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

Dear Michael, great thanks!

Yes, I put all these photos on Hungarian Boatbuilder Forum too (Bemutatkozik Magyarország els , for Mezix/Csaba)
On other hand, feel free to use these photos! (It's a great honour for me.)

The rig trimm starts now, thanks for suggestions. The flexibility of carbon mast, on the top third is a bit much, but the wind was a bit hard on this sunday (~50 Km/h), for the first run with the new rig.

Ozjj (Jenő)

Fantastic pictures! Wow, carbon masts on Ozracers

As Mik has mentioned just a few tweaks needed to the rig and the sail. Hauling the yard up more would also keep the yard tighter against the mast and would contribute to the stability of the rig, but you'll work all this out. Well done, very nice looking boats.

Originally Posted by ozjj

Dear Michael, great thanks!

Yes, I put all these photos on Hungarian Boatbuilder Forum too (Bemutatkozik Magyarország els , for Mezix/Csaba)
On other hand, feel free to use these photos! (It's a great honour for me.)

The rig trimm starts now, thanks for suggestions. The flexibility of carbon mast, on the top third is a bit much, but the wind was a bit hard on this sunday (~50 Km/h), for the first run with the new rig.

Ozjj (Jenő)

Hi Jenő,
From what you say above and also the photos it looks to me that you have spent a lot of time sailing in the past. The boats are being sailed very nicely.

So why does an experienced sailor decide to build a strange box shaped boat?

I am glad you did of course! But it is an interesting question to me.

Best wishes
Michael

Hi Michael!

As You know, we have no oceans, but some lakes. The biggest and most beautifull is Lake Balaton, length is 80km and all marinas are full of sailing boats and not so cheap to find a place for own boat. For renting is another possibility. BUT the distance from my flat is 140Km. It means, Balaton very good for summer holidays, but for everday/afternoon sailing is too far for me. Near my flat, we found a 1X1 Km small green lake, the distance is only 10 minites!
The next point of view, is Your special boat design!!! I can put the boat alone to the top of my car, so after deciding to go, necessary only 45 minutes to start to sail! The mobility of an OZ is same as a windsurf!
An average small dinghy is too heavy (for e.g. a Laser is about 60Kg). My OZRacer hull weight is only 35Kg!!

Thanks a lot again, Michael, for fantastic idea!

Best regards: Jenő

Originally Posted by ozjj

Hi Michael!

As You know, we have no oceans, but some lakes. The biggest and most beautifull is Lake Balaton, length is 80km and all marinas are full of sailing boats and not so cheap to find a place for own boat. For renting is another possibility. BUT the distance from my flat is 140Km. It means, Balaton very good for summer holidays, but for everday/afternoon sailing is too far for me. Near my flat, we found a 1X1 Km small green lake, the distance is only 10 minites!
The next point of view, is Your special boat design!!! I can put the boat alone to the top of my car, so after deciding to go, necessary only 45 minutes to start to sail! The mobility of an OZ is same as a windsurf!
An average small dinghy is too heavy (for e.g. a Laser is about 60Kg). My OZRacer hull weight is only 35Kg!!

Thanks a lot again, Michael, for fantastic idea!

Best regards: Jenő

Excellent reasons for your choice of boat Jenő. Behind our house we have a small lake as well, maybe only 250m square, but quite big enough to sail an OzRacer, so will think about this one day! If I do build one, I think it will be a quick and dirty build, maybe a weekend project for the hull and another w/e for the rig, so nothing like the quality of yours, and others posted on these forums!

Mik, I think experienced sailors are not put off by the shape of it at all because they recognise that the sailing potential of it has nothing to do with its looks. If they did have any doubts at all, the success of the design and the volume of media out there would quickly allay them.

Thank you for your postings Jenő! You are making the Hungarian boat builders famous.
We are very proud of the growing Hungarian OZR fleet. We even have a common logo that Michael agreed to use:
- thanks to Jenő for making it.

