OzRacer (formerly OZ PDRacer) launched in Slovenia

From Koala in Slovenia! He launched his green OzRacer onto a local river and invited fellow OzRacer builder Theodor to the launch. Neither of them has sailed before … and they had a great time.

Well, we had a launch day on monday!!

Beautiful weather, nice wind at first. And it was great. Theodor and I each had a go. It was, well, beyond words. Have a look at how it went. There were a lot of kids arround so it was a bit hectic. But we have some shots of my start:

And here is Theodor:

Later on I went in with my son to paddle a bit and the wind got stronger so it carried us to the other side of the lake. Theodor came to rescue.

From Theodor (Mark):

I am so sure Peter is holding a clip of the video showing my attempt at the ‘Capsizing Drill’, and then he’ll say that I was a wreckless sailor and had no idea how to handle the boat, blah blah blah…

I think we both had a fantastic time trying to get a handle on things .. it never ceases to amaze me how many things you need to concentrate on while sailing – direction, mast tension, wind direction, what the centreboard and rudder are doing, etc. I think it’ll take a few more attempts to get a good feel for the boat – I was completely surprised when the corner of Pete’s PDR kept “digging in” (see the two times the back corner came up). So I’d love some Storer sailing hints before we get out again.

I must admit it was very inspirational to get cracking on my one.

From Koala

Funny, we did have a capsize drill. But Mark was so fast turning the boat arround that by the time video camera turned on he was already climbing on the boat.

I didn’t want to show the whole world just that moment as someome might think Mark just fell off the boat

Yep, this is really a nice boat – thanks to Mike’s detailed plans. Considering
1. I was a first time boat builder
2. I have never done any sailing.

This was the first time I stepped into a sailing boat and you know the feeling when it’s your boat

The small boat is BIG enough to keep us buisy learning to sail and enjoying the power of the wind on lakes and sea.

Speaking of wind. I really had problems seeing the wind direction besides the fact that wind was changing speed and direction quite often.
Mostly I didn’t see the white flag on the top of my mast so I was just looking at how and when the sail was behaving.

Info on the 8ft OZ PDRacer sailboat Plan ($40 and abundantly detailed)

Oz Goose sailboat has more space for families and groups and is way faster.

And even better for families and groups the 12ft Oz Goose plan $40