A Stayrite mens watch, its Swiss made!

A year or so back I posted an entry on a men's Grosvenor watch with a gold case. I looked around and found the same case was also sold as a Rolex!

Today I re discovered another men's watch, my late fathers, its old and looks it too, the name on the face is Stayrite and this far I am finding it hard to find any information on this brand at all?

The strap pins are fixed, so I think this watch will be around 50 to 60 years old, does anyone know?

I have now done a search and found nothing excepting a mention of a Stayrite ladies watch on Ebay, it went no place and if it was a posted offer it's now been removed.

This Stayrite watch has really nice face markings, I think if the case was re chromed and the watch cleaned I will have a fine classic watch!

The stainless back says antimagnetic, shock-resist and also waterproof, I wonder is it? that's quite a claim for a watch this old, who was making Stayrite watches and when?

The series number is 1671, that's not a very large number if the numbers are build sequence  related?


I now need a decent watch maker?

Roy

Note, a friend who collects watches asked me to inspect the face or the case of the watch with a magnifying glass, he thought I may discover a maker's mark or similar? I had a look and found that inside and on the frame of the workings, the words Swiss Made, so at least we know where it came from.

March 12th 2023  I have retarded the watch as much as was possible, it was still running faster than acceptable. 

Left until April 18th 2023, I part wound the watch up again and put it on my wrist, then later left over night in a cupboard, I found it had kept reasonable time by the next morning, so I am now wearing the watch again!

Teak and Holly flooring on a phenolic backer

One of our suppliers has just started to make a quality teak and holly sheeting, Its real wood veneer and on a phenolic backer so a little like doing a laminate job and you can use a contact glue to stick it down?

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2012/07/teak-and-holly-interior-flooring.html

This shows the same veneers but as a flexible sheeting.

Dudley Dix at IBEX 2012 USA is open now.

This years show sees yacht designer Dudley Dix as a very busy man!

He has his plans and design sales booth, plus he will lecture on various aspects of boat building a number of times as well.  Added to that he will be by his Paper Jet 14 to answer your questions from time to time as time allows.

The boat was built by Dudley himself.

Roy

A new hard dodger for your boat

We can re size the cut files to make the dodger fitted to a Dix 43 larger or smaller, we can make it longer too when space is needed to take those solar panels that are in the way on your decks?

A kit to fit a boat this size was priced at R10,000, which is about U$1175 at todays exchange rate, you will have to pay for packing and delivery. A smaller kit to fit an Erickson Mk2 was priced at R8750 and the delivery to the USA was just under R5200, so all in and in R13950  or U$1640 when shipped, some packing will need to be costed in too.

The  comfort and protection such a kit offers when built and fitted is clear to see.

The teak grab rails and hatch trim with an opening hatch are not included in the standard kit, we can supply those items as an extra of course.

We supply the building jig to mould the laminated plys over, the CNC cut window panels, tempered glass, Dow Corning window sealant, epoxy and glass tapes, plus 3M microballoons and fumed silica to make a paste filler from. All this comes with a step  by step guide, you need to have your own tools and a flat work surface to work on.

How easy was that!

Roy

The TBA in Grainger Bay

This was a  special event, Grainger Bay and before its Water Club changes, was to host the Traditional Boat Asscociation for an event. We were made very welcome and soon found decent berths in the rather tight harbour.

Picture by R McBride using a Canon FT film camera.

Yacht Halloween in the front was an Arthur Rob design, a yacht well known to the RCYC but by this time was owned by the Stremple Brothers. I supplied much of the boats timbers they were requiring, oregon Pine and teak mainly.

My own yacht, Ocean Cloud (ex Gulliver of Knysna) is in the background with the maroon transom and side stripes. I think I am tied alongside Moonchild?

Classic yachts at the RCYC around 1977

An archive picture taken from the decks of a yacht in the RCYC Small Craft Basin, Cape Town.

Hi Roy,

I think the varnished hull to the left would be Stan Eaton's boat Yvette, the one you can just see to the right with a white hull would be Sunmaid, after Jacub off Torshammer had it glassed after buying it off me and using my mooring for free then getting the club to make it his mooring, that's why I had to buy Sonnet to get a mooring back.

Notty

(who is now aground in the UK)

An R McBride photo, taken from the decks of Brer Terrapin around 1976 and with a Canon FT film camera, which I still have!

Note, the Pale Blue boat to the right of the picture is Zeeslang, recently restored and still sailing., right click the picture for a larger view.

Check here for more info on Zeeslang (sea snake)

  http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2009/12/yacht-zeeslanga-good-wooden-boat.html

My reply back to Notty,

A golden era when money went so far! when I joined the RCYC it was about R135 a year, you and Stan got in before me and will have paid even less than I did ? money wise it was 2 to 1 against the Pound of course, those classic yachts were plentifull as the class was abandoned I think? To put things into perspective, you will need around R12.60 today to buy one Pound!

Roy

News from Polar Bound

David Scot Cowper had a tracker device fitted when he was here in Hout Bay.I have a friend who is now in Thailand and will sail to Hout Bay across the Indian Ocean next year, I asked David how his tracker was working?

Dear Roy
Many thanks for your Email which was relayed to me in Dutch Harbour in the Aleutian Islands - it certainly brought happy memories flooding back of the good time in Hout Bay, and the weather up here is a considerable contrast to that in your neck of the woods – it has been very cold and very windy.

I hope this Email finds you as again it will have been relayed, and I am now on my way down to Vancouver and all communication is over the satellite telephone – any further queries can wait until I return to England in November.

