Working Sail,the devil is in the details

Luke Powels boats go a lot further than just a classic hull shape,just check the details on the decks.

We have also made this type of butterfly deck light hatch,the trick is to make it water proof!

More a steering postition than a cockpit,check the gear shift,it may be the throttle,or both?

Details at the front end,even the windlass is traditional.

My thanks to Luke Powel of Working Sail,Cornwall for the use of his very fine pictures!

Roy

AIS Watchmate 850 by Vesper Marine

Yesterday I was asked by a customer placing his order for the new Vesper Marines new AIS 850 Watchmate, why they should buy from CKD Boats cc when they can buy from Vesper Marine,the thinking being they are a marine store? this is not the case,Vesper Marine are the designers and manufacturers of the Watchmate range of AIS and related equipment,they are not a retail store.

My thanks to Richard Crocket,of Sailing Publications for permision to use his pictures.

News in is a four page story in Sailing magazine issue number 320 (over twenty six years of publication!) by well known marine equipment writer Ausi Bray,the four pages are dedicated to the new Watchmate AIS 850.You can buy the magazine or read most of what he says here.

Left click each picture to read the words.

Tale Teller launches today

Seen at the Hout Bay Boat Yard travel lift yesterday,Tale Teller was out for a service and bottom paint job,we supplied some Iroko wood and also the International Paints Interspeed antifoul,Tom and his guys will put it on!

Roy

Tale Teller is a Vertue 26 designed by Laurent Giles and Built in South Africa by Henry Vink,launched in 1934 I think?

Beer,make mine a Windhoek lager.

Well,Jean my wife took the Heinekens back to Spar in Hout Bay and traded them for some decent beer,check the picture,look at the head,the bubbles,the life in the glass,what a great beer!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words,left click the picture and see them all!

Roy

Last nights sky over Hout Bay

What does this mean after long days of very hot weather,the next morning brings cooler air and coastal sea fog,thats what it means!

After very hot days and strong winds to 65 knots,we had a low move in,then a really nice light wind day,which showed the evening sky looking very unusual.

On a zoom lens setting,the digital Canon G11 makes a good job of this display,left click the pictures for a larger size.

Watchmate 850 series AIS

Dedicated Collision Avoidance

We ship to you where ever you are world wide with companies like DHL.
Contact me on 021 790 3859 Cape Town,South Africa or by email.
Roy

Now Available! AISWatchMate 850 Transponder

Fully integrated with built-in GPS and antenna Vesper Marine manufactures innovative marine safety products which use the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The AISWatchMate family of collision warning devices are sophisticated instruments. They are very easy to use and consume minimal power yet are the most advanced warning system available.

Sailing and power enthusiasts find the AISWatchMate and AISWatchMate RX to be the easiest to use AIS display. Far simpler to operate than a chart plotter, computer or radar; yet much more capable. Unique filtering eliminates false alarms. Prioritization of targets eliminates clutter on the screen allowing you to focus on the highest risk targets.

AIS WatchMate for Sailing Vessels

For both cruisers and racers, the AISWatchMate and AISWatchMate RX are dedicated AIS interpretive displays providing advanced collision warning for vessels. Far easier to use than chart plotters and radars, these low power consumption devices have sophisticated capabilities.

Unique to the AISWatchMate family, the CPA screen shows graphically the crossing situation at the time of closest point of approach giving you time to plan.

The AISWatchMate identifies the highest priority targets so you can focus on the most important risks first. This is especially useful when you are near shore or in crowded areas.

Minimizing clutter on the screen is very important when there are more than just a few targets. The AISWatchMate makes it easy to filter targets that pose no collision risk, such as vessels that are anchored or moving away.

For offshore boats, the AISWatchMate draws very little current so it can be left "on watch" all the time without draining batteries.

Heineken beer brewery customer service

An update,we phoned them again today,the response was that we can not expect a reply for about three weeks,pass me another Windhoek,after me drinking their beer for twenty years,Heineken are history now.

