Network type 2 12 volt pilot hydraulic ram wanted

Brookes and Gatehouse Linear hydraulic ram,12 volt wanted

Size 2 will suit our needs.

We have a full Bandg (brookes and gatehouse) Network autopilot system,it came without the Linear Hydraulic 12volt ram,does anyone have one for sale? parts of similar B&G Network systems also considered.B&G is now Simrad,we are told their hydraulic rams will suit the B&G system too.

The aircraft carrier USS America ( CV-66 )

Some years later after a contract in the Sudan,I returned to South Africa and built an Endurance 37 yacht from a set of mouldings,this picture was taken by Clive Cohen one early windless morning in Saldahana,just north of Cape Town,the cap I am wearing is the genuine ships stores issue from the USS America.





Capt. Robert B. Fuller
Apr. 1976 - Apr. 1978


Badge of the USS America CV66

Dennis,Roy and Hugh.


USS Americas flight deck,packed with planes.


The lower deck beneath the Flight deck,thats a game of basket ball in progress.


Our trip to the ship for breakfast and a tour of the ship was on the ships own launch.


USS America,flight deck,Dennis,Hugh,Roy


USS America,a good reason to look behind you.


USS America bow and deck shot.


USS America CV-66 bow shot.
Taken from a declassified US Navy Document:

Mid June saw the USS AMERICA and the embarked aiming deployed for six weeks to South America, visiting Salvador, Brazil and Rio de Janefro. Returning to Norfolk in July,

In 1977 and leaving the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC)in Cape Town,South Africa,we had sailed the 38ft yacht Brer Terrapin,an Atkin Ingrid ketch to Salvador,Bahia,Brasil by way the the south atlantic islands of St Helena and Assencion,both highly recomended as stop overs for a break and to take on fresh water,food is not always available?

Brer Terrapin was anchored in the old harbour at Salvador,its behind an old wall and makes a good place to stay,as long as you have a dinghy,no ferries existed at that time.We had been there for some weeks when news of an American naval vessel came out,to our surprise it was the USS America,its size just blew us away,at around a 1048 ft long,it had an unloaded draft of 36ft with a loaded draft of 39ft,said to do 35 knots,being the minimum speed a plane needs to take of when there is no wind,we were later told that its 280,000 hp four turbines (not nuclear) would push the ship as fast as 40 knots,at which time the rooster tail from the stern of the ship was level with the aft flight deck,She had a compliment of 5000.

We had the great fortune to meet one of the civilians working on board,his name was Hugh C Hollingsworth,he was on board as a Field Operations and Intergrated Logistics Support person for his company Litton Systems Inc,based in Woodlands Hills,California,USA.Litton specialised in Guidence and Control Systems.Due to his job description,Hugh was given officer status and he offered to show Dennis and I over the ship (times have changed) We were invited on board one morning for a full breakfast in the Officers Mess,then a guided tour all over the ship,upper and lower flight decks,Radio Office ,Bridge (no auto pilot) Computer Flight Control Repair Shops and just about every place we asked to go,only the ships engines were off limit.We even met the ships second in command,our cameras were allowed,we could and did climb up ladders next to fighter jets and look inside the cockpits.This was a highlight of our visit to Salvador,it would not happen now in todays unsettled world.

View the ships guest book: http://www.freeguestbooks.net/mg/multi.pl?54:9:0

Entry #: 670
Entry Date: 2009-01-11 06:57:26 this is my own entry below.

Name: Roy McBride
Email: Protected
Site Rating: 10
Visitor Comments:
When the USS America visted Salvador,Bahia,Brasil, in 1977 I was fortunate to meet a Mr Hugh C Hollingsworth,an engineer working for Litton industries,he was working on the ship as a civilian and had officer status,he invited both myelf and Dennis O,Brien to visit the ship and have breakfast with him in the officers mess.We were very well hosted,it was a great ships tour,the full breakfast and coffee still are memorable,can any person give me the exact dates the ship was in Salvador,Brasil?

I have the visit posted on my blog,some pictures never seen are included http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/
Regards
Roy


The end of this famous warship,USS America,came as she was secretly scuttled about 250 miles south east of the US mainland,Cape Hatteras.

