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Puddle Duck Racer Sailboat Class - Newsletter 12

Picture of the month: Charles Herfray #620 "GEDEON"

Event News

2012 World Championship

From John Bridges & Ken Sherwood: Congratulations! We [the pdracer club] appear to have reached critical mass with an explosion of Puddle Ducks occurring in 2012. It is good to see "Hatches" appearing in Dayton Ohio, Canada and Lake Glendale here in Pennsylvania. We produced 4 more Puddle Ducks in Indiana yesterday and have a fully booked hatch April 15th and will have to organize a second one. The other side of the coin is that we currently have about 24 unregistered Puddle Ducks in the area and my immediate task is to chase these strays and get them to take self portraits and send their personal data to you.

Blog About The Hatch
Signup for World Championship Race
PDRacer World Championship Page

Alberni PDRacer News

They have joined with local sponsors that are helping with the regatta and upcoming hatch events. The next hatches will be on April 28/29, May 5/6, May 26/27 and June 2/3. Two of the boats will be built by Cadets. With six to eight boats scheduled to be built at hatches, four private boats built beforehand, and a Boston Pizza boat, there will be at least eleven boats at the Regatta. There are still open spots available in the hatches, if you are interested then contact David.

Also there are new items on their website, blog and photos of the latest build. David has a newsletter you can subscribe to for direct updates on all their activities.
David Whitworth #623, Alberni PDRacer Club Organizer
Alberni PDRacer Club Website - Photos - Blog

Southwinds Magazine

Dan Dickson is a writer for Soundwinds Magazine and did a great article on us for his March issue. The article is a really great help to our club to get the word out and tell people about the fun we have, thanks a bunch Dan !!

The article has contributions from a number of duckers and I want to thank them for their kind comments and helping to spread the word about our club:

Jason Nabors #33 "Sea Flea" (numerous hulls)
Tim Cleary #59 "Mary E" (also #452)
Paul Haynie #102 "Frankenduck's Monster"
John Bridges #512 "Lavender Duck"
Ken Sherwood #529 "PhDabbler"
Chrissie Chojnicki #540 "The Pink Pearl"
C' BAM! #600 "un-named"
Chip Matthews #610 "SEWEE TRADER"
Friends Of Yellow Creek


Read Magazine Online From Their Site
Full Back Issue List
Download the March 2012 pdf file

Extension Of Time For World Championship Event

Previously, we have had a limit to a 12 hour span for the championship race. Because of the long distances that many duckers travel to attend, this would make it possible for many to take Friday off work and drive to the event, race all day Saturday and then drive home on Sunday. Due to the growth of our club and the large numbers of duckers who are registered to attend the 2012 championship race, this time limit is no longer feasible and I have modified the championship guidelines to allow for 36 hours. I ask for any future championship events, if the number of participants would allow it, that the organizers try to return to our previous 12 hour window if possible.

As the trend is going with continually increasing numbers of duckers attending our championship event, at some point we will need to make further changes to the way the championship races are held. Many ideas have been suggested, but at this point I am still holding on to our previous traditions as long as possible. At the point we must change, I will do my best to go in a direction which has the best interest for our community.

Regarding the bid events, they have always had the requirement the only hulls allowed to count towards the bid are class legal. I have added text indicating all hulls at bid events must be measured, just to make sure the point is clear.

While resolving a measurement question this month, I received a couple of questions regarding Rule 7, and have updated the class rules explanation page with more info.

I also received a question about how being class legal relates to duckers that do not race. I updated the rule explanation page with basic concepts about being class legal

PDRacer Forum Topics

Topic: Roller Reefing Sails

Scott sent in an article about a roller reefing lug sail and is hosting a discussion about roller reefing sails. Not just lug sails, but all roller reefing sails and systems. I can tell you from my end, as soon as Scott posted his video of sailing during the Everglades Challenge, I started hearing from duckers about how cool his sail rig is because it rolls to reef but is practically a mutton sail, so I know there is a lot of interest in the topic. Head on over to Scott's forum to join the conversation.
Scott Widmier #104
ECPuddleDuck forum at Yahoo

New Forum: UK-PDRacers

From Julian: Just a quick note to let you know that in an effort to expand the PDracer in the UK, I have set up a UK yahoo PDR site. I invited all of the UK duckers from the member list. It would be great if you could put a short note on your site to help spread the word. This forum will be a way of keeping the UK members in one place with current UK news. With all this going on for the UK I hope to start an active group here.

I hope you are well and ready for a new season.
Kind regards,
Julian Fisk #526
UK-PDRacers forum at Yahoo

New Forum: Canadian Duckers

Wild Bill MacPherson is setting up a website based forum for Canadian Duckers. Some of the features and full description might not be available as the printing of this newsletter, but it is coming online very soon.

Bill MacPherson #608
Canadia Duckers Forum at PDRacer.ca

From Shorty: Hey duckers -- from previous experience, I have noticed that sometimes people can be reluctant to build their first PDRacer because they are waiting for someone else to organize locally. After seeing other local organizers, they build their duck & join the local fleet. So lets help Julian & Bill and get the word out, this might be just the thing to get lots more local participation in their areas. If you know any sailors in the UK or Canada, how about letting them know about the respective new groups. -- Thanks.

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