Thread: Building the OZ PD Racer - now renamed the OzRacer

HI All,

OK - the OZ PDRacer plans are not far of being finished.

Have done almost all the drawings - so experienced woodies would be able to sort out the building process - which consists of just notes at this stage.

If anyone (Deepdug, Cristopha and others) that indicated an interest in building a PDR or two the drawing part of the plans will be briefly available at no cost if you email me.

In the not too distant future they will be available for download for around $20.

The other news is that Duck Flat are building 4 boats (as we speak they are making centreboards, rudders and masts) to enter into the National Championships (and also as loan boats when there is no racing) at the Goolwa Wooden Boat Show early next year.

The PDR championships are an official event for the Sunday and Monday (long weekend) of the show.

So now is a good time for youse to start building too.

Michael

Mike, it is not a good idea to post your e-mail address on a web page that can be viewed by the general public.
There are robot spiders that scan the web looking for e-mail addresses to send spam to.
You should disguise it a bit. IE instead of using the @ symbol, insert (at) or # or $ or something.

BTW, I'm interested.

Boatmik, I have been waiting for you to say this ever since you and Midge started this thread! Email on its way.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Mike, it is not a good idea to post your e-mail address on a web page that can be viewed by the general public.

Howdy Cliff - no probs - I have a combination of a filter implemented by my ISP and a free bayesian filter - "popfile". It took a month to train up and has been making all the right decisions since.

Nothing gets through! And it even adds keywords to the subject lines of emails so my email program will sort them into the right folders (boats or jazz or family)

MIK

Lucky you Mik. Our ISP just changed hands. The previous owners were SO strict that some of our genuine e-mails didn't get through. The new owners are SO lame @rsed that our domain name is getting an absolute hammering every night. It is SO bad that I am now considering changing to a new ISP. :mad:

Hey guys,

Well after reading all about the PD racer I think I might give building one a go!! After all you guys make it seem soooo easy!!

Have drawn some plans up and I have a few weeks off work coming up so I shall keep you posted!

Ben

Hi All,

Here are the first pics of the 4 boats being built at Duck Flat.

One of the sneaky things it is possible to do is to build all the components first. Centreboard and rudder blades, the rudder box and the mast and sprit. They take up no space at all once done - and when the hull is built ... it's time to go sailing.

Lots of experienced builders tend to go this way.

The boats are being put together partially by Ted Dexter - the prime mover at Ducks and Rob Badenoch who will have one of the boats for his own use.

For those with plans you may wish to have a close look at the attached photos - they are the first ones on the new mast assembly method or making the ladder frame first then whacking the two wide faces on either side.

Sorry my two images are not as neatly composed as the ones from Peter in this thread.

Michael Storer

Michael

I thought I had better get some pictures up of the latest OZ PDRacer built at the Duck Flat Spring School at Goolwa. They will be doing more schools in future - everyone was pretty rapt.

Anyway, back to the little boat. The builder Rob has decided to call it "Overundersidewaysdown" and its international registration number is 118. So now 118 boats registered worldwide. And around 8 Oz PDRs underway - or at least those are the ones I know about. Not bad for a plan released only a month or so ago.

Rob did a great job of getting the hull and the mast together - it all looks really "shmick". After the class was over he chucked it in the back of his ute and drove the 10 hours home to his farm in Victoria. He has to do a bit more, but perhaps not too long before it is all nicely together and sailing.

He is a long way from the water but one of his neighbours has a very big dam on his property. And I'll be trying to convince him to drive over for the nationals

As far as the development of the OZ version PDR goes the Mk 2 boat goes together so much easier than the original Mk1 versions that Peter and I built at the beginning of the year and has a much neater looking interior.

Note here - the plans have always been for the Mk2 boats - but these are the first photos.

The big differences are in the order things are put together - the whole centreboard case and support structure is made out of 3 flat assembled components and goes into the boat in a half hour or so - rather than the couple of days it took on our Mk1 boats - We were silly enough to put them together bit by bit.

Also the fronts of the sidetanks have been more neatly integrated into the floor support structure.

A final change has been sloping the side buoyancy tank faces further into the middle of the boat - this stiffens up the bottom further for better performance.

A more subtle change has been to try and reduce the amount of bow up trim at higher speed by altering the bottom shape within the tolerances allowed

The masts have also been beefed up with an increase of stiffness in the region of 30% with only a 8% increase in weight so still very light but able to stand up better to sailing loads. The sail design has been changed to reflect the changes.

The photos in sequence

1/ Rob starting on the serious job of measuring up the various parts. Most of the work at this stage is benchwork - just making up flat bits of boat with wood trim attached.

2/ The flat bits start to be assembled. There is only one curve in the boat which means that almost all components are square.

3/ Bottom goes on. At this point the boat can be registered with the international fleet. The bottom takes about half an hour to glue and screw in place using a variable speed cordless drill with a phillips head bit. Rob actually used gyprock screws with a posidrive head (ie engaging a square bit) which seemed to work quite well.