Scuttling location

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from former USS America veterans at CVN78.com, the U.S. Navy released the exact location where USS America was sunk: 33°09′09″N 71°39′07″W / 33.1525, -71.65194, around 250 miles (400 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras. The wreck lies in 2,810 fathoms (5,139 metres or 16,860 feet).[3]

February 16th 2009,this just came in,so more news,amazing to connect ith the ships personel after so long.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The aircraft carrier USS America ( CV-66 )":

Dear Mr. McBride: In the summer of 1977 I was a junior petty officer assigned to Fighter Squadron 142 (the "Ghost Riders")which was part of Carrier Air Wing 6 embarked on board U.S.S. America at that time. The summer cruise to Brazil allowed "good will" port visits and also permitted Brazilian Navy aircraft to use the flight deck of the "America", as the only aircraft carrier possessed by the Brazilian Navy was in poor material condition and had been in the yards for several years. As a young man of 21 years age I must say I fell in love with Brazil; the memories of Salvador and Rio haven't faded after all this time. From saved letters the date of the arrival of the ship was June 22nd 1977. As I recall it was a three day port call (of which I spent two days ashore) which would put our departure date on the 26th of June 1977. The other vessels in our group were the U.S.S. DuPont and the U.S.S. Claude V. Ricketts (destroyers), the U.S.S. Neosho (a fleet oiler), and the U.S.S. Virginia (I think; a nuclear powered guided missile cruiser.) I hope this information is of use. Yours, David L. Gordon (a former naval person!)casilin

Posted by Anonymous to CKD Boats - Roy Mc Bride at 15 February, 2009 18:36

Janome Finesse Sewing machine type JFS1823

The re sewn mainsail cover,it will last a few more seasons now,the spray dodger has also seen similar repairs,saving us at least the cost of the machine I would think?


Here I am re sewing the mainsail cover,note the custom bobbin holder,a tube socket is in the Lewmar winch handle hole,works a treat,time for me to take out a patent?

My dad taught me to use a sewing machine,he in turn was taught in a german prison of war camp by a cobbler called Paddy,my dad became the camps tailor,he conned his way into this job to keep him out of the hard labour stone quarries.Type in to Google 'Gunner Robert McBride',you should find his true story of life in the camp.

www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/rob_mcbride.htm copy and paste this address into Google.

One of the best bit of kit we ever bought was an electric sewing machine,that was a step up from our hand driven Singer Sewing Machine,which even with its single straight stitch,the Singer works just fine but one hand has always to be winding the handle,so the feed in one handed,which is not so good on some jobs.We looked around at one of the local hyper stores for a small electric machine,found two models by Janome and chose the less expensive one,it was in our trolly when a lady supervisor asked why we took that one? Price was not really the issue,so explaining the Singer and what we hoped to sew with the new machine,she advised the Janome Finesse JFS1823,I asked her why,she said its simply a better machine with many more features,such as the Zig Zag stitch,which in our case would be needed for any spinnaker repair.

So here we are a decade later,the machine we purchased has been used for just about everything on our boat that needed repair,some easy things like a cockpit awning we even made ourselves,to date we have re sewn the spray dodger and over this holiday, I completly re did all the stitches on our main sail cover,the zip was ripping off,the thread that had been used seems to have been affected by the UV sunlight.Excepting the really thick parts where many layers of cloth have been placed to act as reinforcing,our Janome sews right through double and even tripple layers of the acrylic canvas,zippers too.

Tips:

Use a Janome Denim 16 or Klasse Jeans 90/100 needle (a Janome number 11 needle will be far too small)they are very much stronger and the eye hole is large enough to take the spinnaker thread we like to use,its very strong and should resist the sunlight beter.

Service your machine at least once a year,use light oil as per the users manual and check the drive belt for correct tension.

Make sure any machine you buy has a reverse function,its a really usefull addition when you need to finish off.

When preparing to do a large job,prepare a number of the smaller lower thread bobins,this will save you time later.

Seals found on the Hout Bay Marina

The next day.our local cape fur seal has moved,he was on the far marina next to the red boat.I think he has some type of fishing line around his neck,it will be stopping him from moving and feeding properly?


Nice teeth!


Leopard Seals eat Penquins and other seals.


A local Cape Fur seal.

Nature Conservation in the Cape Provence forbids human contact with local seals marine animal life,there are some very good reasons for this!

