A few years ago, David "Shorty" Routh designed the original PDRacer. He laid out the basic simple design parameters in a Duckworks article. About that time, he set up the pdracer.com website to organize information about the new class of sailboat.

Shorty's idea was for a simple, inexpensive sailboat that anyone could build in their garage or backyard with commonly available materials and carry on the top of their car to race with other similar boats at a local lake, pond or bay. His idea was an overnight success. From the very first race, the idea spread until soon there were over a hundred boats in most of the fifty US states and a dozen countries.

When Michael Storer, an Australian small boat designer heard about the PDRacer, he was impressed with the possibilities the little boat represented and when his mate, Peter Hyndman, and he designed and built a couple of the boats, they were convinced that the simple, little sailboat had tremendous potential.

But Michael thought that there ought to be a more comprehensive set of building instructions. He noticed that most of the previously built boats were fairly crude in construction and therefore did not live up to their potential in terms of weight, strength and sailing performance.

So with the idea of filling this gap, he set about refining the design in a way that would be within Shorty's original parameters yet provide builders a better boat than many of the ones that had been built up to that time. He documenting his version with detailed instructions all to be offered in a PDF document for the incredibly low price for twenty bucks. The result is the Oz PDRacer.

Michael further went on to recruit a few online plan sellers to take care of the merchandising and distribution of these plans - Duckworks being one of the first. We are delighted and honored to be able to offer these plans to our customers who want to build a competitive PDRacer and join this growing worldwide movement of similar minded folks.

I want to take a minute to emphasize how good these plans are. These are not your run of the mill cheap plans. There are three PDF files totaling 3 megs. The first is a set of excellent drawings suitable for printing. Those are followed by instructions for making a high performance sail from polytarp. Finally, there is the main construction file. Even if you already have a PDRacer, this file contains information that you can use to improve its performance. For instance, the masts, rudderstocks and foils are lighter (and still economical) than most found on PDRacers. Isn't it worth twenty bucks to win your next race?

For more information on this boat here are a few more links:

• PDRacer.com-Shorty's original website
• PDRacer.info-Michael Storer and Peter Hyndman's Oz PDRacer site
• PDRacer.net-links to more PDRacer sites
  

Feedback:

You are right, these really are excellent instructions and worth every penny. (The exchange-rate in the UK makes it even better, hardly the price of a pizza for two, and the trimmings, when delivered at home.)

Much obliged,
Tony.

*****

I ordered the plans for the Goat Island Skiff and the little PD Racer awhile ago. Now I have ordered many mail order sheet plans before and that is what I expected to get from you. Not so. This was my first set of plans that I was able to download to my computer and print out. I was amazed! To all first time buyers, make sure you have a fresh ink cartridge and lots of paper. It was like printing out a book! Even the smallest details are covered. I put the whole set of plans in a three hole binder. I still cannot get over the detail and quality of these plans. ANY first time builder should have no problems building these boats. It is so nice to see a designer who takes the guess work out of building a boat. Makes it a fun family project. That's the whole point of home boat building. Well done!

Michael Kinney

Benson, AZ