Thread: OZ PDRacer vs. Other 8-Foot Boats

The optimist and most of the others are aimed at kids. The PDR is aimed at adults, but can be sailed by kids. There is a lot of freedom in the design to build it with inexpensive or premium materials - whatever you think is a good thing.

The big thing is that all the others have lost their direction. They cost many times the cost of getting a PDR on the water as they have bought into all the expensive thinking of high performance raceboats.

The PDR avoids all of this.

One example is the sail is a DIY job of polytarp. The sails are quite durable and certainly not as high performance as pro built sails. But ...
Pro built sail - $600
Home built polytarp sail (its made out of one piece so not a lot of sewing to make the size) - about $30 to $60.

Most people get a factory built Optimist - currently listed at $5000 or Manly Junior - currently listed at $8000. Just to get one or two kids on the water. They all started off the same as the PDR but get more expensive each year. The pdr factors in the low cost as part of the class rules.

The PDR, despite its simplicity and low cost approach still sails very well indeed. You can ask some of the hot shot sailors on the forum about it (ask Mike who has been sailing since he was a teenager).

Also the PDRacer is very stable compared to the others. I do like the appearance of the others a bit more, but you get such a bang for the buck with the PDR there is no comparison.

Best wishes
Michael Storer

G'day Raaka

The bit MIK left out is that the PDR bottom profile was adapted from Bolger's Brick.

You might like to think of the OzPDR as a Brick, with the twisting flexibility
engineered out of it, and tuned to out-perform most other 8 ft long boats under
most conditions. At a fraction of the cost. It is just its looks which are a bit....
"challenged".

And unlike most other 8ft boats, it is quite happy, stable, & even a bit zippy with over
100kg of me in it !! I used to dunk a Sabot's aft corners just tacking when I
weighed a -lot- less than I do now...

HTH
AJ