The PB Racer
GALLERY | Click images to enlarge
Contributed by Chris Ostlind. Chris is a performance small craft designer/builder in Salt lake City, Utah. See more of his designs at Watertribe.
PB Racer is a sail/paddle kayak double for expedition adventure races such as the Watertribe Everglades Challenge. I pulled the basic hull form from an expedition double I had designed to see how well the form could be adapted to a concept boat of this type. I just gave it a transom and some additional rocker and after a lofting of the new curves, the resultant sectional shapes yielded a surprisingly good hull for sailing after I ran the hydrodynamics. A small tweak here and there and it was very good.
The PB comes from the name of the kayak double: Portuguese Bend. This is an area of the coast south of the L.A. beaches where I grew up. I used to paddle, sail, snorkel and surf all over that part of the coast when I was a kid.
I wanted to keep the amas on the small side of things for weight, handling, size relationships, etc. I was looking to keep the main hull as the focal point so that its kayak origins wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the typical trimaran ama thing. Some paddlers are very wary of having their sport hammered by sailors. The small size also completely opens-up the paddling compartment with no paddle swing arc restrictions.
The sail CE being low is important with the low buoyancy amas - and the crab claw works well for that. The rig, if I can get it to work well, should be able to drive this boat extremely well. The wishbone mast structure is to permit the sail to have an unrestricted arc for all points. I wanted to totally eliminate any need for another sail to keep the boat simple in handling and strings. I’m toying with the idea that the mast can lay down on the foredeck when not in use.
The hiking seats are removable with snap pins (like take-a-part paddles use) and stowable in the hull. Any questions or comments are welcome.
