Saturday 22 August 2009

The sailing Saverios of Brasil

Picture copyright to Roy McBride.

This picture was taken by me in 1977 its in the bay off Salvador city,Bahia,Brasil,its a timeless picture as there are so many similar boats sailing on a daily basis,some trade,some are now tourist boats,many of those never use sail,this one prooves they are well able to.

Friday 21 August 2009

Whats building?







As a follow on to the blog below,these are some pictures sent by Alain,a customer who bought his own kayak plans from another company,then asked us to supply materials,we do this all the time,we sell kits but we also sell the materials too.

Whats packing,its the the Dixi Dinghy!






Dear Customers,

We continue to recieve your valued orders, we process, pack and ship,large or small we ship them all! the package in the picture is a Dixi Dinghy kit going to Eshowe,in Natal,South Africa but it could just as easy ship to Botswana, Dubai, or Italy,we ship world wide on a regular basis.We now have sent orders out in the hundreds if not a thousand plus,I have never worked it out but its a regular event and the orders keep coming in,we sent phenolic glues out yesterday to Standerton,Johannesburg, it was very cost effective with www.sapo.co.za and ten kgs packed cost just R85,thats just over U$10, we have no problems with that service or charge at all.Todays packing has started on a hard spray dodger kit we are sending to Graham down in New Zeland,so on it goes.

We do try and supply a tracking number when possible but please remember,we are responsable for your order only untill it is posted or shipped,then the responsability moves to the carrier/shipper,all kit exports by air or sea are insured but at an extra service charge to the client.We have been asked once or twice about sending funds to us when we are so far away, we have now shipped to twenty four (24) countries,either as our boat kits,materials or recently the Hillman Imp,Singer Chamois,Sunbeam Sport exhaust manifolds,remember,if you have a project on ,we may be able to supply your materials direct to you cheaper than you can buy locally yourself?

Roy

Thursday 20 August 2009

Marvin Creamer,the navigator


Globe Star at Cape Towns Royal Cape Yacht Club.


Globe Star


The Route


Globe Stars sail plan

Marvin Creamer.

It was after an early morning shower at the RCYC mens facility,I was having a shave at the row of sinks and standing next to me, was a guy called Marvin Creamer doing the same,just an average looking guy,we chatted and he spoke real easy,you would never think he was on his way soon by small yacht for the southern ocean and all it entailed,this was by way of the stars and ocean currents,as while Marvin had tables and a sextant aboard,they were sealed and not to be used on his around the world voyage.This was long before what was termed Satnav became the norm,Having recently invested in GPS I can only think back to that shave and the man standing next to me doing the same.

The Globe Star voyage
By David Cromie

house fly brought the news: land was near! On May 13, 1984, after 510 days at sea, Marvin Creamer ’43 neared the end of a voyage which had begun as a fantasy in his teenage mind while reading avidly about oceangoing sailboats. For half a century, Creamer dreamed of sailing ’round the world in a small boat. On the second of his eight Atlantic crossings, he began to consider the possibility of a voyage around the globe without the use of navigational instruments. Now, the appearance of the house fly was a good indication that he was about to become the first person in recorded history to complete such a feat. His 36-foot vessel, The Globe Star, was almost home.

Four days after the fly’s visit, following a night of “wrestling with heavy sails,” the exhausted skipper had just crawled into his bunk when he was awakened by repeated shouts. Overhead, a U.S. Coast Guard chopper circled the Globe Star. Off the starboard bow, Creamer spotted a red marker, the “F” marker just 15 miles south of Cape May. At 1 p.m. on May 17, the Globe Star entered Cape May harbor having logged 30,000 miles and 17 months at sea. It had been a “jolly romp” on the ocean, Creamer writes in his record of the journey.

