Fishing boats in Hout Bay harbour

They go out for days on end, some down to Mount Vema and after Rock Lobster still? Mount Vema is quite a long way north west of Cape Town, they may have the wind with them on the out trip but its probably dead on the nose when they return?

Picture by R McBride using a Cannon G11 camera in late afternoon with the sun well behind me.

Roy

Stone Form (tm) flexible sheeting

This is new, so new that I only had pictures of it as of yesterday, samples are on the way should you be interested.

These are the main 6 Stone Form Veneers

Others types will follow as soon as we can...

Bonded to a flexible backer, the face finish is real stone or slate but will bend around a Post Form counter top edge. Its water proof and will require a surface lacquer finish when bonded.

Available in six  types of stone, including slate, others will follow.

Perfect for a vanity basin top, post form as normal and drop the white porcerlain bowl into a pre cut hole.

It is natural stone slate and quartz.

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Flexible stone sheets, this is a very new idea and bound to become popular with interior designers.
10 main types,

The back is polyester resin with a non fibre woven over lay
We are manufacturing primarily in 4ft x 2ft
We have achieved a 18mm and 15mm raduis bull nose.

Roy

http://www.ckdboats.com/

27 21 7903859

Dudley Dix has a book on sale

Seen here and on the Hout Bay marina, Peter Jacobs receives his copy of Dudleys book. Shaped by Wind and Wave,musings of a boat designer. You can order your own copy direct from  www.lulu.com  the books ID. is 8793670

I think this is both a good read and a must have issue for anyone thinking of building a new boat, there is even some tricks on sailing that Dudley carried through to full sized racing keel boats from his dinghy sailing at the Zeekovlie YC.

Roy

The Star of the West under Krakatoa

Seen here and sailing away from the volcano that changed the world for months if not
 years, is the Star of the West, a home built yacht which I mentioned in a blog recently. She was built in Kimberly by a guy who just would not give up!

This is a fine picture, check that volcano in the distance! I have no idea who to credit with the picture, does anyone know who took it? Is that a girl on the foredeck taking a movie? Click on the picture it should enlarge.

The boat is now in New Zealand according to the web site of the boats name.

Roy

Lipton Cup sail training in Hout Bay

The team is committed and the boat is ready, I am told by the senior member (non sailing) Sam, that the event will be held at FBYC and in about five weeks time.

Picture by R McBride using a Canon G11 camera.

The yacht is a Lavranos L26, now about thirty years old as a design but suitable for One Design racing and there are lots of them. The team will have to sail around via Cape Point, or will they use the boats trailer?

Lots of info on past events and the actual cup can be
found here http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/search?q=lipton+cup

Roy

An update on the team since I posted the blog on the HBYC team.

HBYC Youth Sailing team came 3rd overall, 3rd in the L26 class, and first of the JML boats in the recent PicknPay Youth Regatta at RCYC. This is an outstanding first result for this new team! All credit to Sam and the others involved in supporting them. We seem to have some great momentum for Lipton next month. Please remember to support them generously at the Lipton Auction on Friday 27 July!

Prize giving at the RCYC, soon to be a regular event for the HBYC youth team.

Thanks to Audi Center Cape Town for the sponsership and thanks to Trevor Wilkins for these two pictures.

Roy

Roger McCormick, the odd man out

I found a blog on a home built boat named The Star of the West, this is a seriously good read and starts off  in South Africa and inland in a place named Kimberly, thats the town with a large hole in the center from excessive digging for diamonds done over the years.

FBYC stands for False Bay Yacht Club, which is in Simonstown, Cape Province.

This is a great picture of the crew of The Star of the West,all in dark blue tee shirts but who is that odd man out? Its  Roger McCormick, I know him well, a past winner of the Burn Wood Trophy for Seamanship after a great self built boat and a single handed voyage in the same boat.

http://www.starofthewest.co.nz/

A Full Moon in Hout Bay arrives

It arrived a few nights back and as it was a clear sky that night was big and bright.

