1994 Vulcan 750

Puddle Duck Racer
Cruising the web can be a dangerous thing. I stumbled across a website Shorty Pen that showed a small (8' long x 4' wide) sail boat that can be built from 3 sheets of plywood. After looking at the pictures, pondering the boat, looking at the pictures, pondering the boat. I broke down one weekend and made a trip to my favorite home improvement store. There I bought 2 sheets of plywood, a bunch of 1x2's glue and screws. In the infamous words of Samuel F. Morse in 1844 'What hath God wroght'.

Using AutoCAD, and Google I developed plans. I'm a geek, what can I say. Working on weekends, mainly Saturdays to do the heavy work, planning, tinkering, and minore prep work during the weekdays I am buildilng my own sailboat. I spent a great deal of time on the East Coast with my Dad. My Dad is Navy retired, and an avid sailor. I always enjoyed the time I spent on his boat, it was always a good time, even if I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Before I go any further, a Puddle Duck Racer is a small sail boat, 4' wide x 8' long. The sides have a specific shape (if you want to be class legal). Beyond that, it it up to you, go nuts. 3 sheets of plywood will make the boat if you don't screw up. Sails, mast, and boom can be made from what ever you want. Do a Google search for 'pdracer' or do it the easy way and go to Pdracer.com

After much screwing, glueing, sweating, swearing, and using power tools all the parts are made. Next step is to actually make a boat, or something that looks like a boat.

Boat parts ready to go
This is when it all comes together and you actually realize that you are building a boat and not just making saw dust. Next things to add are a rudder, (gotta steer the girl) and a keel or lee board (want her to go in a straight line).

Holy hell, it's a boat Lee board Rudder/Tiller mock up

Rudder made, lee board made, lee board brackets made and stained (Bombay mahogany)
Rudder, leeboard and brackets mocked up. Photo by Dorca Cobian

Stay tuned! [UTILITIES]