PDRacer World Championship Race

We have one annual World Championship Race, which is on a rotating schedule to determine who hosts the following year's race. Any puddle ducker can capture the rights to host the next world championship, see the bottom of this page for more info on how to do that, and the restrictions for hosting that race.

The world championship race is for registered class legal hulls, and entry to the race is free. Doesn't matter if you have never raced before, doesn't matter if you just built your duck yesterday, no experience necessary. For more information about conventional buoy racing, see: conventional sailboat racing and rules


State, Regional, or Whatever Races

We do not have any protected territories, so any ducker may organize and host whatever type of race they want. Also because of this lack of restriction, I ask that you please be courteous to other duckers who organize races, and try not to overlap events, or use names that confuse duckers between your events and someone else's. Also keep in mind that entry to all pdracer events must be free.

Because of the way local duck fleets capture the rights to host the next championship, you should consider hosting regional championship races in the time window for capturing the next world's race. See the bottom of this page for more information.



2012 World Championship - Pennsylvania, USA

We are very excited that the PDR 2012 World Championships will take place at Moraine State Park (Lake Arthur) in Pennsylvania on August 2-5, 2012. (days left: 180)

Pittsburgh-area puddle duckers have held half a dozen "demonstration builds" at local stores and parks. With a number of fun group "hatches" and some individual initiative, over 33 PDRs have been built in the region in the 18 months. We anticipate completing at least 3 more hatches before the event.

We hope you can bring your Puddle Duck and join us for races, games, and lots of ducky fun. As we gather information about free tent-camping in the park, an events schedule, etc. we will post it on the blog .

Blog: puddleduckworlds2012.wordpress.com
Email: puddleduckworlds2012@gmail.com





-- Bids That Have Been Submitted ---

16 PDRacers - 24 September 2011 - John Bridges hosted a race at Yellow Creek Lake in Pennsylvania USA ** Winning Bid!!
454   512   523   527   529   530   531   532   533   534   540   554   579   580   581   600   [picture]

12 PDRacers - 6 August 2011 - John Bridges hosted a race at Lake Arthur in Pennsylvania USA
512   523   527   529   530   533   530   554   579   580   581   584   [picture]



2011 World Championship - Oklahoma, USA


Jackie Monies hosted the 2011 world championship race on Oct 8 at Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma. 17 duckers were able to race, and an additional 5 ducks were knocked out from damage before the start due to high winds. Brad Hickman won and is our 2011 world champion. Congratulations duckers!!


PDRacer World Championship Score Card 2011
2011 World Championships by Scott Widmier
Dave Zumwalt sailing #553 in his first ever race
Gene Berry pictures page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5
Patrick Johnson Picures
Spontaneous Combustion
Sailing To A Championship
Busted Mast



-- Bids That Were Submitted ---

13 PDRacers - 10 October 2010 - Jackie Monies hosted the Sail Oklahoma! at Lake Eufaula
213, 287, 296, 341, 342, 347, 399, 359, 403, 431, 484, 490, 491, 508 [picture]

5 PDRacers - 14 August 2010 - Julian Mallett hosted the Bass River Challenge in Cape Cod, Massachusetts
352, 473, 474, 475, 479 [picture]



2010 World Championship - British Columbia, Canada


Jane Turnell and Gordon Seiter hosted the World Championship on September 11, 2010 at Okanagan Lake in Summerland BC, Canada.

(event report from Rick Landreville)
Hi everyone;

We had seven boats at the event yesterday. There was a brief measurement and every hull conformed except hull 311. Hull 311 and 58 did not start. We raced two laps of a triangular course that was 8.6 kms long with two of the legs mostly upwind due to an unforseen windshift just before the race. Winds were light between 3 and 15 kmh. The winner of the race was myself in hull 422. Hull 313 was second and hulls 114 and 226 tied for third with Jane Turnell in hull 96 coming in fifth.
Rick Landreville
PDR 136, 311 and 422
Acting World Champion for 2010.



2009 World Championship - Georgia, USA


Tim Cleary hosted the race on October 10, 2009 at Allatoona Lake near Atlanta, GA. 13 puddle ducks attended making it the largest puddle duck race to that date. 3 conventional round the buoy races were run to compose the championship, plus later an extra pirate poker race for fun, and on Sunday an improvised sail race for fun.

Shawn Payment won the buoy races with the best point score, becoming our new world champion and 2008 champion. There were other races that were run & many other activities


Full Report at Dave Gray's PolySail.com [click here]
Marc Blazer pictures [click here]
South Winds Sailing Club pictures [click here]
Gil Kolan / Netzer and Idit video at Youtube [click here]



2008 World Championship - Oregon USA


The 2008 world championship was raced on August 23 and 24, 2008 at the Toledo Wooden Boat Show. 9 boats participated, some boats had to be last minute improvised, visitors travelled from far and wide including from another country.

For the full story [click here]



2007 World Championship - British Columbia, Canada


The Okanagan Fleet of Puddle Duck racers played host to the 2007 Puddle Duck World Championships over the weekend at Peach Orchard Park in Summerland. Fleet Captain Gordon Seiter in Hull #58, Goliath took first Overall. The Team of Christine Caumartin and Ted Morrison sailed Boat # 146, Martin Cleaners BCQT to second overall. Rick Landreville out of Chilliwack finished third in Hull #136, Monstrosity. Rick also won the prize for coming the furthest distance to attend, and enjoyed the room donated by The Rosedale Motel.

