OZ Racer Plans – family sailboats – Two versions and one kit

Sailing Boat – Rowing Boat – Motor & Fishing Boat – OzRacer Plan

The OzRacer is the smaller relative of the OzGoose which might suit some if they have no room for the 12ft Oz Goose – If here because of an interest in the PDRacer please read the text in red below.

• Carries 2 Adults plus gear – Racing Crew 1 Adult
• Weight – 65lbs – Roofrack and can be carried to water by 2 Kids
• 8ft Long – 80+ sq ft sail – Balance lug rig now available
• 2.4m Long – 7.1 sq m sail

FULLY DETAILED PLAN – $40
Paper Plans – please talk to Agent in your region.

We have a huge database of information about rigging and setup of Ducks and Geese. Have a look at this OzRacer/OzGoose/PDRacer rigging page to see how few commercial fittings we use; as one example. Just use the search top right on this page to find more.

Introducing the OZ Goose   Stretched to 12ft long – same easy build Much faster Fastest growing class boat in the Philippines with fleets starting in Michigan, Kansas and SE Virginia

Ian Henehan’s Pikachu inspired OzRacer for his daughter Riley

Three main versions of the 8ft OzRacer.

Photos below.

• The original OzRacer Mk2 that comes out of three sheets of ply. The lightest and fastest. Best for solo sailors
• The OzRacer RV with the centreboard now replaced with a leeboard in the side tanks. More space. One more sheet of ply; four and almost the same performance. It has won two world championships. Best for families, cruising and RAIDS. OzRacer RV information is here.
• The Texas Duck was developed by John Owens Woodworks from the RV as a kit. It has all the development of the OzRacer RV but was carefully adjusted to fit the PDRacer rules. See The  Texas Duck on John’s website with ordering information.

Compare the Centreboard OzRacer Mk2 Left and the leeboard OzRacer RV Right.

RV has fewer parts and four major panels are identical

Much easier for two adults to fit. This is Rick Landreville’s boat that has won the Duck world’s twice.

Texas Duck: the original prototype of the kit duck.

Mark Milam’s beautifully finished OzRacer RV showing its paces below. Brilliant method of supporting a windsurfer rig.

*OZRACERS and PDRACERS

Not a PDRacer any more – the OZ Racer does not conform to the current PDRacer rules. It is still the best sailing simple boat with the best plan – so would suit anyone wanting a basic small sailing boat with excellent building instructions.

The Texas Duck Kit from John Owens had a starting point as the OzRacer RV, but John worked carefully and closely in collaboration with the PDRacer Founder, Shorty Routh to make sure the boat passed the class rules. The prototype Texas PDR was accepted as a PDRacer and was also measured and found to conform to the rules if built carefully from the kit. This gives Oz performance in a PDR package.

We also hope some PDRacer builders will find the plan details on performance centreboards, leeboards, rudders, masts and sails and their instructions useful but if using the hull measurements they will have to adapt them to fit the PDRacer rules on their website. But read the update below.

Update 2015 – Even if carefully altered to conform with the PDRacer rules the OzRacer derived boats are not being accepted as legal PDRacers. If it is known the basis of the boat was the OzRacer plan it will not be considered for acceptance. This seems very unreasonable, but there you are … it’s a one man show.

Plans are ideal for a first time boat 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
$40 – building hull, mast and boom, centreboard and rudder, fitting out, making a sail

OzRacer and OzGoose Sailboat Videos: What are they like to sail?

• This is a playlist showing over 35 videos. They have been ranked for most informative ones first.

Click on this icon at top right of video to choose what you want to see.

• All our OzRacer Articles on this website
• OZ PD Racer FAQ – Some of the discussion from back when the OZ Racer was a PDR.
• Photographic Rigging Guide – pictures of how the OZ Racers go together –  also the Downloadable rigging list for OZ Racer.
• Photo Albums of OzRacers around the world

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 $36 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 for the OzRacer

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. Here is a discussion of the comparison.

The lug rig information is comprehensive including making the sail and is available free to OzRacer 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.

There were several winners of PDRacer championships sailing Oz derived boats.

• Shawn Payment in a standard Oz

• Rick Landreville in Canada in the boat that would become the OzRacer RV
• Brad Hickman, here on Lake Eufala

• Rick Landreville again here well ahead of the World’s fleet in light winds

So whether you want to race or not, you know the boat will get to where you want to go.

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.

This was written from the perspective of first seeing the Ducks a long timbe ago and browsing through the discussions online.

Like many new classes the first PD racers were undergoing some teething problems – a few of the existing boats worked really 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.

Using our understanding of building boats light, strong and stiff.

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 OzRacers 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 OZRacers 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 cheap … only $40.

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.

12ft Oz Goose Version sailboat – The Goose Honks click here for info

Whether teaching sailing on a calm lake

Learning how to join club races

Or solo is stupidly strong winds you can let your hair down. The Goose is a great boat.

Same simplicity – take the whole family out .  Hull weight is 120lbs so easily roofrackable.