Dans Wharram Tiki 38 painting

Dan sent me a tiny picture of progress on the Tiki 38 he has nearly finished,launching will soon be on his mind? The Wharrams are of course really easy to transport from one area to the next,the Tiki 38 will fit in a forty foot container,or will it? you will need two such containers,one for each hull I expect.

We started by supplying the materials,plys,timber and epoxy,then CNC cut the bulkheads and moved on to the hull skin panels as Dan was progressing.The decks are in Nidacore,we can supply that but you will need to cut it yourself.

R McB

Postal stuff

We receive orders and when required send them by the SA Post Service,to date we have never lost an item,they may take some time but the goods have always arrived.The risk,once we have posted is tranfered to the customer,a tracking number service can be supplied at and extra fee. Once we have handed the goods over to the post office,the order is fully executed and is then to the buyers risk.

Late last december 2011 we had a parcel to ship to a customer in the USA,the postage was about R1580,to me,thats a lot of money,this was on 7.6 kgs near enough. Weeks went by and still the parcel had not arrived,using the USPS the customer could track it had been to US customs and cleared to USPS and that was the last we heard of the parcel.

Then it turns up where we sent it from,Hout Bays Post Office here in South Africa!

The returned parcel as collected,we had to pay a further R30 to get it back too.

I was expecting some fault or other but as you can see,while the parcel was a little knocked about, it was near enough intact,the contents were perfect,nothing lost or damaged,having done packing for years,we pack well.

The SA post office had added some yellow tape to secure one edge,at least they were doing a decent job but why the returned parcel?

I was really lost for an answer,then I saw it.

This folks,is the US Customs arrival sticker,the customs stuck it over the delivery address,imagine!

So when the USPS got the parcel they could not see who to deliver it to.They did not try too hard did they?

By either moving the customs sticker,or opening the plastic envelope on the side of the box with our invoice and buyers order,would have shown the delivery address.

HOW HARD CAN THIS BE!

Now we send by Fedex,lets hope the valued customer gets the goods.

R McB

The www.ckdboats.com web site is down

Thanks to Ken,a regular CKD Boats web site viewer,for informing me that the site was down.This is not making much sense,we have pre paid to the year 2013 and we have not even seen the end of the first month of 2012!

We are assured it will be working within 24 hours? so give http://www.ckdboats.com/ a try later?

A Dix 43 in wood/epoxy,the hull was owner built in six weeks only there was some assistance with cleaning and removing the epoxy drips under the hull as it was laminated.

The new Optimist build continues

Stuart has a great selection of G clamps,I wish I had so many!

I have started gluing the Meranti strips to the gunwhales and it seems to be turning out ok.

I am finding this quite a slow progress as I have decided not too loosen the G-clamps until the epoxy has dried.  I did use quite a number of screws to hold the first strip in, but still, when loosening the clamps I did notice small hairline gaps appear, so I tightened them up again.

Would I be correct in saying that the screws used on these first strips should also be removed as with all others?

I have advised Stuart to use screws to hold the new rails in place untill the epoxy fully cures,this can be some days.Then remove the screws and back fill with epoxy and micro balloons/Fumed silica mix.

Hout Bays no swim zone

I was one that protested about a sewerage outfall pipe in the bay,the council did not listen (do they ever) and went ahead,its called progress?

Its never quite clear just where they did put the outfall pipe but the picture shows exactly where? This picture was taken last saturday morning,the blue/white waste continued untill late afternoon.

At first I thought it was fish,then later when I came back over Chapmans Peak,it was clear they were discharging some sort of chemical,thats not poo,so just what is it?

Hout Bay TV and The Sentinal news paper,we need you to find out about this.

How hard can that be?

R McB

Teak by the truck load

We have imported our own teak (tectona grandis) for many years,over twenty for sure.Starting with plantation grown,we soon moved into genuine FEQ (first european quality) shipped from Singapore and others in that region.

My first trip to discuss quality plantation teak saw me meet up with others from India,who were finding supplies of their own natural growth teak was becoming too expensive.

This plantation teak log was cut from forest planted about 85 years back,the logs are harvested in a controled maner,new trees are planted and old growth can grow back again.

Today I am in contact with a farmer who planted teak saplings about 14 years back,we need them to be a little older than that before the tree is large enough to be commercial.

The company Commercial Lumber cc grew out of teak sales,we then started to stock other species as well.Today the market has changed,less teak is used so the stock is smaller but the quality is now higher.

We import to longer lengths and as kiln dried,still as FEQ but a better standard,normally used to lay as teak decks,its still the number one timber for boats.