In total seven boats took part in the two day event. Honorable mention goes to the Smith Family of Faulder who entered two boats and saw their newest, Hull #114 Lincoln Imp, crewed by Gary and Mathew win Sunday's Tail Chase Race. Race Organizer Jane Turnell admits Mandy and Racheal were somewhat handicapped racing Hull #92 Sink-A- Moose constructed by Summerland Mayor David Gregory during last years Centennial Puddle Duck Hatch.Sass Boutiques Calypso, Hull #147, finished both days out of the points.

Gordon Seiter 58 "Goliath"
2007 World Champion




2006 World Championship - Texas, USA


On 5-13-06 we held our 3rd world championship at Magnolia Beach, TX. We had 9 duckers participate In an astonishing feat of skill, Dave Sargent #7 "Ducky" was able to win the race and became our first two time champion!! Dave the person on the far left.



2005 World Championship - Louisiana, USA


On 8-6-05, our 2nd annual World Championship race was hosted at the Lake Charles Messabout. We had 4 duckers participate. Dave Sargent in #7 was able to win and became our 2005 world champion. In the picture, Dave is holding the trophy.



2004 World Championship - Louisiana, USA


During the first race series, we had 7 boats participate in the races, hulls: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 14. On 8-7-04, the final race of the series, and the first world championship was won by Ken Abrahams #2, who became our first world champion.




Winning The Rights to Host The PD World Championship

We have puddle ducks all over the world, and this rotating system is designed to reward local organizers who are actively sailing their ducks. Also it tries to spread the race around, so that one area will not continually capture the rights and block everyone else.


Bid Race Location & Race Host

The World Championship Race location is on a 3 year cycle. To capture the rights for the next one, a race organizer must within 60 days before or after the current World Championship event:
    1. hold a race or races (called a "bid event")
    2. submit their "bid"

The organizer with the largest number of PDRacers on the starting line in that time period gets the rights and can then pick the date and location for the next calendar year WC race. Only one bid per event, but an organizer may host multiple events in the time window and submit a bid for each event.

1 - The boats involved in the bid event must be registered class legal PDRacers.
2 - The bid event can't be within 650 driving miles of the previous 2 world championships
3 - The race has to be conducted on the water (but may have a beach start), and each boat must have a person in it.
4 - If 2 organizers hosted bid events with the same number of hulls, then the race that started first (local time) gets the rights.
5 - 51% of the boats at the bid event, must have not participated in either of the previous 2 world championships.
6 - The next championship race can't be hosted by an organizer if they hosted in the previous 2 years
7 - The next championship race can't be within 650 miles of either previous 2 years locations
8 - Shorty reserves the right to host any year world championship (but hasn't since 2006).



NOTE: The 51% rule is only relating to the count number you can submit for the bid. As specified below, all duckers are welcome in the world championship race, and entry is free for all registered puddle duckers and their crew. Also any ducker is welcome to participate in your bid event, it just means some of them won't count for your bid number. Lets say you have 10 boats at your bid event, and 6 of them participated in (one or both of the 2 latest) world championship. Then your bid amount is 4 new hulls + 3 returning hulls = 7 total valid hulls for your bid.

Also understand it is the hulls that are counted (not the people), so if someone builds a new hull and registers it, doesn't matter if the person participated in the last year's WC race. That new hull is valid for bid events. And by the same understanding, if someone brings multiple hulls, they can simply get some other human to be in the hull on the starting line and it becomes a valid hull for the bid event (as long as doesn't violate the other rules).

Submitting low bids is OK. If someone else is already on the board that has a higher bid than you, go ahead and submit your bid anyway. Everyone will see that you are trying to organize enough ducks to capture the event, and maybe next year you will have enough ducks to win the hosting rights.



Submit your bid to host a world championship

Bids need to be submitted within 5 days of the event, and bids are no longer accepted 24 hours after the last day of the bid window. To submit your bid, you must email Shorty directly with the following information:
  • Organizers name & hull number
  • Date of the event
  • Location of event
  • List of class legal PDRacer hull numbers that started the race
  • Picture of all the boats together at the event



Guidelines For Hosting The World Championship Race

1 - The world championship race is for registered class legal hulls, and the race is to be free to enter for anyone with a registered class legal hull, and their crew.
2 - All of the racing that constitutes the world championship needs to be completed in a single 12 hour time window.
3 - The rules for the championship race(s) need to be simple, clear, and published ahead of time.
4 - Our class has a low point scoring system and resolution procedures.
5 - The event location can't be within 650 driving miles of the previous 2 world championships
6 - If for some reason the organizer who acquired the rights to host the next world championship can't / doesn't want to host the race, they may transfer the rights to whomever they want, as long as that doesn't violate the previous 2 year & distance rules.


During Your Event

At the beginning of your event when you perform the measurement to confirm all participating hulls are class legal, it is a great opportunity to sign in the racers so the committee boat has a complete list to work with. Measuring hulls is very quick if you have 4 volunteers to perform the measurement as describe here: how to measure a PDRacer.

If a ducker does not have their hull number displayed, you can let them use a roll of black duct tape to put their hull number on both sides of the bow. This makes it much easier for the race committee boat to identify the racers as they finish each race.

If a ducker forgets to bring a trophy for the trophy exchange, have them go make one quickly, and other duckers can help. Some of those hastily made trophies are really creative. Also other duckers often bring spare trophies.


After Your Event

For publication here on the class website, please send me:
Also if you could encourage duckers to submit articles reporting about the event so other duckers from around the world can enjoy hearing about the event.