Resound sails off

Spotted early yesterday evening,the Angelo Lavranos 39 design ( L39)  Resound was heading out of Hout Bay,with a number two yankee head sail and two reefs in her main sail she was not pushing it,was she heading back later (note the fenders still over the side) probably not as she has a smaller white head sail hanked onto her inner forstay and lashed to the deck,a night trip Saldahna maybe?

Tom owns Resound,he and his lady plan a long trip one of these days,learning as they go they are enjoying our local sailing waters.

Left click for a larger picture,note,Resound was to be seen back on her moorings the next day,welcome home!

Roy,Hout Bay.

The Tiga sports racing car

Tiga Race CarsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search

My thanks to Justin Philps (now on holiday) for telling me what design this car is.
A 1985 Tiga GT sports car.Tiga Race Cars Ltd. was a British auto racing constructor and team. The company was founded in 1974 by two former Formula 1 drivers, Australian Tim Schenken and New Zealander Howden Ganley. The company's name was formed by the first two letters of Tim and Ganley. Tiga constructed racing cars for various forms of open wheel racing and sports car racing, ranging from Formula Ford to the World Sportscar Championship. Nearly 400 chassis were sold by Tiga until the company folded in 1989.

Drivers of Tiga-built cars won numerous championships and events, including three European, four British, and one American Sports 2000 championships, two Australian Drivers' Championship's as well as class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Spice Engineering used a Spice-Tiga GC85 Ford to win the Group C2 Teams title in the 1985 World Endurance Championship [1] and Tiga won the 1988 Camel Lights Championship for Manufacturers in the North American IMSA GT Championship.

Up the river in your Quick Canoe

You could be,build it today and use it tommorrow,the designer Mike Storer says its so simple it can be built in less than five hours.Plans and kits are available from CKD Boats cc.

Roy

Hout Bay,place of winds but fog today.

021 790-3859 thats a phone and a fax line.

Energy Diet trimaran can fly

It would seem so,just check out the chart below.

left click to read the words.

Roy

All info has been charted and supplied by Karin,

Hi Roy -


Latest tri position now on  http://www.tempestsailing.co.za/
Haven't built in Refresh tools yet, so you may have to use the menus for now to see the latest info.

Watch the site grow in the course of the day!

I've been messing around with life and a new little creature is being born on the web today :)

K.

A Holiday 23,new rudder replacement supplier.

Eddie called me to see if we can make him a new Holiday 23 rudder,no bothers with this and we can make it the 150mm longer he says is working on other H23 yachts,with the Holiday 23 Worlds not far off we had better start laminating soon.

Note,the yachts designer (they sold over 200 by the way),Angelo Lavranos tells me the rudder will be fine just the way it is but we can make the blade longer if required at an extra charge.

http://www.holiday23.co.za/Entry%202011%20Robtek%20Fun%20Worlds.htm
Open the link to read up on the Holiday 23 Worlds to be once again hosted by the Port Own Yacht Club (poyc)

I contacted the boats designer,Angelo Lavranos for the original rudder drawings,which show that this factory made rudder (standard ?) is not only 20mm wider than it should be but at least 50% under specification on the GRP sides,which is probably why it broke as it did?

From now on we will be offering new Holiday 23 rudders,either the standard length to fit in the slide box (cassette) or the longer length version suitable for permanent fixing on your boats transom,we can also offer a better sized and stronger 316 stainless steel set of pintals and gudgeon pins as well.

Roy

021 790-3859  Hout Bay (by the sea)

Pictures for Karin

When the four Russian sailors arrived at Hout Bay,they had been under the watchfull eye of one Karin Solomons,watchfull as she was able to be given she was at home and on land and they were at sea,she told me she was given positions by phone as they sailed down the coast to the cape and with the NSRI informed as they moved,some help was at hand if required?

Karin with her Russian (extreme) sailors at the HBYC marina just before setting off for Walvis Bay,Namibia.

All pictures taken by George Wenman,thanks George.

Karin decided to act as a one person support group for the guys,she met them at the Point Yacht Club and thought they were something different,she is right on that for sure,Karin then funded her own air ticket and car hire for an entire weeks stay in Hout Bay to try and raise awareness for the boat and its crew.

One of the other real time supporters of the Energy Diet boat and crew was/is Alan Batley,the HBYC marina manager,he was there from the moment they arrived at the dock,he was also there when they sailed,thanks Alan (pink shirt)

Karin and Anna say farewell to Energy Diet,Karins trip has now ended but the crew sail on to start the second last part of a long distance record attempt for The Guiness Book of Records,do they sell Guiness in Russia?

Jack waves good bye and takes a movie as he does so,Jack was the crews main  speaker of english for the men.

Into the fog,with no radar reflector or navigation lights,within an hour they would have to cross the capes busy navigation lane too.

Thats very heavy fog out there!

Going Going Gone..............

