March 2025  Peking Duck

By Herb McLeod

PD racers have a defined hull shape but sail type and size are unlimited. I built in a shear that gives it a bit of a sampan look.  

The PD racer was built partly as a bit of whimsy and partly to test protecting the plywood bottom plywood with unbleached cotton saturated with Titebond III. With Peking Duck considerable attention was used to keep the rig as light as possible. 

The mast, sails, and spars came in at a total weight of 10 kg.  The sails are individual cambered woven polythene panels and are attached to the battens with zip ties.  By making a loop around the mast with the halyard, I have attempted to combine the halyard and yard parrel functions.  There is a tendency for the loop to bind when hoisting the sail but not when lowering.  I have a few more thoughts as to how to make this work before I give up on the idea.

The sail is a similar design to the sail I had on OliveOyl but this time the maximum camber (still 5%) that is 30% back from the leading edge.  There are only two panel shapes and the upper triangular panels use the same curve on the edges as the parallelogram panels PD racers sail surprisingly well  and I have attached a video taken by a neighbour of Peking Duck sailing with a couple of reefs in. 

For control lines for sail shape I have a combined halyard mast parrel, a yard parrel and a downhaul. 

The sheeting is 5 point as recommended in the Practical Junk Rig book. The off center board is a Michalak design and it is well forward in the boat.  The rudder is a weighted kick up rudder again a Michalak design. 

Finally, for those who may be interested, the cotton saturated Titebond III stood up just fine after being immersed continuously in our lake for three months this summer.

Our "Boat of the Month" Archive is here, and the forum discussion for comments and candidate suggestions is here