Wanted B&G Network GPS 12 Instrument Control

This is the GPS control unit wanted.

This is the full set up,the unit center page that is the main control would be good to have as a back up.

Does anyone have one of these for sale or trade? if so contact me at

roy@comlumber.com other Network instruments also considered.

Boat Bits Pages

This is to be found on a site we have no actual link with,excepting a common cause perhaps?

A sailing blog : Random thoughts and rants on boat design, boat building, and other boat bits...
Monday, July 06, 2009
masts and rigging for the real world...

Sadly these days a lot of things cost silly money and more than their share has the word "marine" attached!

For those of us firmly in the cheap seats, there are a lot of ways to bring costs down but I'm always surprised at just how expensive some stuff can be...

Take masts and rigging for instance! Seriously silly prices get thrown around for what is really just aluminum tubes and wire. Now in the cheap seats of course we know that we NEVER buy industrial stuff (like wire) from a purveyor of marine goods. Buying it from Acme wire who may not know a boat from a hole in the wall but certainly DO KNOW wire, is even more important because they are not in the world of silly marine pricing. They sell wire and other rigging stuff for what it's worth not what they can gouge which is often a huge difference!

The same line of thinking goes for chainplates and suchlike... Now that just about every city has some sort of CNC metal cutting operation you can make a drawing give it to a guy and have a perfectly cut and polished chainplate for just a little more than the cost of the metal value. I won't even mention the obscene pricing the last time I looked at chainplates from a marine store...

Masts, being low volume products with seriously high tooling costs are pretty silly price wise but you have to wonder how various mast builders always seem to have brand name masts with maybe a little scratch or cosmetic blemish in the anodizing for 10% of the retail price. Of course with masts being just hollow tubes there are all sorts of alternatives to marine industry spars... I've known more folks who built boats and wound up with light poles and suchlike that worked out just fine at a fraction of what it would cost to buy something from Francespar or the like.

Dudley Dix and CKD boats are even doing mast kits in... (Dare I say it?) ... Wood!

It might suprise a lot of folks but wood works real well for masts and in these days of epoxy and other evil chemicals, no longer falls prey to 99% of all the negative press... Check it out!

Notice to Mariners heading to Fortaleza,Brasil

This is the chartlet posted on the Marina Park Hotel web site,todays date is 7th July 2009,they have been asked to change the entry but have not seen fit,DO NOT USE THIS FOR NAVIGATION,just eye ball the pictures and the chart,you will soon see what I mean.

Note,this is for information only,it is up to the mariner himself to check out postitions and bearings.

Left click chart to enlarge.

Left click this picture to view in a larger size,then cast your eye along the red arrow line,its basically the same approach course as the chartlet gives above!

Ship wreck, Mara Hope,its position,the marina.

This picture does show a bouy,does it light up at night I wonder?

Hard to miss,in day light anyway.

Whats left of the wreck,the other half is still under the water I assume,its hidden from view.

The view of the wreck from the marina.

My 2009/1 copy of Flying Fish,the Journal of the Ocean Cruising club high lights a very near miss when a yacht was heading for the Marina Hotel,Fortaleza,Brasil one night,using a chartlet from the hotels own web site they almost piled up on this well known (to locals) ship wreck,the charts are incorrect too it seems?

Radius chine laminate on one of our kits

Left click the picture to see all the details.

This picture is from John in Salisbury,England,he is making good progress with closing off the hull skins,here he is dry fitting strips of 4mm marine ply,this is the first layer of the two he will fit,as we suggested,he is dry fitting each side,its about 46 strips,then he will remove them five or six at a time,apply glue and screw them back in position again,when the glue has dried,the screws will be removed and he will restart the process,it goes very quickly.

Mast kits

This mast section is taken from one of Dudley Dix's mast drawings,he supplies the design work for many parts of the rig,in full detail,we can supply the parts as a kit.


This drawing is copyright to Dix Design and may not be copied or used without prior permision.

We have won boat kit orders over in the past by supplying mast kits in wood as against alloy,I wont even mention carbon,the cost is just outrageous!Its worth mentioning that before alloy we only ever had wood spars,many are still standing of course,trees manage in strong winds without the assistance of steel wire supports,so when we use wood and add the stainless wires,we are well up strength wise.

The worlds economy is pushing up the cost of many raw materials,plastics and metal are prime targets,this sees alloy becoming an expensive option,witnessed by the very high cost to masts made from the stuff.

Re enter wooden masts? So why not and what if we pulled a few tricks and used the wood as an element but then add some fancy componants,like 316 stainless steel and carbon fibre,plus Harken or Antal mast tracks complete with batten cars,when the mast is painted,fitted out and raised,you wont even know it has a timber core but you will have a lot of cash left to buy your North Sails!

We are working together with the yacht designer Dudley Dix on this,he has done a lot of fine work on masts to suit his designs,one drawing we have shows the fractional rig for his Didi 38 range using a sectional box shape for the mast tube,CNC cut stainless steel for tangs and spreader ends,carbon fibre to the two sets of spreaders,an external mast track for the mainsail.

The mast can be shipped as a kit easily of course as no part will exceed 5.5 meters in length,we will supply all materials and batt car track and cars to a manufactuer of your choice.

Hillman Imp dry sump motor,a picture of Johns engine

Left click the picture to see the full details!

This ties in with our regular exports of the full race inlet and exhaust manifolds we are exporting,the car is a Beach formula single seater,it won its class in the USA last year,at this time the manifold we have supplied is not fitted to the engine,just check out Johns preperation!