The Navigator by John Welsford

We have this on our cut files already,so a fast delivery is possible of this seaworthy small craft that can be towed to your sailing destination,no club fees and if kept at home,no yard fees either! the plans are U$220 or around R1818 with postage,they are in stock I think too,as we keep a selection of Johns plans on our shelf year round.A kit price is on application as material prices vary.

I have just checked,we have the Navigator  plans in stock,also the Sherpa,Rifleman,Joansa,Truant,Walkabout,Houdini,thats a decent selection of Johns plans.

Roy

021 790-3859 phone & fax line.
Hout Bay

Check out this link for the full story http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/navigator/index.htm

Cruiser — daysailer — race trainer

Navigator has turned out to be the surprise package of the whole bunch, 300 plus sets of plans in today’s market is a lot! Navigator was designed for Boat Books Auckland’s proprietor Tim Ridge as a race trainer to serve the needs of a local club!

Originally she had the rig shown on the study print below, a crew of three teenagers totaling about 150 kg was intended, with its big sloop rig and shallow draft centerboard, to reward good sailing technique in a fairly open and windy club venue. There have been quite a few of these built, and I am told that they are very good boats, much enjoyed by their owners.

But, the surprise came with my friend Bob Jenner who came to me wanting a long range cruising dinghy just a little bigger than his Rogue.

We sat down for a browse through my drawings for some inspiration and Bob was very taken by the hull and internal layout of Navigator but wanted a rig with very different priority.

We took the standing lugsail that Bob had liked from Rogue, powerful but very simple and easily handled this is a good sail for a cruiser, we then looked at a means of balancing the boat in severe wind conditions as well as trying to make the boat as easy to sail as possible

Another view in the fog

Who would ever think that a thing like fog helps a picture,clouds do the same thing,they add depth,help you focus on the main items,it works for me anyway.

Hout Bays yacht club marina early in the morning.
Picture by R McBride

A day at the races with Jim Redman

This story was told to me on monday,I was really impressed and asked George to write it down for me,I then typed it into a Word document.

A day at the races with Jim Redman (now eighty years young )

A rider using the kink and onto the main straight,this kink is used (i think) to slow the bikes down?

As written by George Wenman of the HBYC ,Hout Bay,Cape Town. 08,02,2011

Aboard his yacht Brilliant,a Nicholson 35,a wood strip planked build localy made in False Bays Simonstown.

George writes:
We took the family to Killarney to see the classic bike racing guys that come over to South Africa from the UK every year during their winter and got to spend a lot of time in the pits chatting with the riders all now in their late fifties,or early sixties. All of our champions were there headed up by the great Jim Redman,who is still racing at 80 years old and who is probably,along with the late Mike Hailwood the greatest champion of all time,having won the World Championship in all the classes,from 125cc to 500cc and in the same year.

For me it was a dream come true to be able to be able to chat to Jim and reminisce on racing in Rhodesia in the late sixties,where I raced a 250cc Yamaha with Jim and Mike Hailwood on works bikes from Honda and Yamaha. Jim is a great guy and always had time for the guys at the back of the grid. Our conversation moved from racing in Rhodesia to Jims move to Europe and his signing with Honda and after retirement,when he would do guest appearances at race tracks around the world.

Thats Jim nearest the camera,he came third in this race but against much faster ex Barry Sheene bikes (suzuki).

Jim told me the story of his guest apperance at Daytona,USA,(was this in 1995?) at the age of 64. Honda had a works rider but wanted Jim to do a few laps of honour to bring in more spectators and to boost their sales of bikes in the USA.

There were 60 bikes on the grid and Jim was placed at the back of the pack,his job was to do a few laps and come in to the pits but Jim had just married his second wife who was many years younger than him and had never seen him race in his heyday,so to impress his new bride he decided without telling Honda that he was going to make a race of it.

A local news station had fitted a camera to Jims bike to record some of the race from the back of the pack but Jim had other ideas and at the drop of the flag gave it stick and winding his way through the pack to 4th position by the end of the first lap and to 1st postion by the end of the forth lap! Where he lead to the finish and causing the other Honda rider to blow up his bike trying to catch him.

I am not sure but on the last lap and when he was way out in front, Jim stopped on the last banked bend and waited for the other riders to catch up before pulling off and taking the checkered flag in front of the pack. This maneuver brought the spectators to their feet with the resulting noise drowning out the race commentator.

What a great spectacle that must have been with a hundred thousand cheering fans giving the greatest bike racer of all time a standing ovation that went on a long time and until he got back to the pits and his new bride.

Thanks George for this fantastic story and your digital pictures taken at Killarney on Sunday 6th of January 2011.Lets hope Jim returns next year!

Roy

The camera sees light refraction in the morning fog.

Taken early yesterday morning in the Hout Bay Harbour,the Canon G11 'sees' light I was not aware of at the time,check the arc of light in the fog.