We are planning the first amateur boat builders' assembly in June where several OZ Racers, a GIS and Eurekas will attend. It will be organised on the Velence Lake which is smaller than the Balaton, and easily reachable from Budapest and other locations.
Bests
Csaba

Darn ... I forgot about the insignia Csaba. I am quite happy with it!

MIK

Hi everyone.
I would like to know if anybody has ever used a lateen rig with the OZ Racer.
I am thinking of building an OZ Racer RV and was wondering if the Sunfish rigging I have could be used on it.
It may seem weird, but I am currently using it (the Sunfish sail and spars) on a Topper and works great. I just had to get a new mast, for I had to move the sail and upper and lower spars a little forward in relation to the mast, so that de CE and CLR shared the same vertical. The result is a kind of “balanced lateen”. I guess the same adjustments could be done on the OZ Racer. ¿Anybody knows?
I want the boat to fish, and the OZ Racer seems as smaller as roomier in comparison with the Topper.
Thanks.

Bingo

Bolger's Brick became a Puddleduck, then a PDRacer, now it's a Kiwi PDR, Catbox and an Ozracer!: Can the OZ PDR use a Sunfish Rig - Frostbiting Sunfishers?

I have been wondering one thing many times: Why is OZ Racer not qualified as a PD Racer any more?

If a new "class" has been created, and it is not a PD Racer any more, why not do something about that very steep bow. Making it less steep (by either taking away a bit from the bottom and/or making the boat a bit longer) it would not hit into the waves the same hard, but rather climb them. With less steep I mean a smaller angle between the water in front of the boat and the bow. The original bow has always got me to imagine a lot of unnecessary water pushing.

Howdy,

Once you sail the Oz you will know. If you have a join between a bow transom and a bottom the boat will slow suddenly as soon as that edge goes in the water. A few degrees is not going to make any difference at all. The boat will still feel like it is stopping.

The only way to get rid of this is to have the bow transom at such a shallow angle it creates a smooth continuation of the bottom. But then you would have a 2.8 or 3.1 metre long boat.

The Goose has a transom at a much flatter angle, but it feels like it is stopping when the edge goes in the water too.

So if there is nothing that you can do to stop this effect if the edge goes under the water from a design point of view ... then sail to keep it out!

Additionally in normal sailing the bow ends up coming up high as soon as the boat is sailing well.

These were things I was worried about before we launched our MK1 OZ PDRacers.

But then when they showed what good sailers they were in all wind strengths I realised that conventional ideas of what a good hullshape was like were wrong.

They were only conventional ... not right.

I do have some basic ideas about a class rule ... requiring few measurements and a fair bit of flexibility in designing boats for different purposes. The Mk2 and the RV fit those rules. One day I might explain them. They are a bit like the Goose rules.

Bottom length
bow angle
Minimum

Hey All,
I work for a timber framing company that uses mostly high quality Douglas Fir leaving ample off cuts and vertical grain boards to be had. We also have a few nice boards of Port Orford Cedar I've been given permission to whisk away. I am in the very beginning stages of an OZ Racer build and was wondering if it would be suitable to use the Port Orford for all of the framing or if I should stick with the fir for its added strength. I plan to finish the cockpit bright and thought the Port Orford would be nice with its light color.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Austin

Hi Austin, and welcome!

I will leave some of the more woodworky type people from your neck of the woods to tell you about the Port Orford cedar. There is not a lot of strength required for any of the internals that are down inside the boat - so a less tough timber is fine as long as it glues well.

The only bits of timber that will really get much of a beating are the gunwale/deck clamp and the coaming. I would be inclined to make them of the fir. But all the other bits down in the boat could be cedar.

The spars have to be fir or some reasonable pine. Centreboard and rudder can be cedar, though you can consider some harder wood on the back of the centreboard - just a narrow strip.

Main thing is that all species have to glue well.

MIK