Insulation,Alububble sheeting

I had recently removed the boats head liners to do some other work,so I used the chance to spray them with a twin pack satin clear laquer,a decision to install thermal insualation was taken too.What type and where from was a small problem,the aft cabin has 20mm polyurethane foam sheeting,it works well but does require cutting and makes a bit of a mess,it also needs a full coating of contact glue,so a lot of work. A chance conversation on the subject with Andre,one of our valued customers, had him deliver 4m2 of Alububble insulation to me to try out,he had bought an entire roll for his Sadler 32 new boat fit out.

Using this product is a great experiance,its easy to use,cuts with a Stanley knife,makes no mess and requires just a narrow application of contact glue around the edges only.Being just 3mm thick I was able to use the headliner as my template,cut and glue,then screw back in place,what a nice product,recomended!

With all head liners back in place and most of the teakwood trims screwed back as well we are nearly finished,I sense a nicer audio sound from those two Pioneer radio speakers too.

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We can make these hatch trims to order,either just the corners and you make your own frame,or completed and ready to fit,we stock round air vent trim rings in teak wood too.

Look closely,you can just see the edge of the insulation material on top of the plywood headliner,the air space is an important part of why it works by the way,always install with the silver foil upwards.

The silver side up,this panel is glued and ready to install.
Warning,if using contact glues or similar,always have lots of ventilation available,with no naked flame or smoking allowed.




Technical and Thermal Benefits of Alububble
Clean, strong, light and flexible


Odourless, non-carcinogenic, non-toxic, non-allergic


Vermin and insect resistant, inert, waterproof, excellent tear resistance


Irritant free - no loose fibres to irritate skin, eyes, nose or lungs


Energy efficient, insulation & vapour barrier in one


Heat stabilized for durability & effective in temperature range of – 20 C° to 80 C°


Quick and easy to install


Extremely cost effective


Alububble has been tested for fire resistance and classification in accordance wit SANS 10177


Special lengths on request


UV Protected


Choice of Colour

Sigmacover 525 tie coat application

What started out for me as a very large problem became a walk in the park when a proffesional team was assigned to me for the day,the idea was to get UHP water blasting known about In Hout Bay,for which CKD Boats are now your contact agents but the company who do this work can and do travel country wide,in fact the entire southern africa,so if you need a quality job please contact me at roy@ckdboats.com or Cape Town phone number 021 510-7206 for more information.

Sigmacover 525 tie coat can be overcoated in twelve hours up to a maximum of fourteen days,it has properties that bond with the next coat,which in my case was to be antifoul.
Left click all pictures to view full size and see the full details.

With a second coat applied we have the perfect finish,in twelve hours we can apply the antifouls.

The first coat will not give a full cover,the second coat does that with ease.


Using a fine mo-hair roller I applied the first coat of Sigmacover 525,its really important to get a 100% cover,no pin holes,nothing is allowed.

The suppliers of the paint told me that even after a 12 hour period had elapsed,even fresh paint needs a good hand wash with soapy water to remove 'contaminates' or airbourne dust and salts that may have blown in,we used a small amount of Teepol in fresh water,do not use washing up liquid,its additives could cause bother themselves.When washd,hose off ,then allow to dry fully before continuing the paint process.

At this stage we (me) have applied two full coats of Sigma etch primer,the cure period is a full 12 hours,so in my case the next day before overcoating with Sigmacover 525 tie coat was possible.

Sigma Primer on a UHP cleaned steel surface

If you want to blast your steel boat,keel or rudder with no mess other than water run off,read on.

The blasting process is beneath the blog on cruising in Saldhana,to follow is the overcoating with Sigmacover 525,then application of Interspeed antifouls,left click any picture to view full size and see more details.
The holes were cleaned out the following day and welded over,then a new coat of Sigma primer was applied over the new steel weld,prior to two coats of Sigmacover 525tie coat.

South African Cruising destinations

There are few places nicer than the Saldhana Yacht Club,its about 62 miles north of Cape Town.Thats baby Janet,with her mother Jean and Wally Hemmens having a chat early one morning.The boat is Ocean Planet,an Endurance 37 and our first yacht.

Flying Clouds steel keel box UHP water blasting

With such high pressure care must be taken to ensure safety,over blasting of other boats is not however a hazard,the water only has intense pressure up to about 40mm from the nozel tip,then it looses its high power very quickly.




A full technical team was sent to evaluate the job,nothing is left to chance,the Sigma primer paint was even applied by the same team.

The ultra high pressure pump,this uses only water and runs at a pressure of some 2000 bars,the job was to remove the paints and rust from my steel keel shoe,the job took about three and a half hours,thats about eleven coats of paints (ten years worth) plus any rust.

When a diver who was changing a propellor shaft anode said the keel anode is missing,we knew trouble was ahead,why the anode had gone is open to discussion,other boats have had bothers too,it may be an electrical thing.

Bruces Dixi Dinghy Build

Bruce has made fine progress on the build of our kit,its close to being ready to paint or varnish I think,the dixy dinghy is our most cost effective dinghy as it comes out of just two sheets of ockume marine grade 6mm ply,as a good load bearer its an ideal tender that can either row,motor or sail.
Left click the pictures to view full screen size.