Is this a Fog Bow?

left click to view in a larger size.

Roy

Yacht in morning fog,Hout Bay Harbour

The boat is a Dix 43 in wood epoxy,its not from one of our kits but could be as far as the bulkheads are concerned.The time was before 8am,the fog hung in the air making its own light effects and locking out the clutter in the distance.

The dinghy is in GRP but its original wood plug (george meek) was  cold moulded,we have a plan to introduce a similar dinghy kit as a design by Dudley Dix .

Camera is the Canon G11 on an auto setting.

Roy

Charles buys a Sextant!

Ebay is a wonderfull site for buying all sorts of stuff,Charles our intrepid single hander,well he will be one day when he sails off? has just received an amazingly packed packge from a vendor in India,well where else can one buy a hand made bronze metal (new) sextant for R200,about U$140 I think?

Just check the hand stitched packing with sealing wax protection!

The sight was a little loose,so were a few screws,maybe it will work maybe it wont?

Charles does a test sight (yes the suns behind us) even if this little gem does not work,Charles feels its an  ok price just for the talking point when its hanging on his bulkhead.

Gone with the wind but not the charts.

The Russians left on Energy Diet before ten am this morning,I saw them earlier and explained the charts I was giving them would be ready as soon as the copy shop opened at 9am  had done some copies,after which I then single wrapped the charts one by one in clear plastic.

This included a routing chart (from anna) the three charts of the west coast to see them safe to Namibia,a chart of the North East coast of Brasil to Fortezelza,entry information to the harbour at Forteleza and clearing in info, plus todays weather report and synoptic local weather chart.All that lot was done (and paid for) in under  one hour,by which time the nice guys on Energy Diet had just sailed out of Hout Bay Harbour and into the fog,so no picture with this blog.

To the Russians,thanks Guys.

Roy

Ps,does anyone want to buy some charts to cover my outlay?

Storer combines his tallents with a Russian,Perttu Korhonen:

Introduction by Perttu Korhonen:


I like exploring new lakes. I built an OzRacer by Michael Storer and liked its performance and handling. With it I made one overnight trip and that convinced me, that the PDRacer/OzRacer is quite capable for trips like that. During last winter I started to sketch a cruiser version of the OzRacer. I chose that boat because it is light and has good performance. My design uses Michael Storer´s Oz Racers sails, spars and foils - and she can fly!

This summer I made a three day trip with the boat and I found it to be a fun design. I was sleeping inside the cabin and sailing every day like a real sailor! The off center hatch could looks odd, but it´s handy when moving inside the cabin. You can slide your legs under cockpit seats while you are standing on the cabin floor. The boat is meant to be sailed with the hatch shut. If she is capsized, you should have enough time to turn the boat upright again before cabin fills with water, but Pdracers aren´t too easy to capsize!

It proved itself as a such a good working concept that I ended up making plans for it. I have made bigger boats, but small boats have the advantage of being faster to build and maintain in sailing condition. The more timeyou spend building the boat, the more you worry about it when sailing. If the boat is quickly buillt, you can use it harder and build another with less time compared with building one bigger boat.

The plans for Ocean Explorer contain around 95 pages of drawings, photos and text including a plan for the homemade lugsail – the plan is available as a PDF download which you can print on your home computer.

Perttu Korhonen

This is a very different micro craft,suitable for weekenders and flat water type places,find more at http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/korhonen/ocean_explorer/index.htm  You can buy the plans and materials from CKD Boats cc,Cape Town,South Africa phone Roy on 021 790-3859

Russki surf ski

Boat designer Mike Storer words:

My favourite Boat Designer, Phil Bolger, has a saying something like "there are two sorts of good boat, ones you live aboard and ones that you stick on the car roof to take home".This might be an oversimplification, but it contains more than a grain of truth.

I have taken it to heart with each of the boats that I have built for myself, "Beth" the 16ft sailing canoe that I can get off the car roof by myself was followed by the Balsa Strip "Wee Lassie" canoe which is 10 1/2' long and weighs in at 12 lbs. Then I designed and built the Wooden Raceboard (racing windsurfer) that, even though weighing in at a "hefty" 12kg (about 3/4 the weight of a carbon fibre production board of the same era) was at least stackable!

To reduce size much beyond these limits starts to strain the definition of what a boat is - is a surfboard a boat? I suspect not - there is the question of using hands for propulsion and the board not supporting the surfer's full weight - both of which are quite unboatlike. Though I did borrow this sailing dinghy once . . .

Move a size up to a surfski and I think you have a real boat - most sizes keep you out of the water most of the time and there is the possibility of moving moderate distances at moderate speeds with the use of the paddle.

Plans are available from CKD Boats cc in Hout Bay,South Africa,phone Roy on 021 790-3859,materials and complete CNC kits are also on offer.

Click here for the full story  http://www.storerboatplans.com/Russki/Russki.html