Using only environmental clues, Creamer and his crew sailed around the globe in a record-breaking feat of grand proportions. They relied on stars, waves and water color, bird life, cloud formations, the sun and planets, the horizon and identifiable landmarks. With their sextant, clock, compass and radio sealed in a locker below deck, the crew of the Globe Star proved what Creamer had always believed—that it is possible to navigate the globe in a small boat without instruments. The soft-spoken 68-year-old retired geography professor became an American hero much admired by those he met during his adventure. Creamer and his crew docked at Capetown, South Africa; Hobart and Sydney, Australia; Whangora, New Zealand; and Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Christmas 1983 was spent in the Falklands where they had unknowingly made port at a top secret British military installation. “We were the talk of the Royal Air Force,” Creamer writes. “They treated us like kings, but they thought we were crazy.”

“What we demonstrated,” he concludes, “is that information taken from the sea and sky can be used for fairly safe navigation. How far pre-Columbians sailed on the world’s ocean we do not know; however, it is my hope that the Globe Star voyage will provide researchers with a basis for assuming that long-distance navigation without instruments is not only possible, but could have been done with a fair degree of confidence and accuracy.”

Creamer has always been a doer as well as a dreamer. As a Glassboro State undergraduate, he founded and published The Half-Whit, parody and competition for the official student paper, The Whit. From 1948 to 1977 he served his alma mater as a professor, and also held posts as director of public relations, president of the Faculty Association and chair of the Social Studies Department. Named Outstanding Professor by The Whit in 1964 and Distinguished Alumnus by fellow alums in 1980, Creamer won additional awards after the voyage: Cruising World appointed him to the Sailing Hall of Fame, and in 1986 the Cruising Club of America awarded him sailing’s highest honor, the Blue Water Medal. Today, Creamer and his wife, Blanche Layton Creamer ’42, reside in Pine Knoll Shores, N.C., where they plan to stay on dry land.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

North Sails,a Dixi Dinghy sail


Large or small,we supply them all,with supply from North Sails the quality is easy to see.


The well known North Sails logo,while we buy our North Sails from the Cape Town loft,all sails carry a world wide twelve month warranty,we can supply world wide at very good prices when the sails are sold as part of our kits.

I was at North Sails this morning collecting a sail for the Dixi Dinghy kit we have on order,this will be one of our smaller kits we produce but in many ways just as important as the larger ones,as acorns do make very large oak trees,start small,think big,its not unusual for a small dinghy to start as a trial construction test on the way to larger things.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Peter Harper really flying!


This may have been late sixties,early seventies and at Lydden Hill,UK,the car is a Chrysler works rallye cross car driven by the late and very great driver Peter Harper,its said he went around bends faster than Harpic!Check out how clean Peters wind screen is compared with the Mini behind him.

Monday 17 August 2009

Jimmy Woolf becalmed!

Yacht Bolt Hole,jimmys self built steel yacht,its a great picture and I think the very first time its been published,copyright is to Caroline Woolf.Left click the picture to see a really great quality photo.


This is a man who by now has circumnavigated,not on the same boat but he builds what he sails,steel construction.The picture was taken in the Azores high,not a breath of wind. I assume Jimmy asked his wife Caroline to take the picture from their dinghy?

Sunday 16 August 2009

The 1965 Scottish Rally,Hillman Imp,works car number 5


This Hillman Imp,registration number 4525 KV and marked number 5 on the doors,was of course Rosemary Smiths Rootes Competitions works entry.

1965 June
This rally is the main subject of the Rootes video "Highland Imp 1965". Only a few weeks after the Tulip. And only 3 days after the Acropolis Rally where three other Works Imps competed, only the crews being flown home to compete [source: Don Barrow]. The Works team had three Imps, driving with the engine lid agap: the third one being David Pollard with comp.no. 11 - he wasn't shown to finish. The event lasted 5 days. It consisted of 1166 miles, mostly rough and muddy roads through forest area, and 52 special sections. Paddy Hopkirk (Mini-driver) declared it the roughest rally he'd ever been in. Of the 105 cars that started only 42 finished (according to the video). But the Imps were much in evidence.