Wednesday 13 March 2013

The yacht She, Brian Bradfields boat.


Brian had the yacht She as long as I can remember, the boats is an Alan Buchanan design which was carvel planked in solid teak. Not only was the hull teak, so was the decking ply that was under the laid teak decks, thats  not teak faced ply but solid veneer teak ply!


The late Brian Bradfield and at the re launch of yacht She at the RCYC on October 7th 2010. Bernard Dielbold was responsable for having the work done.

Please note, this picture and the cartoon below are both from the story about the TBA and as yet both are probably unpublished on the internet. The hard bound books with 37 pages, many in colour, in an A4 size format, cost just R120 each (U$14.00) and all monies collected  go to the local NSRI.

Roy

Dudley Dix cartoon

This is a classic cartoon and one that can only now be found in the story of the TBA (hardcover, a few left)

Sadly the TBA was disbanded last year, Dudley set up his design office in Virginia,USA, some nine years back and is still doing what he does best, design good sail boats!

The cartoon was done by a man who used the handle Shorter, better known to all of us as MileS McGrevy, he was also named as The Jazz Gorilla and could often be seen and heard playing his saxophone at the V&A Waterfront. Last sighted near Spain in 2012!

Roy

Shearwater 39, a new arrrival

This was mid afternoon yesterday and just as the wind had started to blow, given they had left Dassen Island and in fog that morning, to arrive at Hout Bay and in thirty knots of SE breeze was a bit strange?

 
Yacht Windward, a Shearwater 39 by Dudley Dix was in her element yesterday, the owner told me they just deep reefed the main and went hard onto the wind, no problems at all with a Shearwater 39!
 
 
Windward is imaculate, the varnish on the wood trims is really nice and the boat looks near new.
 
Sadley the GRP moulds were lost (one half was damaged) so if you want a similar boat its only possible to build in wood/epoxy, either in cold moulded ply or strip plank, we can supply the bulkheads CNC cut and the rest of the materials as a kit.
 
Roy
 
 

Tuesday 12 March 2013

We have email again?

A partial service only.

It came back on late today, there are no new mails at all, so they have been lost to cyber space?

So if anyone sent me a mail in the past two weeks and saw it bounce, this is why and I never got to read your mail, please resend if its still of IMPortance?

Note: only one of our email addresses is working use roy at (@)ckdboats.com  move the at and brackets please.

The link from the website at www.ckdboats.com to me is one that is not working right now.

Regards

Roy

Dripless shaft seals?

Do they work? was one question I asked the sales person from John Crane Co. I think I got the standard sales line.  Well they fit them on submarines, was his reply.


In use some thrirteen years and it has never given any bother untill recently. I found the black rubber half on the right needed re setting. This is done by undoing the two security clamps on the right (there is third as back up) Then sliding the seal closer to its mate, now the seal is dripless when static but does leak a tiny amount when the shaft is in gear, I assume it needs to bed in again?

 
Easy to install and works a treat, a protective cover sits above the seal, the seal assembly is in its own secure space and  never seen unless the boat is cleaned inside or slipped for an antifoul paint job.
 
In case of emergency there is a way to seal the rear rubber seal to the shaft.
The red band is a safety device which will clamp to the 35mm shaft and stop water entering the boat, the shaft needs to be locked then, a pair of Mole Vice Grips will do that job well.
 
Note, the faces are water cooled and a supply needs to be constant, there is an air bleed and water supply, plus the water enters via the outer shaft bearing water cooling slots. When the boat is commisioned or removed from the water, it is required to open the sealing faces and allow some sea water to feed into the seal, then thats it, nothing more required.
 
Recomended!
 
Roy
 
 

 

Professional Boatbuilder magazine

Some kind person left a number of magazines in the cockpit the other day, what a find!


The only person I could think of who would buy these magazines was Peter Jacobs, founder of the Whisper Boat Building School but he left for Thailand two weeks back.

 
Click on the pictures to see more detail and check the clamps on this set of laminates!
 
It turned out that they were indeed Peters but he had left them with another who then donated them to myself, many thanks!
 
Roy

 

Monday 11 March 2013

Still no emails!

The move to a new server has not as yet prooved at all sucessfull. We have not had mails for about two weeks now and as of today the server seems not able to sort things out.

The Hotmail account I opened failed to work as well, so for now please contact me at

jean.mcb (at) hotmail.com (change the at for @ )

Roy