must be atleast 48" wide and have a flat, solid bottom all the way across like a brick does. (slots for foils are OK)
Q - Is it OK to use external chines?
A - Yes, as long as the chines are not more than 1" thick. Example: The sides have 1" thick chines, so the bottom is a full 48" wide, but just above the chines the sides of the hull end up only being 46" wide.
Q - I live outside of the USA and am only able to find 1200mm wide plywood (3 foot 11 1/4 inches wide). Can we make our boats 3' 11-1/4" wide and still be in spec?
A - Yes, the beam has a 1" tolerance, so the narrowest you can make a boat is 47" wide.
Q - Is it OK to attach a shoal keel with a large fillet, such as the red line in this drawing?
A - No, the large fillet depicted with the red line would then form the bottom, and it would no longer be a flat bottom. Maximum of 1.5" wide and thick fillets (or external chine logs on the keel) are permitted.


4 - All boats must have enough emergency floatation to be self rescued.

5 - No external floatation chambers (such as cutwaters, pontoons, amas etc.)
Q - Is it OK to put a box keel on the bottom?
A - No, it would provide external floatation, so would not be allowed. Furthermore, the bottom surface of the box keel would form a horizontal surface that may provide lift.


6 - No lifting foils (hydro foils).
Q - Is it OK to have a skeg and/or a skid?
A - Yes, both skids and skegs to not provide lifting force, so are OK.
Note: A skid is a rub strip(s) on the bottom, and a skeg is a small vertical fin mounted on the bottom for directional stability.
Q - Is it OK to have a winged keel, or a horizontal fin at the bottom of the keel or rudder?
A - No, those would provide lift, all non-vertical fins are prohibited.
Q - Is it OK to have canted, or angled keels, such as a twin bilge keel?
A - NO, all fins underwater must be vertical. If they are anything besides vertical, they will provide lift, and then we have hydrofoils, and then we have the moth class. (the moth is a good class, just beyond the simple concept we want to keep the PDRacer).
Q - I was thinking of using traction kites to power my PD Racer. Is a kite a class legal sail?
A - YES, the "lifting foils" we are referring to are underwater. Kites and other sails are sometimes called lifting foils, but since they don't touch the water, they are OK.
Q - Can I put a bulb on the bottom of the keel (or rudder, or other underwater fin / foil)
A - NO, lower portions of foils may not be thicker than upper portions of same foil.



More Questions:
Are there any more plans besides the hull section above?
A - The fundamental concept is that this can be built any way you want, so there is no required building method. In the articles section of this website there are several articles on different methods that you could use to make your hull. Which method and configuration is up to you.


Big Surf Board - If a 10" high hull were made, with a bow deck that extended 6 feet forward, and stern deck that extended 4 feet aft, would that be allowed?
A - No, when the bow or stern deck hit the water, it would provide lift, and be considered a lifting foil, prohibited in rule #6. If the external deck provided floatation, it would also be prohibited in rule #5, no external floatation. Note that extended bow and stern decks are permitted, as long as they do not contact the water.


Hiking Wings - Is it OK to have trapeze and hiking wings ?
A - Yes, they are perfectly fine as long as they do not contact the water.


Sail Upside Down - If I built a uniform hull, with custom deck shape, then turned it upside down and sailed it like that, would that be OK?
A - No, if you turned it upside down, the top would then be the bottom and required to match the other boats. Same restriction would prohibit a boat from being sailed on it's side.


Shunting - Do I have to sail it forward?
A - No, you can sail it in either direction that you want. As long as the lower 10" of the hull conform, you can sail that shape in any direction you want.


Hull Numbers:

When You Can Request A Hull Number - You may request a hull number when your hull is 3D, meaning that the bottom is attached to the sides. There are 2 reasons for this rule, first is to mimic the US Coast Guard requirements, they stipulate that when commercial boat hulls are created, that their hull number be molded into, engraved, or otherwise marked at the time of the hull's creation (not the finishing or launching). The second reason is that after the bottom is attached to the sides, you could literally wrap the hull in plastic and take it out. Tim Cowden did just this, he had a partially finished kayak wanted to take it to a messabout. For more info [click here]

