Hi Dave,

: for something a bit more lively, try a Sunfish, a Laser (radial rig for
: your weight) or even a Hobie 16. These boats all have flaws, but they all
: have enormous active racing fleets throughout the world. How many PDR's
: were at your messabout? The last Laser regatta I was in had well over 100.

I am pretty much familiar with most of the classes of sailboats. I have sailed the hobie 14 and 16 but my favorite was my MacGregor 15' cat. I belonged to the yacht club at Prairi Creek Reservoir near Muncie, IN in the 60’s where we held regattas. Class sail boats of every type, Flying Scot’s, Lightning’s, Thistle’s, Snipe’s, Sunfish, Hobie 14 & 16 and many home made’s and odd ball’s of all types would pour in from states across the nation. It was all very exciting and something to see and be a part of. I raced my cat but was handicapped for starting position with a variety of boats.

: That's not to say that PDR's aren't worthy! There's just so few of them . . .
: I think they are great idea and it's an intriguing concept to come up with
: a better rig, etc. Likely having a well cut "real" sail and good
: foils will give you a leg up on whatever fleet of PDRs you can find - but
: not if you blithely sail off on the headed tack.

There may be more then you think. There is a PDRacer Regatta on June 28 at in Fishers, IN. And I found a web site in Russia where they are building and sailing PDR's. Here is a good free set of plans that are well illustrated for the PDR. http://hometown.aol.com/sredcon/PDR.htm#_Toc164136817 There are different ways to build a pdr but for sailing they must be built to keep the twist out of them.

John