The make of radio is an ICOM 710 HF single side band. The Tracker that Robert Ravensburg fitted is very small and has worked, and still working very efficiently. As far as I know it is not necessary to have a radio licence to fit the Tracker, nor do you have to have a licenced Call sign, but I am sure Robert Ravensburg can keep you straight on these points

I am still using the fluid film spray and grease that you gave me in Hout Bay, and still have it on board as it is always proving its worth.

Best wishes, Yours David

Dix Design on show at IBEX,Kentucky,USA

This must be the place to be right now, the show opens today and the first boat anyone will see is Dudley Dix's own Paper Jet 14, as its right there in the entrance!

A Dudley Dix supplied  picture.

Words on the IBEX boat show from Dudleys own blog.

Thanks Roy. Show proper starts tomorrow. Today mainly exhibitors around.

I am always amazed at how much this boat attracts attention. Everyone who sees it loves it.
My last post was about IBEX, which is now a bit over 2 weeks away in Louisville, Kentucky.

News since then is that my self-built prototype of the Paper Jet design will be displayed at the show. If you want to see it, you will find it in the Lobby C Entrance of the Convention Center. I will set it up with the Turbo Rig jib and mainsail set. It will be there for the duration of IBEX.

Note, this first boat kit and 001 in the series was supplied as a CNC cut panel set by CKD Boats cc. It was Dudley himself who then built up his own design and for his own use.

Aside from my own presentations, I will also be attending other sessions. I will be at my boat occasionally during the show but can't say ahead of time when I will be there.

If you will be at IBEX, please take time to go to Lobby C Entrance to see the Paper Jet

How nice is that.

Roy

Hout Bays NSRI Station 8 donations

We have some copies of the book that Colin Davies wrote on the history of the TBA (traditional boat association) the funds collected from the first lot gifted out and with a request for a R120 donation to the NSRI saw about R3500 come in, this was then donated in Colins name to the NSRI.

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2012/08/writer-publisher-and-printer.html

Thats Colin on the left with the TBA book in front of him,John Donaldson, the printer, is holding both books.The TBA book is a hard bound edition and full of colour pictures and the writen history of our twenty years of traditional doings. R120 plus postage only! thats about U$14.60 each.

Note, we still have some of the Solvesta (also hard bound) around the world solo story, also by Colin and for sale.

I told Colin the sales of whats left will be donated the same way, here is his reply.

You don't have to worry about any more deposits to NSRI in my name -
collect any more you get in and give it to them in your own name - and
to which ever station you prefer.

Station 8 will get a bit from now on, they do a wonderfull job.   Read the story below to find out why I will do this.

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/columns/guest/mcbride2.htm

Station 8 is to be found near the slip in Hout Bay harbour

All pictures by R McBride.

The Station 8 big boat doing what they do best, the tow was required when the yachts rudder was damaged off Cape Point.


Roy

Yacht building in Hout Bay around 1980

There was a farm on the opposite side of the valley that was owned by the late Fritz Nebe. Fritz was probably the founder of GRP boat building in South African and if not the first he was one of them?

I needed a place to do the decks and fit out my new yacht so I went to the farm and asked Fritz Nebe, he agreed and I paid a nominal monthly rental fee and later a service fee when the farm got Eskom electicity supply. I remember having to go to Siemens to by a 100 meter roll of three strand 2.5mm cable, I still have it by the way.

At the time I asked Fritz for permison to fit out my Endurance 37, Fritz was already moulding the Muira and the Roberts 45, said then to be the largest GRP boat moulded in South Africa? He had the moulds to the Flamenca as well but I think production had stopped on that boat?

Our Endurance 37 hull being off loaded from the trailer and horse that Chris Wray-Forshore used to  move the boat by road from Knysna. Thats a Roberts 45 on the ground, Monty was fitting that out at the time, he named it Freedom and we sailed on it a number of times.

Some years later and after I had fitted a deck and coach roof to our boat. Jean (paarman) but now my wife is seen to be trying out the bowsprit platform, looks ok!

We did a lot with this boat, as a family we used it many weeks ends. it was sold around five years later, then bought a sister ship stranded on the rocks at Slankop, thats another story!

The boat was launched as Ocean Planet but used by six girls in a transatlantic yacht race and then named Tal Gal.

Seen here we are in Saldahna, about 75 miles north or Hout Bay and a week or so after Notty and myself sailed her back fro Rio in Brasil.

Wally Hemmins with Jean and Janet.


Janet was then two and a half and was not born when we launched the boat.

Roy

Yacht building in Hout Bay

Being so close to the sea makes sense to build your boat in Hout Bay, either in your garden at home or up on one of the farms or small holdings that exist. Some farms no longer exist, this is one of them.

Peter and Tony joined hands to build two steel Atlantic 40 chined hulls, the idea made sense, they worked together on the heavy stuff as partners, then later worked on their boats on their own.

Peters boat is closest to the camera and Tonys boat is at the back, it was launched as Tetsuko
but later had a name change? Peter took his boat right around the world with his girlfriend.

Right click on the picture, it should enlarge.

A rare shot I took up at Ruyteplaats about 1981, when Anthony Constant allowed guys to build their own boats on his land. There were boat all over the place at times! The guys in the picture are (white shorts) the late Peter Bush  and Tony Page, (blue tee shirt) thats Notty standing next to them with his shirt on. The girl walking away by the yacht will be Simone, Nottys daughter.


Roy