How To Request A Hull Number
When your class legal hull goes 3D (meaning that the bottom is attached to the sides), please email me direct at: Shorty@ShortyPen.com to request a hull number and send the following information that you would like to have published on the fleets page.
- state that you live in
- your name
- email address
- the name of the boat (if you have picked it yet)
- link to your web site (if you have one)
- a picture of your boat

NOTE: Sometimes it takes me a week or two to get the hull numbers registered. I don't have as much time as I used to.
If you organize a fleets and would like to start issuing your own hull numbers, see: Freedom For Fleet Captains

The hull numbers are assigned in the order their info is received. If you don't have a picture available, that is fine, we will take your word for it. You are welcome to send in an updated picture of your boat as it develops. Would be nice to have one picture of every boat built, additional pictures can be uploaded to the photo section of the pdracer Discussion Group Also make sure that you include the word "PDRacer" in the body of the message, I have a bit of a spam problem and my email program passes all messages with that word in the body or subject.

Rebuilds and Number Retention (the HIN chunk) - If you would like to do a major rebuild, or even transfer your number to a new hull, you may as long as you use a piece of the original transom on the new hull (HIN chunk). The piece must be atleast 6" wide x 3" high, and come from the starboard side of the stern transom. You can then take that piece and at a minimum, screw it onto the new hull in the upper starboard corner of the transom. The leftover hull can then be discarded, or preferrably given to someone else, who can repair it and apply for a new hull number.

Philisophically, the hull number has always represented the creation of a hull. What this rule does for our club is to change that so the hull number is more of a builder / owner member number, and sort of indicates "elder" status so the time at which they created their boat (or had it created).

No two boats can have the same number at the same time, and the spirit of the hull number is to stay with a hull till the next major rebuild, so if you own 2 PDs, you should have a hull number for each one. But also keep in mind that you can build a 2nd, then transfer the 1st number to the 2nd hull such as this example: Greg builds #38, and enjoys it for a summer. He likes PDs so much, he decides to build another, applies for a new hull number for the 2nd hull and gets #62 for it. After using #62 for a while, his decides he likes the 2nd hull better, cuts the HIN chunk off each hull and attaches the #38 chunk to the 2nd hull, hull so he can race the 2nd hull as #38.

So the old hull has been sitting upside down in Greg's yard for a while, and a friend of his expresses interest in it, so Greg gives him the old hull. At this point, Greg can either keep the #62 chunk so the friend will need to repair the hull and apply for his own number, or Greg can give the #62 chunk with it so the friend can then race under that number. Lets say that Greg keeps the #62 chunk and the friend applied for his own number. A year or two later, after Greg finally finished his boat building shed, he decides to build a 3rd hull which his wife will use to race against him. He makes the new hull and attaches the #62 chunk to it so she can race under that number.

Hull Number Sniping
On one hand, I really would like to give out whatever number you guys want. On the other hand, if I do that, then there would be a bunch of gaps is the chonology - and people would start to get really picky about the numbers, of which some may never get filled in, or we may have disputes on getting certain numbers -- like who was the first to pre-register that number etc.

So having you guys email in the registration and trying to time it just right if you want a specific number seems like a good compromise. Everyone would have an even chance at a certain number -- it would just be a matter of if you want a number bad enough, then you just have to keep an eye on the updates page:
updates page

The hull number is also sort of a status symbol - the lower it is, the earlier in history that you have had the guts to cut plywood. I really wanted hull #1, but I have a project completion problem and the only way I get things done is to focus on one boat at a time. I was finishing up another boat, and everyone else in the club at the time said they were waiting for me to build one and see how it goes - sure enough Doug Day fired up his saw and went 3D, got hull number 1. So I was thinking that is OK, I'll just finish up this other boat and then I'll get #2, then suddenly Ken Abrahams sneezed and there went hull #2. So at that moment I dropped everything and started cutting, just barely getting #3. Good thing too, cause 12 days later along came #4, and a few days later Andrew Linn became the first person outside of Houston to build one with #5.

Another interesting way to think about it is that a plain, average number is better than a round one or easily recognizable number with other meanings -- it is a matter what you DO with that number. Take the example of the number 42. I can't think of anything that is related to it, but if you mention it here, I'd bet just about everyone will recognize it as John Wright's bilge keeler. That is sort of the underlying philosophy of what we do -- to others, a PD is just a plywood box. To us, they are a sailing vessel with almost endless tinkering possibilities.