The Leopard seal is the largest of the true Antarctic seals.

Leopard Seals are the only seals that eat other seals.

Leopard seals have excellent senses of sight and smell under water.

Leopard seals catch penguins by their feet and then beat them back and forth on the surface of the water to skin them. Then, they eat the carcass.

The local seals are common,they do not often climb on our marina walk ways but I found one just yesterday,I once found a Leopard Seal sitting out on marina finger too,what an Antartic Leopard Seal was doing so far north I have no idea,not to be played with?

Orange Smoke Flare Pictures

The logo of the Cape Town Traditional Boat Association.


Thats Pinta,a Shearwater 39 schooner on the inside,with She a Buchanen sloop on the outside.

Note,the boat can not be seen but the mast of Lyn and Larry Pardys yacht, Talasin is sandwiched in between,you can see the mast and the Canadian flag.



Note,as with hand held flares its important to know that orange smoke flares should be released down wind!


Have you ever seen what they look like,live and in the water? we have to buy new ones each three years by law,I have just re placed my own set,so I know whats involved cost wise but should an emergency happen,the cost will be long forgotten! The TBA had a regatta at Unity ,Grainger Bay,the facility gave us a full on demonstration of pyrotechnics plus an in the swim pool demo of what a life raft is all about,they train profesionals to use the equipment,we were really fortunate to be hosted by them.

Peters Monkey,Claudia and her friends

click on any picture to view full size.


Alan Butler and Claudia.


The girls,one is local,the other sailed across on Elangaini,a sponsered race boat in the South Atlantic Race,Elangaini is a hotel in Durban,thats where the girl is from,Angelo Lavranos designed the race boat.


This is a love bite?

We had the pleasure to meet a very famous monkey at Ilha Grande,RJ,Brasil,Peter took her over from a local convent when the monkey became a little frisky,at Peters place the monkey was then allowed to be totaly free the entire day but then returned to her new home of her own free will each evening,her belt clip was then attatched to a very long line and she could then move around Peters garden and its high palm trees easily.

Paper Jet part built kit for sale right now

Dudley Dix's own boat is from one of our CNC cut ply packs,Buy this part built kit now,you could soon be sailing like this.

One of the buyers of our Paper Jet 14 kits has been re located and can not take his Paper Jet part built kit with him,he tells me its 70% complete and is ready for another to take it over right now,we have no pictures or price involved,we will add these in when we have them.We can crate and ship this boat world wide!

Ocean Planet (tal gal) anchored at Ilha Grande

Surely one of the joys of owning a yacht is when you arrive in a bay we all call Peters Place,Ilha Grande,Brasil,which is about sixty miles south of Rio de Janerio,some pictures just look right,this is one of them? Google Earth shows that the bay,which is at 23.09'19s 44.07' 36w is still unspoilt and undeveloped with just one extra cottage built in some 25 years,even Peters Ham Radio Shack still exists,you can find it by following a dirt track to the top of a hill,its just possible to see where Peter Thurridl (call sign PY1ZAK) used his amature radio from.

Roy

Wharram Tiki 30 catamaran

We may have our own line of boat designs but we are not adverse to supplying those who chose another,this is a Wharram Tiki 30 hull completed from materials we supplied,being the ockume marine plys and our own range of epoxies.This is the second Tiki 30 we have supplied recently,the first one is sailing,we also did all the spars and cross beams to that one.With a Hartley 37 being supplied in december 2008,we have a decent spread of other designs,we also supply the information on the use of our epoxies and International paints,this is all part of our service.

The yachts hard spray dodger continues

It was April 2008 we started work on the next kit offering,it then got side lined as we got busy with other things,its the way it goes as the year passes a half way mark but its time to re visit where we got to,the 15mm BS 1088 panels are now CNC machined,the roof is laminated from three sheets of Superform bending plys and the next step is assembly,I will update this blog as we proceed as of and when we have the time to do the work,kits orders come first and we still have those to complete and pack.

Proteus 106 sailing catamaran

This boat is in Thailand,it has just had its mast fitte,so we can expect some sailing pictures and a report on the boats performance quite soon.Our kit will cost only R180,000,which is around U$19,500 not a lot to pay for a 35ft catamaran these days.