4/ Boat is rolled back over. The two frames that support the centreboard case were made on the bench at the same time as the other bits - so now just grab, make sure they align correctly. Their positions are marked on the hull bottoms and sides and then they are removed and holes are drilled through the bottom and sides as guide holes for the temporary fixing screws. When the frame is glued in screws are run in from the outside of the hull.

5/ The neater, cleaner, stiffer MK2 interior.

I can put more pictures of most of the steps of building the boat up if people are interested.

Also would be interesting if Rob wants to add anything - I'm not sure whether it is a smile or a grimace in the first pic!?

Anyway - Welcome Rob and Overundersidewaysdown!

MIK

One thing I will say is that newbies should make themselves familiar with the tools they will be using on the project , and be competant in their use BEFORE tackling the boat.
I know I had MIK and David pulling their hair out at times , 'cos I was using the PDR to become familiar with tools , when that should have happened BEFORE I started !.
Lesson learnt !.
Rob J.

What tools are REALLY NEEDED?

One of the good things about modern plywood boatbuilding is that so few tools are required. And the skills involved are much less than were required a few decades ago.

The power tools that are useful to have are
Jigsaw - though with the thin ply of a PDR a Japanese backsaw would make quick work of it all.
Random Orbit Sander
Cordless Drill - variable speed with clutch - used in conjunction with a philips head bit and gyprock (drywall) screws to hold bits together while the glue sets up. Eliminates the need for owning many clamps. Get one with two battery packs so one can always be on the recharge.

The main non powered tools
Ruler
Tape measure
Pencil
General purpose plane - eg Stanley #4 or a block plane
Chisel - approx 3/4" wide
Combination square - is useful.
Sharpening stone.

Apart from normal household things like a pair of pliers and a couple of screwdrivers and a hammer that's about all you really need - and is about all that is in my building kit. I do have some extra japanese chisels and an old Stanley 4 1/2 plane and maybe I'll sometimes use a ratchet bit and brace rather than the cordless driver but those are the only real differences.

Power tools can be really cheap

With the power tools - one of the things I learned during my stay at Biting Midges when we put the first two PDRs together was the value packed GMC tool range - they are really cheap - particularly when you buy a case of their tools (you can get all the above powertools plus an angle grinder and one or two other bits and bobs. Their warranty is quite generous - Midge burned out one tool from a box and the whole lot was replaced. They are available through Bunnings and undoubtedly some other outlets too.

Use of tools

In terms of tool use I thought ppl would be having most problems sharpening plane blades and chisels - but they all picked that up quite quickly - at least enough to work with the bevel and keep the backs flat.

The biggest problems were with Jigsaws, particularly the laser sighted variety. Lots of the jigsaws cut too fast for a beginner to get used to - but with a variable speed jigger on low/medium (almost all the ply was under 9mm) and instructions to take their time and to make sure they left the marked line there were no major problems.

About the only other area where newbies had consistent problems was in handling the cordless drivers used to drive in the gyprock screws for most of the assembling. It takes a little bit of practice to WATCH when the ply is held down just enough - the normal indicator is a bit of glue will start to ooze out the joint.

Epoxy Use

The only real problem with epoxy use is getting people in a class to put enough on. Epoxy works through briding the gap between the two surfaces and doesn't like to be clamped up too hard. So use of the cordless as above - so the glue just starts to ooze out the join is perfect.

G'Day! Can I Get The plans for the P.D.R. without going thru a third Party??????

Hi Fugley,

Just email [email protected] and he'll arrange to email directly. The plans run to near enough to a hundred pages of instructions, and you can start as soon as the shops open in the morning!

cheers,

P

Hi All

I haven't posted anything for a while, just sitting back reading. The catamaran is going well and will soon be painted, taken a bit longer to get to that stage than I thought, but it happens.

Anywho, I was looking around the shed today and thought what am I going to do with all these leftovers? Start my next cat project? Build a spare hull just in case? Hey I know, what about these PD Racers everyone talking about, well on the forum anyway.

So I started, had a flick through the rules, went out to the shed, measurements in hand and started marking out the hull sides, got something that looks like the beast, and away we go. I'll have to buy a sheet for the bottom, and a few other things no doubt, but I've started.

World Championships??? Unbelievable, as long as they don't clash with my Vic State Titles for the cat, I'll be there!!! Sounds like great fun.

Anyway, I just came in to check on the additional oz rules, now I'll go and work on it some more.

Matt

Hi All

Not long after I went out to shed I was looking at what I'd drawn, and not that there is anything wrong, I've have since decided to go the whole hog and order the plans for a Mk2. They're gone to a fair bit of trouble designing it so I should take of advantage of it.

I've just emailed Michael, so I'll pause until I get them sorted out. But anyway, the intention to build is still there, just have til they arrive.

Matt