Thread: Building the PDRacer in Slovenia

Well done koala, looks great. What a terrific sense of achievement, and now the anticipation of that first sail!

Brian

Hello Koala,

Brilliant color scheme! And great workmanship on the interior. I also noticed some very nice details with regards to the coaming, the tiller, nicely shaped bottom runners and mast partner and the dagger board slot matching the foil outline!

Enjoy your first sail with your PDR, I am pretty sure you are going to have a blast.

Regards, Joost

Wow, It is beautiful and very nicely done Koala!

I used to have a racing boat that was exactly the darker green colour.

I called it Nau for Nautical and Sea for the sea.

I think yours deserves a much nicer name.

MIK

May I add my conratulations Koala, looks great and I bet you can't wait to go for sail.

I was just thinking how it would be fantastic to get all the OzPDR's together for a round of the world titles. In fact maybe a Storer regatta!

All the ducks in a row so to speak, not possible I know but what fun.

Cheers
Mike

Thanks guys. Mik has done a great job with this small boat.

Yep, I can't wait to go and try it out. But I'm also nervous as I hav enever done any sailing

The other day I had a go with setting everything up. Rigging is really fast. At the end I wrapped the sail arround the mast so the next time it will b eeven easier to set up.

The wind picked up quite a bit so I had to be quick. At one point when the sail was up (with boom mounted) it almost turned the boat up.

I had to take the boom down therefore one pic is without it.

Alhough I was considering other colors at the end I ended up with the scheme I use at my model (look at the small duck).

Also, I aded non slip transparent tape onto the floor.

Once I go out sailing I will make another report.
Peter

Absolutely fantastic job Peter.

My advice is to make sure it's light winds when you go for your first sail, be patient and make sure it's not windy. There are plenty of good times ahead, so patience for now!

Good luck, you will be so proud as she comes alive in your hands.

Brian

Would be fun to put the model in the grass and do a close up of that .. because it has enough detail that lots of people get fooled it is the real boat.

Then move back and include the real boat a little .. then a bit more.

It is a great illusion about he two boats!

MIK

Hey,

Just noticed on the registration site that the name of Koala's PDR is

THE FLYING DUCKMAN

Made me laugh!

In a nice way of course!!!

Yep Mik, you found the name. As I was reading about the historical ships for my model making I came across this Dutch vessel. And now it sprung to mind when thinking about the name.

Well, we had a launch day on monday!!

Beautiful weather, nice wind at first. And it was great. Theodor and I each had a go. It was, well, beyond words. Have a look at how it went. There were a lot of kids arround so it was a bit hectic. But we have some shots of my start:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJc7l_IP7KA"]YouTube - PDR launch Slovenia[/ame]

And here is Theodor:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhvG0wqjcfo"]YouTube - PDR launching, Mark[/ame]

Later on I went in with my son to paddle a bit and the wind got stronger so it carried us to the other side of the lake. Theodor cam to rescue.

This is just completely wonderful Koala and Theodor!!!

You should be well pleased with yourselves.

You did pretty well with the sailing too for the first time ... that wind was quite gusty ... I will write some hints later to make it easier for you next time.

But for now ... just enjoy a wonderful warm feeling of success.

MIK

Fantastic, Koala - great to see the end result, looking so cool :). I love the green and blue of the Duck against the colours of the lake and countryside!

Btw, one of my favourite songs is "Single-handed Sailor" ;).

Cheers,
Alex.

I am so sure Peter is holding a clip of the video showing my attempt at the 'Capsizing Drill', and then he'll say that I was a wreckless sailor and had no idea how to handle the boat, blah blah blah...

I think we both had a fantastic time trying to get a handle on things .. it never ceases to amaze me how many things you need to concentrate on while sailing - direction, mast tension, wind direction, what the centreboard and rudder are doing, etc. I think it'll take a few more attempts to get a good feel for the boat - I was completely surprised when the corner of Pete's PDR kept "digging in" (see the two times the back corner came up). So I'd love some Storer sailing hints before we get out again.

I must admit it was very inspirational to get cracking on my one.

Mark

Funny, we did have a capsize drill. But Mark was so fast turning the boat arround that by the time video camera turned on he was already climbing on the boat.

I didn't want to show the whole world just that moment as someome might think Mark just fell off the boat

Yep, this is really a nice boat - thanks to Mike's detailed plans. Considering
1. I was a first time boat builder
2. I have never done any sailing.

This was the first time I stepped into a sailing boat and you know the feeling when it's your boat

The small boat is BIG enough to keep us buisy learning to sail and enjoying the power of the wind on lakes and sea.

Speaking of wind. I really had problems seeing the wind direction besides the fact that wind was changing speed and direction quite often.
Mostly I didn't see the white flag on the top of my mast so I was just looking at how and when the sail was behaving.

Cheers, Peter

Howdy, this is the observation that shows you will become a good sailor ...

"The wind was changing speed and direction"

Once you understand that then the mindset for sailing is correct! Because you will keep the sail moving and the steering moving to compensate. I will explain how.

MIK