The Puddle Duck Racer progress

The so called PD racer has created quite a following world wide,South and West Africa is no different it seems. A mail came in to day on one being built in the JoBurg area,its quite detailed,read it if you have the time.

A PDR sistership

A mail from Chris,we supplied the epoxies he is using.

I collected the resin with the new hardener at the post office on Monday.
The hull was coated with two coats of resin on the inside. A blend of resin and wood dust was used to make the internal fillets and as crack/gap filler. The resin really brings out the beauty of the wood and it is almost shameful to put paint over the lot.

 I have assembled and installed the dagger board case in the hull after giving it a double coating of resin. This weekend I will start taping the chines and glassing the bottom. The resin that you have sent with the second order will be used for glassing the hull bottom and a final coat on the outside.

An approximate breakdown of costs of the project up to this point.
 4 sheets of wpc marine ply                                          R2200
14 lengths of 3mX20mm meranti                              R420
6 lengths of 2.4mX18X44 meranti cleats                 R360
4 lengths of 1.8m X32X32 meranti                             R200
4 lengths of 2.8mX32X32 pine                                     R240
4 lengths of 2.4m X44X22 meranti                             R360
6 X 300ml alcolin waterproof glue                             R520
6 liters resin and hardener                                           R1200
2 liters two-K automotive paint and hardener     R440
Rags, brushes, rollers, cups, etc                                 R500
Clamps – other than those I already owned         R600
Screws, bolts etc.                                                             R240
Aluminium mast from 14ft hobie                              R1000
Fibreglass mast and sails                                               R0.00

A Epoxy resin supplier like CKD boats                      Priceless!

To a total of R8280 give or take a couple of rands which is still a bargain for a new boat and the experience of learning a new skill.

Excluded is the painting job, waiting for a quote from a friend for the spray job.

I could have substituted the marine ply for normal ply at a fraction of the cost but suspect that it would have cost me much more in the longer run.

I will post pics via personal e-mail soon to support update.

Chris.

Optimist boat kit

As delivery and shipping fees continue to rise we are trying to offer our products at a more competitive cost,offering less seems to be a way to do this.

The Optimist as a kit is well known,we have sent them world wide.To try and lower the delivery cost we are now offering the Optimist kit as a smaller package,this means the buyer will need to source the various timbers in his own area but this should be a simple enough job,as we will supply the cutting list.

We will still offer the epoxies,glass tapes, 3M micro balloons,fumed silicas for making the various fillers but the base kit will now start with the CNC cut parts only,the pricing will be lower of course.This will also be the same for all of our other kits from now on.

R Mc B

Vagrant seen on the HBYC Marina

This is what happens when you build a boat and do not use epoxy,you have been warned!

I suppose all it needs is a session with a decent bicycle pump?

How hard can that be (very)

R Mc B

Re fitting a Singer Chamois (hillman imp) side glass and rubber

Not a big job thought I, lets fit one of those new Imp side screen rubbers that Bob sent me a few weeks back from the stores of The Hillman Imp Club http://www.theimpclub.co.uk/

That was a week last saturday,we are now at a week later and monday, (I had to repaint all of the car in the related area) however the rubber refit was a doddle using the length of string recomended in the Rootes Car Co (Scotland) Workshop Manual # 141,it says its a job for two but I made the job work fine on my own.

The way it is now

Seems to me we lost a very decent drying out space against this wall but the kids are happy any way.

R McB

1967 Singer Chamois gets a new side window rubber

It starts out as a simple task,the old side rear window rubber has been cooked by 44 years of our sunshine,its actually bonded to the glass and the body,so required it's  removal with a sharp chisel and a Stanley board knife and a new blade.

It was fine seventeen years ago when I re fitted it,the other side of the car is near perfect but I had to buy a pair of new rubbers,as they are only sold as a set.

This rubber has long since become another product,we are really fortunate that The Imp Club

http://www.theimpclub.co.uk/ sells them,they are made in Australia I believe.

With the original glass cleaned off with a razor blade and the new rubber fitted to it,we are ready to re fit the glass but first that paint job needs doing.

Check the quality,mind you with postage from the UK there was very little change left from R600 per side.

Of course when the new rubber is offered up,it does not cover the existing paint line,so a re spray is in order,one thing leads to another and before we know it,the entire rear wing is being prepared. After a bump received when the car was parked in Cape Town, It was never really finished well by a local Hout Bay spray shop,you can see all the high spots I have sanded down.

The picture shows what is in effect a weeks work,there were two rust holes in the rear opening window frame channel,plus another one in the drivers door cill,nothing much really but as an epoxy coating will solve the problem I went that route before any polyester body filler was used,this takes time but does make the repair last.

The base coat I am using is a matt finish,the clear gloss and top coat will follow next day after the base coat has dried properly.

This is nearly an acceptable job,thats just one coat of clear twin pack applied. The only issue is the mixed paint is a few shades darker than the rest of the car,I now need a new paint mix so the panels can be matched!

How hard can this be,why not try it!

R Mc B

KD860 catamaran loading

This was ready for collection once the glass,micro balloons and fused silica arrived,the trucking company were taking good care of loading,thats 31 items,plys,wood,epoxy,all the materials required to build one boat.This materials pack will go by road to the Johannesburg area,normally a three day period,we can ship world wide as well,plans are direct from the designer at http://www.ikarus342000.com/KD860pic.htm

Drying out alongside,Hout Bay style

We once had a great and a quite free facility,we also had permision to use it from the then Nature Conservation Chief Director,himself a yachtsman and owner of a steel yacht in the RCYC Small Craft basin.