Christmas on Hout Bays YC marina

This picture is titled 'Christmas at Home',thats a very small Janet McBride in the cockpit and her mother Jean, standing on the dock,the boat is our first 'Endurance 37',named Ocean Planet,we had just sailed around from our RCYC marina in Cape Town.Left click the picture to view full screen size.



Ok,its some time back but this picture taken by me with my trusty Canon FT SLR camera, is just as valid now as then,its that cruising family life many aspire to,some never make it,some just for a short time but its the adventure that keeps the dream going!

June too Soon,October its over

Left click to view full size and read it.


This is a reminder of what the hurricane season is all about,while we were in Trinidad at the TTYA (Trinidad and Tobago Yachting Association) we were handed this A4sheet as a reminder as to where we were in the world.

Motor boat design by Justin

This idea may soon be our next ply/epoxy kit offering,we will do the boats interior too,a very simple construction method prooven by all the boat kits we have produced to date.




This continues on the idea of the Commuter power boat,this design is not complete,its a proposal for a craft sized forty feet long and ten feet wide,with nothing cast in concrete as fas as the sizes are concerned,we know this type of craft has a future as a weekender but also as a retirement home.

Justin comments:

Hi Roy - been entertaining myself with this concept of a 40ft powercruiser.

Long and thin - I think she will be quite agile and easy to build in hard chines, with a box keel.

Selling points would be:

Economical to build and operate
Offers a lot of accommodation for her size. Two versions are shown - one has an extra aft cabin for guests/chartering.
Traditional looks
Ideal for Med, European rivers, and Intra-coastal waterway.
Long range - about 2-4 k n.m depending on tankage.
Quite comfortable for a motor cruiser - limited rolling.
Light and airy saloons
Very quiet underway It wouldn't be hard to make this boat unsinkable and fully self-righting. Need to do the tricky work on hulls etc before I can prove this though
I also suspect she would sail suprisingly well off the wind with the features of a sharpie (allowing for limited reserve stability, small rudder and large fixed prop). Though this is not the design objective at all . . .


Cheers The "40' Light Cruiser" was conceived as a yachtsman's alternative to a sailboat for cruising grounds in the Med, Baltic, perhaps the West Coast of Scotland -alternatively the Intra Coastal Water way, the Caribbean or similar. She is intended as a very economical displacement boat, capable of 6-7 kts on a single economical 50Hp engine. Sketches shown are concept drawings for a a simple and easily constructed hull. The hull form is not finalised yet, but will be based on an advanced sharpie concept, with a box-keel, and moderate deadrise. This will keep the weights very low, for good reserve stability and reduced rolling, while allowing the engine to be sunk low into the keel, with a near-horizontal shaft angle. The keel itself will be metal-plated below allowing grounding and shoal draft cruising. While most economical at hull speeds, this type of hull-form can easily be moved at semi-displacement speeds of up to about 20 kts without much bother, but initial design intention is purely for economy, safety, ease of construction, and low cost.

Normally, this design brief results in a light trawler boat concept. However, it is intended the sharpie hull will offer simpler construction, lower cost, better looks, less windage etc. Possibly less rolling too but this needs to be assessed once a design is available.

Compared with a sailboat, the advantages of this kind of vessel include:
- ideal for rivers, bridges, canals, and shoal-draft estuaries etc
- allows voyaging in ideal weather conditions (don't have to wait for the wind)
- easy short-handed cruising (retired couple)
- easily beached or grounded on box-keel for maintenance
- ability to see out through cabin windows at eye-level
- low cost of construction (no rig or keel required)
- easily stored on land in hurricane season (low and flat)
- easily constructed in marine ply with no complex curves

Sharpies of this nature start to make sense at 40' LOA. Due to their flat underbodies, sufficient headroom is not easily achieved on shorter vessels, unless they become very high and slab-sided. At 40' (perhaps 39' for licensing reasons and mooring costs) - they start to offer generous accommodations, excellent cruising range, and ride comfort.

Principle dimensions:
LOA 40'
Beam 10'
Fuel Tankage - 1000 litres
Power - 50Hp diesel inboard driving a single slow turning 18' prop
Cruising speed 6-7 kts
Range - 2k n.m. with some reserve.
Displacement (loaded) est. 6000 Kg




Justin

The calm of Hout Bay

Well if this is winter in Hout Bay,I am staying put! This picture of Hout Bay YCs marina,shows what a wonderfull place we have here at the end of Africa,the marina is well serviced and has both water and electricity,we also have dustbins which are emptied on a regular basis.Of course its not calm like this all the time,but often enough to make is a worth while visit if your passing by.
Converions to U$ Dollers as of todays exchange rate of R8 to U$1.00
R 750 = U$ 94
R 850 = U$106
R 950 = U$119
R1150 = U$144

The above is as posted and subject to change and the marina rules which every visitor must sign his or her acceptance to.For specific information contact the Marina Manager,Peter Godley at peter@hbyc.co.za or phone on 021 790-7095 (marina office line,fax and phone)

Rates? if your using external currency its probable that these prices will look very good to you and if you pre pay BEFORE October,you may just get our old rates by way of a discount,its worth asking when you lay your cash on the table!

Liverpool to Cape Town,the race begins!

Liverpool is of course my original home town but so now is Cape Town,so its a delight to publish this picture of the race fleet starting in 2002 on the River Mersy,next stop is of course Cape Town.
picture is by the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo ltd,my folks bought this copy.

USS 67 JFK air craft carrier docking in Malta

Left click to view full size!

This is in Malta,I would like to thank a customer for bringing this great picture to my attention,thanks Andrew!