Well a lack of it really,given its past twenty four hours since I took the trouble to phone the South African Heineken Beer distributors help line at Consumer Customer Brandhouse on 0800 272 634,then explain they have a problem with some of their Heineken beers now on sale in Hout Bay and not having a return call,I can only assume they dont care?

My adventure with Heineken beer probably started in Oyster Pond,St Maarten,West Indies,when I was buying exotic timbers in the general region,I took time off to visit some yachting friends from Hout Bay and found the bar at the Dinghy Dock sold Heinekens.I can also remember  visiting a very popular bar by a river in Dublin,the draft Heineken beer was simply amazing,well it was back then.

Returning back to Cape Town,I started drinking Heinekens and Castle Lager was then a thing of the past,we are talking about twenty years  back? I then found that things were not what they should be,some Heinekens came from Holland brewed and bottled there,then Namibia Breweries made it,no problems there but when production moved to SAB in Jo,burg,the quality dropped off and I then turned to Windhoek Lager Export in the blue cans.

Heineken then moved the production to Namibia again,dropping that in recent times to re supply ex Holland,read the lables and packings,its all writen down there someplace.

The new supply of Heineken beer makes a nice tasting beer but in seconds its foaming head has gone,the beer looks dead,flat really,more like tea,or another similar liquid I can think of. As a  test,I tried a can or two of Windhoeks,what a difference the beer has life and it tastes better,its a lot less expensive too my wife tells me.

My recorded phone call to Heinekens help line started with a lady asking for my date of birth,its the same on their web site,a closed shop if your under the age of 18? I explained my background and the  reason for the call,I was then asked for a code number from the stock we still have,being told if it was a 710 code it was made in a new brewery in the general  Jo,burg region but if the code was 516,it was made in Namibia.

The code on my beers has a long line of numbers and there in the center is 710B,so we know where my beers are made.

Service? not this far,so last night I enjoyed a foaming glass of Windhoek Lager,what a great flavour and taste!

Roy

Argie 15,a larger project

A larger version of the Dixi and Argie dinghy,large enough for two to sleep in with a canvas awning over the boom as a night tent.

Words taken from the designers web site,

Alan Armstrong buit his Argie 15 in our home town of Hout Bay, South Africa. He started from a hull kit supplied by "CKD Boats" and did a beautiful job.

Kit by CKD Boats cc,the picture was taken using a Sony Cyber Shot by R McBride
Plans in stock,kits are to order.

Dixi Dinghy starter boat

We have had customers ask to be supplied with a smaller craft to get the hang of boat building before they venture into an order on a full sized yacht,this makes sense and of course the dinghy then becomes the Tender to the finished yacht later on.

The actual dinghy is larger than it looks in this picture,there is space for two easily,a larger version is the Argie 10,that easily gives space for four persons.

The Dixi dinghy and the Argie dinghy side by side

Finished hull weights are 22kg (48lb) for the DIXI DINGHY and 29kg (64lb) for the ARGIE 10. If you want a larger dinghy of stitch-and-glue construction, look at the Argie 15.

Plans are in stock,we can normally ship within 48 hours of receipt of order,CNC kits take a week ore so.

Our kits supply you with all materials to build one hull,that includes the epoxies,glass tapes,fillers and even copper wire to tie the boat together before you start the glass work.

B & G Network ACP1 modification

This subject was covered in my blog of some time back,the reason was its said that the Brooks and Gatehouse ACP1 12volt,12amp  auto pilot control box is the same as the ACP2, which is 12 volt and 24 volt with a load of 24amps,which in my own case is the required unit to drive a 16amp rudder drive motor.

Read the story on this link,its not so straight forward as some may have us believe?

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2010/10/b-network-acp1-drive-units.html

The test bed unit,I will next connect a Hornet 4 control box,wind speed and direction unit,boat speed,then wire in the six thin wires on the fluxgate compass on the right of the test unit.

