Saturday 2 January 2010

Canvas Spray Dodger for sale

with the addition of the new hard dodger,the used canvas and 316 stainless steel one is for sale,cheap at R3000,with its now faded canvas,it needs a little service work but as made by North Sails it has a well made history.


What is supplied,as in the picture:

Width of main hoop at base 2250mm,this can go in or out a little but basically suits a boat around 43 feet long.

One main hoop,one secondary hoop,which is hinged to the main hoop.
Base plates for attatching the main hoop to the coach roof top.
One pair of special long rigging screws to addjust hoop tension,base plates to attatch to the coachroof.
All stainless steel is in 316 marine grade
One fabricated curved plywwod base,in two pieces but will reasemble easy enough.
One alloy Bolt Rope Track to attatch the front end of the canopy to the curved base.
One North Sails canvas canopy cover with a front zipper vent panel for air flow when required.

Friday 1 January 2010

Yacht hard dodger fitted

Transformation complete,our old canvas spray dodger and 316 stainless steel frame work is now for sale! One great feature with the new hard dodger is I can easily walk on the roof top and get at the mainsail,which was impossible before. Our complete kit includes clear 6mm toughned glass,not plastic sheeting such as perspex or lexan, which will always fade and scratch with time,we can offer glass with a light tint in pale blue or brown to suit your requirements.

Fitted,it transforms the boat and adds huge space and comfort to the cockpit. We can ship world wide as a flat pack,one kit is already in New Zealand,we require your boats cabin width and depth of space available,we can also pre make for customers who can collect,or crate and ship world wide to your order.

A vent light is very important,we supply this pre cut in the standard kit,the hand made teak trim is optional,we can make these to your custom sizes, for windows and hatches in other wood species such as mahogany,beech or oak to suit other applications,they will post world wide easy enough.We also stock Thaiteak ventlight rings and grabrails,from one loop to seven loop sizes.

Fitting took a few hours only.

Hout Bay Harbour,early morning loading from our truck to the boat (its not at all heavy)the hard dodger meets its boat at last,even now its looking good but still needs scribing to the cabin top and fastening down,it will go about 40mm lower when fastened.

Thursday 31 December 2009

Another good wooden boat,Paper Jet 14 building

Pictures by Denzil,left click to open full size.


This Paper Jet 14 is being built from one of our CNC cut kits,Denzil tells me his progress is steady and good,there is a fine (large) very detailed builders book that is supplied with the plans,you are taken step by step through the build,lots of pictures too.

Monday 28 December 2009

Yacht Zeeslang,a good wooden boat


Taken at the RCYC Classic Boat Rally in 2007,I think this may be a Trevour Wilkins picture.Note the very unusual and inovative original coach roof.


Click on all pictures excepting this one to view full size,more pictures below, taken by R McBride with a Canon G11 digital camera.

Taken from the book writen by J.S.Rabinowitz a history of the Royal Cape Yacht Club,Bill signed my own copy for me on the evening the volume was released.

Page 333:

In 1958 came the biggest shock administered to the sailing community in the shape of a Van de Stadt-designed boat introduced by Kees Bruynzeel.We looked at this over-sized dinghy of a boat and declared we wouldn't trust our lives to such a small craft in Table Bay.There she lay at the bottom of the jetty,looking,in our eyes like a glorified sharpie.

Then came her debut-in an ocean race to Dassen Island and back in half gale conditions in july 1958.P111 (Parergon 3)could have been expected to win,especially on the beat into the northwesterly,but the wind blew up a sea that was just too short for her and she pounded her way from wave to wave to Dassen Island,finding,to her surprise,the Zeeslang was holding them.On the way home she beat them by some 40 minutes.

The answer was simple-P111 built along the old designs with plenty of boat below the water could not hold a virtually flat-bottomed boat by comparison,with only a slender keel offering resistance below.
Fred Smithers had been on a trip to Europe earlier and had spoken about this type of boat but we took no notice of him.As to her seagoing qualities:

6 of the 8 starters had dropped out including P11 (Parergon 2) who had lost her mast when the backstay shackle parted.Windsong lost her main and jib and Active retired as her crew was to small to stand up to the conditions encounted.John Goodwin sailing to Saldanha on his Vertue,decided to give up the weather best and returned to shelter at Robben Island.

This race blew away our cobwebs and established the name of Van der Stadt as a designer.It also gave the answer to our long quest for a one design for the club-but not immediately.In march the General Committee approoved the purchase,by the Sailing Committee of plans for a selected one-design boat.

Page 353:

Mr Bruynzeel took an interest in the RCOD and at his own expense had modified plans of the successfull overseas racer "Black Soo" drawn up by Ricus van der Stadt to suit Table Bay conditions.What had finally influenced the club to go for a 'Zeeslang' design was her 33 hour voyage back from Mossel Bay to Simonstown,with Mr Cliff Leh at the helm.

Note,Zeeslang has been known to reach speeds of fifteen (15) knots!

