Yacht Allied Bank by Angelo Lavranos

The arrival of a sponser to fund John Martins attempt on the BOC Race saw Angelo Lavranos design a world beating boat,it looked more like a space ship when compared to Voortrekker 2,it was sleek and very fast,for John it was a leg two class winner,only to loose the boat on the last leg when he hit an ice growler,he was rescued by a very tallented sailor and friend named Bertie Reed,who was in the same race on his yacht named Grinaker.

Roy

With Allied Bank (1990) John Martin & his brother Ian (who project managed the build of Allied Bank with the expertise of Phil Sharp) won the Transatlantic Two hander. On leg 1 of the BOC he got 2nd (after leading most of the leg but got a bit tangled in the SA high) , won leg 2 convincingly and hit the ice growler near Cape Horn on leg 3. Bertie and that amazing rescue. See photos attached.

Regards,
Angelo

Allied Bank at speed in Table Bay




Allied Bank BOC 60
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Allied Bank” open class BOC 60. Winner & Monohull recordbreaker of 1990 “Twostar” doublehanded transatlantic race E-W 15.3 Days.
Winner & recordbreaker of Cape Town–Sydney leg of 1991 BOC single handed round the world race. She held 17 hour accumulated overall lead in 1991 BOC when she had an ice collision on leg 3 near Cape Horn, putting her out of the race. She is the only carbon prepreg & Nomex boat in Africa. She was innovative and conceptually ahead of the French boats of the time.

LOA 18.280
BEAM 6.000
DISPLACEMENT 11700 kg
SA 220sqm

Tuna Marine,a design by Angelo Lavranos

I am always surprised when information of importance can not be found on the web and so it was with the boat Voortrekker 2,  a boat designed by Angelo Lavranos (who does our own Proteus 106 kit design)and built by the SA Navy for Bertie Reed and John Martin to compete in. The boat was a success in many ways, when it became Tuna Marine,I was told at the time by Angelo that this was now a new boat, its performance was to be far greater than it was as first launched, some words from Angelo follow.

Hello Roy,

Voortekker II was designed as both a crewed boat and as a single hander. When she was new 1980 she came second over the line in the (crewed) Uraguay race ( Bertie Reed) and won the monohull division of the Round Britain Two hander ( Bertie Reed & John Martin ). For subsequent single handed races she was being "pipped" by water ballasted boats ( which is not allowed in "normal" racing ). For the 1986/87 BOC we took out all the crew amenties and put in waterballast tanks. I also took off the ( bulbless) IOR keel and put a much deeper thinner keel with a bulb at the bottom (about half the weight of the old keel.) We added mainsail area. John Martin & Rob Sharp won the Transatlantic Two hander, then John Martin won legs 1 & 4 in that BOC race, leg two the mainsal tore & he burnt out all his autopilots, leg three his 6 year old runners gave in.

Regards Angelo

Left click any picture to view full size and see more details.

Cape Henry 21 bulkhead set

This is actually the last Cape Cutter 19 kit we exported,its now a built up boat and in Picton,South Island,New Zealand,it has only the top coats of paints to apply and Ian can launch his boat.We now sell the 10% larger Cape Henry 21 as a kit,the shape is the same and all panels are pre cut for you,this includes the hull and deck skins,coach roof and the cockpit.

Yacht Vixen built circa 1952

Vixen arrived in Durban on her first circumnavigation,the place is Durban in 1958,the original owner,Jim Stark was aboard.

Vixen on a chain mooring in Durban in 1958,these black and white pictures were supplied by David Cox,he tells me the late Norman Oliver took them.

Vixen arrives at HBYC on sunday 14,02,2010,it was 6.16pm and they had just sailed around from FBYC past Cape Point,Vixen is now 58 years old.She and her crew sailed off to St Helena isle on wedensday 24th February,2010,Bon Voyage!


Inside Vixen,the next two pictures are from the web site of Les,the guy who spent five years restoring Vixen,well done Les,you did a good job.





Some words from Les (schinck?) at Design Kraft,USA.