Yacht Water Witch having a bottom clean alongside by her two owners,that is the Howard Davis you can just see behind her.Water wise,there is quite a drop off just aft of  Water Witches stern.

Our nice clean drying beach,well it was back then,with high tide of around 1.8 to 1.9 meters,a bit of planing and we could do all sorts of jobs,check annodes,re pitch a Max Prop,fit a new skin fitting,even re antifoul when were really fast,one side per tide was quite easy.

The beach disapeared after the reconstruction of the end of the pier took place,some bright spark decided to fill in under the harbour wall at this point,before then it was open to the beach and the waves on the other side.This had two benefits,it kept the harbour a lot cleaner and it brought in the clean sand,now we have deeper water and a derelict hull lying there.

Progress? No.

R Mc B

Toylander dash panel

Its the small things that catch the childs mind,knobs,switches,handles and keys fit that bill.

Stocking up a yacht for cruising,Hout Bay style

Another set of pictures from the archives,these must be about 28 years old now?
The yacht is an Endurance 37 named Ocean Planet,from the moulds at the Knysna Boat Yard and with a plywood and epoxy deck fitted. A hull with stringers fitted cost R4500 and the GRP cockpit fitted and with two bulkheads just R920,now thats a nice price!

Note,a suit of nine sails from Elvstrom Sails (now north sails) were quoted at R4750,an anodised mast section 14.7mtrs long,with a welded mast head and cast heel shoe and deck plate from Bellamy Masts was R1300,this was why we could afford to build the boats we did back then?

Now where have I seen that Duckling dinghy recently.

The guys from Pick and Pay were a pleasure to work with.

Pic and Pay was the store of choice,the one in kennilworth I remember,they not only provided a free delivery service,the gave us the GST tax back as cash in an envelope on delivery to the Hout Bay Harbour.

                                   Jean says, and you want me to pack all of this in our small boat!

All pictures taken by R Mc Bride,this one and the first one with a 200mm Canon tele lens on a Canon FT film camera.The yacht was last seen in Ibiza,Spain.

R McB

Canon MP560 Pixma low ink warning light

The Canon MP560 is a very nice scanner and printer,it does colour prints to A4 as a pro finish,if you can afford the cost of the ink pods that is.

Recently the lack of black ink in the main ink pod that serves for normal letter printing became empty.

That brought on an orange (red?) warning light which was advising of this situation.

With a spare Canon printer hooked up,that resolved the ink issue but then left me with a printer/scanner that would not scan,the default was the lack of ink and the warning light just stopped any other function.

So how do we disable the warning light on the Canon MP560,its in the user manual of course but takes a while to find,see the red button to the right hand side,you keep that pressed down for at least five seconds,the low ink light will then go off and you can use the scanner function then.

Warning,Canon will accept no damages to the printer head should you try and use the printer in this mode.

Tell me why are new ink pods so expensive?

How easy can it be to sell them cheaper?

R McB

The Hout Bay pictures circa 1990

Yacht Ocean Cloud,as seen on the old section of the HBYC marina and after it had returned from a year long cruise.The boat was away nearly two years as it was left on moorings at the TTYA in Trinidad for a half year.

The TTYA ( Trinidad and Tobago Yachting Association) is the second last bus stop on the run out from Trinidads Port of Spain and just before Chaguaramas,which is now a very large yachting center and the main port to clear in at in Trinidad,not at Port of Spain these days.

More from the Hout Bay Harbour archives

Seen here on the HBYC Marina, is a fellow members yacht named The Road,thats Taffy Bowens, Lavranos 40ft with the stripes.Next to it is Ocean Cloud,an Endurance 37 that was just back from Trinidad by way of Brasil.This was back in 1992? all of twenty years ago,give a month or so?

Picture taken by R McBride,using his Canon FT with a 50mm lens,using 35mm film.

Taffys yacht is now on a trip to Thailand by way of Australia and the Pacific Ocean.Ocean Cloud was last seen in December 2010 and in FBYC,Simons Town. The boat on the right with the orange stripes is a Peterson 33,I have no idea of its name.

R Mc B

Hout Bay Harbour,the way it was.

Some changes are of course for the best,it will always depend on who's side you happen to be on,so bias may creep in but to land fill the small sandy beach inside the Hout Bay Harbour was senseless,when we look back at the total under use of the dirt space that exists there now.

Picture by R McBride using a Canon FT SLR film camera,I would guess about twenty years ago?

I am going to post some older Hout Bay YC pics,in this one,see if you can recognise a young Mr & Mrs Batley,was he the HBYC Commodore back then,I think so.Jean Mc Bride (paarman) is there too,so is Janet! Can you spot Mr & Mrs Turner ( not our founder member and club president)

The small beach in the harbour was a huge loss to the community,it came about when mass floods on Chapmans Peak caused stones to close the roads,the issue was to get shot of the tons of stones without just pushing them over the cliff.

The then Chief of Nature Conservation,decided to use them to fill the harbour beach in,it was a mistake in my view but he told me the idea was to have the commercial side of the harbour on that side and the tourist side on the side were they are now.

Hind sight is a wonderfull thing?

R McB