Keep in mind that we also have hull number retention - so once you get your own individual hull number, you can keep it even if the original hull is destroyed or you want to do a major rebuild. Just keep the HIN chunk (see above).


Start a local fleet of PDRacers
If you would like to organize a racing fleet in your area, all you need to do is:
- Make a webpage and / or a yahoo discussion group that I can link to
- Publish your race schedule
- Publish the results of the races
- Offer atleast 3 trophies at the end of the race season (you can make your own trophies)
Notes: There are no protected fleet territories, so it is OK to have multiple fleets & regattas in the same area, and have the same racers in multiple fleets. For ideas to help promote your fleet, see the promote your fleet page.


Freedom For Fleet Captains
A number of fleet captains have politely asked me my desires to control & organize the PDRacer world, and to what extent they can expand without irking me off. The way I see it, the role I play is a spark plug - I tossed a lit match on a huge pile of fuel that has been sitting there waiting to catch for a long time, and all of you Puddle Duckers & Fleet Captains are the fuel that burns this fire. I don't really see a central committee ever controlling a world PD organization, instead I see the PDRacer as a formula that local duckers adopt and use to have fun with. Some might use the formula right out of the box, some might tweak it, some might convolute it into something that resembles a typical one design fleet. It is all up to you -- if you are going to spend the time organizing a local fleet and making it happen, then you should be able to do what you want to.

What I want to keep controlling
Original Class Rules - I really have strong feelings to keep the class rules as simple and open as possible. These rules may or may not be what you consider fun, so as stated below in "class subset rules", you are welcome to make your own class rules for your fleet.
Official World Championship Location - Mainly because I want to be able to compete for it once every 3 years in a location I can afford to travel to. For info on how the locations are picked for the race and the rotation schedule, see World Championship Information Page. Ofcourse if you want to come up with your own championship, you are more than welcome to. As of this writing, Andrew Linn organizes the Intergalactic PD Championship which may at some time feature aliens from other worlds.
World Record Archive - PDRacer.com seems like a good central place to keep the records.

Pictures And Drawings From PDRacer.com
It is OK to use pictures and drawings from PDRacer.com, the material is there for you to use so that you can promote your fleet. I still retain the copyright, I'd really like the stuff to be used only in a free way, like if you copied everything and started to sell it on ebay, that would irritate us.

Issue Your Own Hull Numbers
If you are a fleet captain, and have a fleet of 3 or more PDRacers, you may issue your own hull numbers. I'd just like to ask:
1 - That you add a letter(s) to your number series and/or dash (or something else) so that the numbers can be easily differentiated between your fleet and others.
2 - That you have an open website directory of your fleet members so that we can all freely contact each other.
3 - If your fleet goes defunct, you will need to pass on the letter prefix and fleet directory to someone else so they can continue the fleet registry.
I really am OK with others issuing their own hull numbers, and in no way will I think you are trying to take over the PD world etc, it is merely a way for us to expand thru the efforts of the group, rather than relying just on me. Also the boats in your fleet do not have to be in your geographic location, you can accept any class legal hulls which wish to be affiliated with your fleet.

Transfer Boats from one fleet to another
I would like for the boats to only have / display one hull number, so if you wish to change your hull number to affiliate yourself with a new fleet, then you should abandon the old number so that it is "retired" or "tranferred" on the previous fleet roster, and then apply for the next available number in the new fleet. Really should be a permanent move, not go back and forth between one number and the other, that would be confusing. Or another option would be to cut the HIN chunk off, leave that with the old fleet, and then repair the hole to apply for a new hull number in the new fleet. (see HIN chunk info above)

Class Subset Rules:
If you organize a fleet locally, you are welcome to make your own rules to cater to your local sailors, hopefully not breaking the above rules. Your rules might be created to divide your fleet by hull weights, skipper sizes, sail type etc. If you find that your fleet enjoys a subset of rules, let others know what works and why, possibly other fleets might pickup your rules and use them too.

No Protected Territories
With all that tweaking that you might do, keep in mind there are no protected territories. If you have a fleet and some people there don't like your rules, they may form a fleet right there in the exact same territory that you already sail in. It would truly break my heart to see squabbling over territory, instead I would hope that you could incorporate everyone's desire to have a fun time in a creative way together.





Copyright © 2003 David Routh, All Rights Reserved Home