VIXEN is a 1950 design by John Atkin; 34’7” on deck, 32’ waterline, 43’ overall, 13 tons, gaff cutter, 1950. She was built by Joel Johnson at Black Rock, Connecticut in 1952 of eastern white cedar on oak frames. Her original owners, James and Jean Stark, circumnavigated 38,000 miles taking five years. William and John Atkin based the hull shape on the Colin Archer lifeboats from Norway. There were a handful of prior owners, the last brought her thru the canal and took her up to Alaska. They brought VIXEN to Port Townsend in 1989 where I saw her for sale at Point Hudson.

In 1990 I pulled the boat and started her rebuild. Five years later she was re-launched with new engine, gear, fuel and water tanks; 100 % re-framed, 50 % re-planked, new floor timbers, major stem and stern post repairs; all new interior, new cuddy cabin, new bow sprit, all new wiring, lights, new running rigging…”on and on” as they say.

VIXEN was in the 1995, 1997, and 2002 Wooden Boat Festivals. We sold her in 2003 but bought a 45’ salmon troller, Sockeye, in 2002, which was also in the 2002 Festival…what were we thinking?

Hout Bays own water feature

There has been a rumour that Cape Towns village of Hout Bay has the highest water pressure in the whole of South Africa,looking at this picture I think its true?

Left click to view full screen,warning,you may get wet.

Our estate at Northshore has a new water feature the Joneses may struggle to keep up with.

The last boat to Hebburn

Regular readers of this blog may remember my distant (very) connection with Hebburn on Tyne,my grandad on my fathers side used to work in the shipyards there,I only started to get curious about the place after my dad passed away,as often happens,it was by then too late to ask him the questions about Hebburn that I now want to.I check into www.hebburn.org on a fairly regular basis,a regular contributor,mainly shipping, is Kevin Blair,this was posted by him 18,02,2010.

The Last Boat To Hebburn

Words by Kevin Blair
This is a postcard i recently got and is postmarked March 20th 1908.

Another Toylander kit is collected

As featured in the November 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics,find that issue,its a great read.

Pierre with our demonstrator Toylander,when the CNC cut engineering parts are welded together,we will continue the build right up to it being fully painted and drivable.
Left click the pictures to view full size and see more detail.

Pierre bought his plans late last year,then placed his order for the Toylander base kit,it comes out of two sheets of high quality 12mm ockume marine plys,plus we supply epoxy,micro balloons,screws and battens,plus we laminate the bonnet and front wing curves in two layers of 3mm Superform bending plys.

Didi mini cruise drop keel

We have already sent out a drop keel for the cruise verson of the Didi mini transat,thats in Freemantle,Australia,this one will be going to Salisbury in England when its complete,we supply and mould the lead ballast halfs too.

We use Iroko for the drop keel on the Didi Mini Cruise as its quite heavy and also hard,so it will easily take the added 400 kgs of lead ballast that will be later bolted to it,we start the process with this lamination.We use phenolic marine glue,it dries well and stays hard in any weather,hot or cold,the lamination will stay clamped on our traveling saw bed over the next few days. Then it goes to our CNC shop guys at Digicut,they will profile the Iroko blank,I will later shape and finish the keel,ending up with epoxy paint primer.View the blog every so often for progress pictures.

Roy

T8sc as a kit

This is one of the three boats that Steve Thompson will be offering as a kit,with an exciting design feature that speeds up completion for the home or proffesional builder,plans are available from Steve,kits from CKD Boats.

LOA 8.0 metre
Beam 2.5 metre
Draft 2.2 metre
Sailing Weight 1280 kg
Crew Weight 425 kg (5 people)
Complete boat 855 kg
SA UP 52.0 sq. m
SA Down 138.3 sq. m






The T8sc has been designed as the answer to the competitive sailors dream that wants to be able to cruise on his boat with the family.

It retains all the sparkling performance of the racing 8 meter yet manages to accommodate the family in style.

Being lightweight means it is capable of easily being towed by the family car.
The rig is kept simple with a double swept spreader carbon or aluminium spar and three stay configuration. Asymmetric spinnakers and non overlapping jibs are specified, making this an easy boat to sail.
Topmast and running backstays are not required. The mainsail roach is carefully designed to produce the right amount of lay off in a breeze to allow the mainsail to exhaust.
The sails are limited to one mainsail, two jibs, a heavy weather jib and two asymmetric spinnakers. Both the keel and rudder are retractable for ease of launching and retrieving.

