Michael Storer Boat Design

OZ RACERS - PDRacers no longer*

But still the Cheapest Racing/Fun Sailboat

Sailing Boat - Rowing Boat - Motor & Fishing Boat

Introducing the PD Goose - same sail, same mast, same rudder, same centreboard but 12ft (3.5m) long.  Not as compact, but if you have built an OZ Racer it means you have a choice of a bigger boat to go sailing with friends.

www.flickr.com This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from boatmik. Make your own badge here. Quick Search this Site Contacting me Home MUST SEE! The 5.5kg (12lb) Balsa Canoe The Rowboat Design "Blog" Making a canoe into a sailboat Slow boat into a ROCKETSHIP FAQ - Useful info Epoxy and Methods Saving Money Design Boat Building methods, Sailing FREE PLANS MY BOAT PLANS Canoes Sailboats Rowboat Sailing Canoes Motorboats Fishing Boats Canoe Sailing rigs Outriggers Riverboats Punts OZ Racers DESIGN "BLOG" Diary of developing the rowboat design. DESIGN PROJECT Solarboat Norwalk Island Sharpies Custom Keels & Foils Custom Rigs & Sailplans ORDERING PLANS Plan Agents Site Map - Everything at a Glance

Plans delivered by email available from - Duckflat - Australia - Duckworks - USA - Seawing Boats - UK (they also sell building materials and accessories) Plans are ideal for a first time builder 85 pages with dozens of drawings and photos We built two boats for $350 each.  If you bought everything off the shelf it will still be <$1200 Not a FREE PLAN, but a REAL COMPREHENSIVE Plan $20 - building hull, mast and boom, centreboard and rudder, fitting out, making a sail PDRacer Links - find out more. 1/ www.pdracer.info - our website for the OZ PDR - full information 2/ What they are like to sail - VIDEOs too!  - easy for beginners and feels like a "real boat" to satisfy experts. 3/ OZ PD Racer FAQ - Some of the discussion from back when the OZ Racer was a PDR. 4/ OZ Racer (formerly PDRacer) building web diary.  Heaps of pics and lots of witty commentary (some more, some less).  See just how easy they are to build.  Still useful for those building PDRacers. 5/ Photographic Rigging Guide - pictures of how the OZ Racers go together -  also the Downloadable rigging list for OZ Racer. We think ... ... Just because someone wants to build a cheap fun boat with their kids doesn't mean the design needs to be either dumbed down, second rate or complex and difficult. ... Just because someone wants to learn how to sail doesn't mean they should put up with second rate performance. ... Just because a plan is $20 doesn't mean it can't be detailed and tell you how to do almost everything to get your boat into the water successfully. ... Just because it looks like a kid's boat doesn't mean it can't be fun for one (or two) adults. Important updates There is an important update for some OZ Racer plans purchasers.  I have just drawn up a new sailing rig for the boat - a balance lug rig.  I am not sure it will have better performance than the original sprit rig, but it does reduce the length of the mast and also allows for reefing the sail in stronger winds. The picture above is of me sailing one of our OZ Mk1s with the hugely oversize lug rig off the Goat Island Skiff - a 16ft boat to attempt to take the record for the biggest sail in the PDRacer class.  It handled it beautifully - one of the reasons for providing the lug version for the OZ PDRacer. The lug rig information is comprehensive including making the sail and is available free to OZ PDR builders with proof of plan purchase.   The History The PDRacer class was masterminded by David "Shorty" Roth who took the basic shape of the Phil Bolger "Brick" but decided to allow experimentation using that hull shape. We worked with the PDRacer group for a few years developing up the OZ series of PDR.   Now there has been a split between the PDRacer and the now OZ Racer.  Our OZ racer is focussed more in showing correct boatbuilding methods.  Build an OZ following our excellent plans and you will know many of the correct methods for building all modern wooden boats.  A boatbuilding course in a book. They are perfect as a first sailing boat for adults - they will carry two adults and maybe a couple of little kids too, and are very stable. Making it better without changing cost Like many new classes the first PD racers were undergoing some teething problems - a few of the existing boats worked well - many others didn't..   From the info on the web it seemed that despite being incredibly cheap they seemed to be relatively slow didn't sound very manouvreable sounded slow downwind (no planing) sounded tricky downwind (nosediving) heavily built compared to boats in Australia weak structurally - builders were plagued with hull twist Anyway I went on a visit to Queensland to stay with Peter and Jo Hyndman - builders of one of the first Goat Island Skiff - and Peter (aka BitingMidge) tried to talk me into the idea that we build a boat during my stay. I became very interested when I saw how many people were being introduced to sailing by this very humble boat.  I thought it would be interesting to see how many improvements could be made without increasing the cost or complexity of the boats. The PD Racer also looked to be a great portable boat for scooting around on the backwaters of the Mooloola River which runs near his house. By that time I had seen the potential of the boats - and I upped the ante by suggesting we build TWO - so we would have an instant racing fleet - or another boat to admire the first one from! Also we both had started to think how the boats would be improved with some good old Aussie knowhow.  In Australia we continued to develop light and efficient plywood boatbuilding long after the Northern Hemispherians had moved to Fibreglass boats.  Our design for the OZ PDRacers took advantage of this extra historical development. So that was a start to this great project - the upshot was that we made two boats that were are delight to sail ... yes a box boat can sail so well that even racing sailors come back with a grin on their face ... but it is also a very forgiving boat for beginners. We carefully documented the build of the first two boats and used many of those photos in the comprehensive plan which are very thorough about methods and materials to make it easy to put a OZRacer together. We decided to have an experiment and make the plans deliverable by email and keep them dirt cheap ... only $20. Plans and more information now available OZ Racer website Updates about new developments and boats being built on the OZ Racer Blog Michael Storer Design Forum with a lot of PDR and OZ Racer information including builds in Australia, England, Africa, Romania, Hungary, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Slovenia, Russia and more.

Michael Storer Boat Design Wooden Boat Plans

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