Comments below from a friend,Notty on his memories of Zeeslang.

I think Jeff Smith owned Zeeslang for a while and Jeff was a big mate of Jock Grey and Alan Duncan so he used to sail with both Jeff on Zeeslang and Alan off Sonnet, Julian was also part of that little gang with his original Red Wing and they all really had some fun on their boats, I never actually sailed on Zeeslang but used to hear all the stories about it. Julian was good enough to loan me Red Wing when Sonia's elder sister came out so we could take her for a sail on Table Bay. Not sure when that was but I started sailing from the RCYC in about 1973 I think after buying Sunmaid off Colin Cooper who had been a Lipton Cup winner at one time.
HBYC marina and as restored a few years back by Tommy Walker for Bernard Diebold Zeeslangs owner.




Not many imported boats take off the way this design did,said by many when it arrived in Cape Town to be too lightly built to survive the waters and weather found off the cape,it soon changed peoples minds by breaking records and not itself.

News in a few days back:  17/05/2013.


http://www.maritiemdigitaal.nl/index.cfm?database=ChoiceMardig&museum=&allfields=&title=&keyword=&creator=&collection=&shipname=&invno=1994.2573+&event=search.getadvancedsearch&saveToHistory=1


Dear Roy McBride,

You may be interested in the plans of Zeeslang.

They can be provided by the Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam. Inventory number 1994.2573

They are send by We Transfer.

Costs are €15,- admin and €4,- for each plan. There are 3: lines, construction and sailplan.

I hope this info is useful to you.

Sincerely,

Daan Jaspers

Sunday 27 December 2009

NSRI Station 8,Hout Bay

This may have been back on 15th May 1986 but Hout Bays Station 8 are still doing a grand job,thanks to them!

Left click on images to see full size.

The Pipedream 37 by Francis S Kinney


When I restored Andante,a Pipedream 37 design at the RCYC little did I know that some thirty years later I would be both asked for information and find myself asking too.

Will Lau emailed me from New Zealand,he has a Pipedream 37 of his own and wants to find more about this classic design,so has posted its own web site at:

http://www.danger.co.nz/francis-kinney-pipedream-37/

I contacted Colin Farlam,the RCYC historian and asked him to refresh my mind on the boats built locally,there were two,Allegra and Andante,both built by different owners with some persons having worked on both it seems? I posted a very long reply on wills blog but its lost,so I will do it here and the info will be findable in the future I hope,maybe Will can copy and paste to his own web site later?

Colin Farlam tells me that Allegra was built on land near Lakeside or what is now named Marina Da Gama on the Cape Flats near Simonstown,False Bay,the boat was launched around 1969/70 ? the owner was a Mr Seddon Cripps,who had various skilled persons build the boat for him it seems,they used the book by Francis S Kinney as a guide,I was told that its possible a Mr Cupido worked on both boats,I know he worked on Andante which was built later and used Allegras lead keel mould.

Using my first edition copy of A history of the Royal Cape Yacht Club,which was signed and given to me by its late author J.S Rabinowitz,on the evening it was launched by Bill himself,the first mention I find of Allegra is in 1973 when she won a race skippered then by the new owner Harold Sender,then vice commodore and later to be commodore,this is on page 436,when Harold bought the boat from Seddon I have yet to discover,I saw Allegra around 1975,she sailed off some time later,I have no idea where to?

Andante was a good restoration project for me,repaint inside and out,remove the mast and five coats of clear varnish after it was completly stripped,Jean and myself went the the new owner and selling broker one July (?) night up to Saldahna,the Volvo engine was overheating at any more than 4 knots,so it was a long and very cold night.

Andante was built by her owner,his name I have yet to discover but two persons I know will tell me,one did the 1976 Cape to Rio yacht race on the boat,the owner/builder was the skipper.Mr Cupido was one person who worked on her,this I know as when it was found some required keel timbers (floors) were never fitted on construction,it was he who was called in to install them having worked on the boat prieviously,this was done in the RCYC clubs car park.This was after a dramatic start by a delivery skipper to Durban from Cape Town,they hit bad weather and the caulking at the keel was leaking so bad,they only just made Hout Bay twenty miles away.Once repaired the boat was delivered to Durban.

October 16th 2010 I met Derek Lourens one of the crew in the Cape to Rio race on the HBYC marina after a yacht race,he did the return trip to and tells me the owner then was Gert Van Dyk who now lives on the east coast of South Africa,it would be nice to make contact with Gert.

Frans Loots found this blog entry and has sent me the following information.

Andante.


You posed the question if Andante sailed to Rio.

Yep it sailed in the 76 Rio race and finished somewhere near the back.

In preparing for the race Andante had her IOR measurement inclination test done at the same time as we did the Navy's Centurion class sloops. I was based at the sailing centre under then Chief Petty Officer Bertie Reed (national service does not come better than that!) and we all helped Gert Van Dyk that morning because he was on his own.


Many thanks Frans.

Roy