Accommodation is ample to sleep 4 adults with provision for an extended double berth forward. The galley is L shaped with room for a two burner cooker and built in sink. The head is forward of the main bulkhead separated from the rest of the boat by a curtain. Construction is kept simple and inexpensive with the use of the interior accommodation as structural components to keep the weight down.

Features:
Multiple construction methods
Accommodation for up to 4 adults
Functional cruising interior
Large cockpit with good interior volume
Easily towed behind a medium size car
Retractable keel and rudder for ease of launching and retrieving
Great racing performance

Steve Thompson,yacht designer

Steve is a New Zealander who works offshore,he has a factory set up in Vietnam producing very high class yachts,including carbon masts,check out the web site for more info on his production http://www.tboat.com/ CKD Boats has been asked to produce kits to Steves designs,we can then send world wide via our source of export contacts,plans will be bought and supplied direct from Steve Thompson,the kit from CKD Boats,we will start with the design featured below,the 'T 6.5 kit' as Steve has named it,it is similar to his T650 design.

Steve Thompson

The work place

We get regular requests for information of what products we can supply to the interiors of boats,plus what laquers to apply as a finish.This picture is the inside of a wood/epoxy Dix 43,it was fitted out starting twelve years ago and has now been in the water ten years,the trims and surafce veneers were all supplied from the same companies we now stock,the laquers used are a quality Dulux twin pack application,with 6mm tempered tinted glass for windows,there has been no degrade in the laquer at all.The flooring in teak and holly is real wood veneer,we can supply in a plastic laminate also.

Robs Jacuzi gets a face lift

Rob wanted to make his jacuzi a little more stylish than just a rectangle,he discovered our Superform bending plys and epoxies,with adding some of his own creativity,he now has a great design thats all his own.The ply is water proof,by using our epoxy its even more so,I think it will be painted with twin pack marine coatings,it should last a life time then.





This is what Rob started with,a plain rectangle,Robs in house design using our Superform bending plys changed the look of things by some margin.

1966 Jaguar 3.8S type restoration

Our Jaguar has been under restoration since we got it about twenty eight years back,the last major works were to drop all brakes and hoses,rebuild the brake cylinders,including the barke booster,plus drop the entire back axle and its limited slip differential to be able to fit new bearings and hand brake parts while we were at it,the entire cars undertray was hand cleaned and repainted too.As the engine has a near new cylinder head on it,the correct patern wire wheels and a top quality leather interior,this car will make a good project for anyone wanting a real classic,you just need to repaint the car!

All new parts including a stainless steel exhaust system right through to the engine.

Roy and Vic

A rare picture of me with Vic Haark the manager of Clutch and Brake Supply,or CBS for short,the event was my collection of the very last 6 1/4" Lockheed clutch assembly left in South Africa,I needed that for the 1967 Hillman Californian Imp I had just found in Pietermaritzburg.Vic was an Imper himself,prooven by the very large picture he had hanging in his works office of the British Saloon Championship winner known as The Bevan Imp,Vic gave me his picture and its now displayed in my garage at home,thanks Vic!

Rope works tradition lives on

Its nice to see that tradition lives on in Hout Bay,at least rope wise that is,some years back I spliced all my mooring dock lines to stainless thimbles myself with some help and demonstration from a friend named Nick,recently when my line chaffed through,I asked Lars on the boat next to me, if he can do an end to end splice for me,this is the result,as you can see its very neat and has saved my spliced end and the line is back in use.

Nick is a pro boat captain,Lars is a pro diver and fisherman,recently Steve on Dixi Rollar sailed off,Steve is yet another man who can splice lines,Lars tells me that Anna on the boat next to him, is better at splicing than he is.On our last long trip on Ocean Cloud,we had Simone aboard,she did a Turks Head around our steering wheel to show its center postion,she also crafted a Monkeys Fist on a throwing rope end, when it was known we were about to meet up mid ocean with yacht Four Skippers to exchange our cold beers for their warm ones.Not forgetting Charles of Figaro V,another ex pro diver who can splice lines with the best of them and all this in our harbour too!
Left click to view the pictures full screen size.