My reasoning after being told what it was that would not work, I had was to think up a system that will allow the ACP1 to handle the increased loads,without sending my unit to a specialist for an upgrade to ACP2 but how to do this?

While I may be a Joiner by trade and a boat builder as time demands,I am also very interested in marine electronics and dont mind having a go myself,if I can sort out the circuits as logical moves,normally I can find out what part of a radio or marine gear is causing a fault,even if I can not the repair it?

Connected and showing a No Pilot message,which then defaults to Error 15,with a audible alarm too.

In this case it was not a repair,it was the design of a new circuit,which is well outside what I can do but well inside what my good friend and many time crew member Notty can do,he does fire detection designs as a part of his  job.I asked Notty to do a design for me where the output signal from the ACP1 was sent to a powerfull relay before it went to the electric drive motor,this way the motor takes what ever amps it needs via the new and external relays and the load is removed from the ACP1 unit.

Thanks to Dave at Bates Firetron for the gift of those relays!

Making the actual relay set was Notty's job,I then was given that,plus the design layout and its connections and rather than set the equipment up on a boat,I have opted to do it in comfort on my bench,I must say that was a great idea,we now have power via a small nicad 12volt battery,time to test the set up and see if the idea works?

For ease of working on the bench, I will use a spare Autohelm 4000 drive motor unit to see the drive working,we are really looking for a left and right signal (port & starboard) which the ACP1 does anyway,with a remote fluxgate compass and an autopilot control  connected we should see success?

Yes,they will be available for sale if you want one.

Roy

Holiday 23 new rudder

Done over a number of days,this wood/epoxy rudder will be stronger than the GRP/foam one it replaces (broken in two) with a coat of Aluprime MCU primer/top coat on its ready to go.

This is the extended version,the Holiday 23 class rules allow an extension of up to 200mm,we made this one 150mm as requested by the client.

The MCU Aluprime is a special single pack urethane that requires no hardener,its catalyst being moisture,its code name MCU stands for Moisture Cure Urethane,CKD Boats cc are agents for this special product,so special it can be used in fog and down to minus 12c!

Luke Powell,at Working Sail,Gweek Quay,Cornwall

Luke builds classic boats,so classic they will never be in competition to anything that CKD Boats cc do,well I hope not! We were there some years back,(2002) the picture below shows what Luke was working on at that time.Luke was there but was busy at the time,so we never got to speak to him.

Roy

This picture is by R McBride,using a Sony cyber shot digital camera,all others are from Lukes web site.

Words from Working Sails web site.
Welcome: Working Sail offer classic wooden sailing vessels for the connoisseur who wants to stand out from the crowd and own a piece of craftsmanship that is totally unrivalled in the new boat market of today. Recreating vessels from our rich maritime heritage Working Sail are bringing to life the lost traditions and beautiful craft of the past. Based on the lines of the pilot cutters from the Isles of Scilly, which were renowned for their seaworthiness and performance, each vessel is individually designed by designer/shipwright Luke Powell.

Our vessels are built using only traditional materials and methods of construction to the highest possible standard. Each vessel is solidly built using grown oak frames, larch planking and is bronze fastened throughout, giving great strength and longevity. The hardwood decks are caulked with oakum and pitched in the traditional fashion while the hardwood capping rail, coachroof, skylight and hatches are bright varnished.

All of our vessels are built using only traditional materials and methods of construction to the highest possible standard. Each vessel is solidly built with double sawn grown oak frames, larch planking and bronze fastened throughout, giving great strength and longevity. The straight-laid decks are scrubbed hardwood complementing the beautiful varnished companionway and skylight. The solid oak bulwarks are capped in a stout varnished rail giving the whole deck area a great sense of security, strength and craftsmenship. The hand carved features such as the bow boards, counter and oak tiller complete the elegance of yesteryear.



Working Sail Ltd, Gweek Quay Boatyard, Helston, Cornwall, TR12 6UF, UK

The  pictures were taken from Lukes web pages,many thanks Luke.