Taken from a position around 34 02 south and 018 20 east and looking east by south east this is a regular sight, its quite amazing just how fast the moon is moving, check the two pictures and the position of the radio mast. This first picture was taken after the second picture, the moon has moved way over to the right already, this was in just a few minutes too.

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Thats the Constantia Berg radio mast just to the left of the moon.

The Canon G11 was really stretched to do a decent close up, it just will not handle the mass of light. Next time I shall try a tripod?

Roy

A new Cape Henry 21 boat build in six months

It sure seems that way as we supplied a local buyer with a plywood kit set back in November 2011, with things not really starting untill the next month and then a holiday break of about a month, we see a build period of the six months I mentioned.

This looks like a very quick boat to me, she will outsail many craft much larger than her 21 feet I think.

This Cape Henry 21 will have a small inboard diesel engine installed, normally they use a 4 stroke petrol outboard in a well inside the aft end of the cockpit.

With our kits being assembled locally by a specialist boat builder, we can now offer fully built boats to order.

We have another Cape Henry 21 ply pack kit being prepared right now, we are also supplying the drop keel and stainless steel deck gear,  it will ship to Seattle, USA.

Roy

The bilge cleaner

Thats a job I really do well and I have had the pleasure of for some thirty six years or so, mind you its a job not to be missed, the stuff you see and find down there can be quite good for the boat. Things that were dropped get found and things that need fixing get noticed.

Yesterdays session, it was three hours and I am not done yet, was to clean the main engine, its an old Perkins 4108 diesel, which runs perfectly and drips just a little oil from its all alloy cast sump. I use a long handled 2  inch painters brush and either Castrol or Wynns water soluable cleaner, by the time you have worked both sides of the motor and sump, its ready to be washed clean.

This boats bilge is normaly clean and dry, the boat is wood/epoxy and twelve years in the water.

My findings this session was a washer and a stainless nut, they fell off the alternator some time back (they were replaced) I found that the washer part block a drain hole, rodded out with a thin dinghy sail batten, I was soon seeing limber holes running free with clean water from a hose pipe.

Note, a dry bilge stays cleaner, no water means no sludge growth can exist, leave the floors open to allow air to circulate.

Cleaning bilges can also take you places, once around 1977 and at the Royal Cape Yacht Club, a very nice girl was looking for a yacht to sail away on, was she from Durban? She met with Rick an American and single hander on what was around a forty foot yacht, he was interested and said it really does depend on how well you can clean my boats bilge out for me?

This was an interesting deal, if she could not manage, he still had a bilge cleaner than when he started and if the job was well done he may have an attractive crew mate too? It must have worked really well, they sailed off together and around two years later I saw a picture of them both in Cruising World magazine, in the Carribean and still together!

How nice is that.

Roy

Bob Perry boat designs new works

Bob sounds more than busy to me, we talked in the past about doing one of his dingys as a kit set.The dinghy in question happened after Bobs design on a yacht was built.

Message from Bob, who sure has a lot to do right now.

Got to get back to work. I have a fellow I consult with on deck layouts down from Canada this weekend and we are working on a new  custom 60’er being now built by PSC in NC and a 45’ double ender for a Swedish client to be built in Germany.  I am buried in new design work. Here are two pics of the new 60’er.

Bob P.

Size sure helps, as when the boats become larger the space available just makes planing more easy, this looks like a super comfortable and fast cruiser, its what Bob calls a Custom 60 er.

Design details from Bobs work goes well past just the shape of the hull, there is some very neat engineering in this boarding platform.

Roy

Sign makers in Cape Town

This sign is for a shop in Estcort, Kwa Zulu Natal but they could be for any place really, the design came   from joint discussion with the shops owner and the machine shop.

Sweet Pea Creations, the sign was CNC cut, painted and mounted on its own plywood back board to be ready for owner installation next week.

This sign will be hung in a gallery, so its made double sided.

www.ckdboats.com

Roy