The Proteus 106 sailing catamaran

Still remarkable value at around R200,000 only, with the Rands value at a four year low this is a great deal! Thats only U$20,833 right now and we include the epoxy in that price!

Vat will apply on the kit when supplied locally, not to exports.


Plans are extra and available from the designer direct, the cost is NZ$4500.

http://www.ckdboats.com/proteus10.html

Proteus 10.6m Sailing Catamaran


This Lavranos Marine Design is a perfect small family ocean cruising cat. It is designed to offer a sufficient load carrying capacity to do ocean crossings with a family, at low cost and capable of amateur construction with a minimum amount of labour and skill. This simple, strong, fast, comfortable and cheap boat is also aimed at being practical & enjoyable for local use. She is also small enough for easy shorthanded use.

The interior consists of four berths

(two doubles + 2 singles), a saloon settee, a practical galley, and a toilet compartment, all with standing headroom.

She is configured with two machinery and keel variations; A 4 stroke 20HP outboard on a hinging nacelle is fitted for economy, as is tiller steering, with "kick up" rudders. The other choice is that a saildrive "single cylinder baby diesel" can be fitted, as can fixed mini keels.

The rig is the simplest possible, with a pair of cap shrouds and headstay triangulated, single diamond. The sail inventory is essentially a mainsail, a roller furler jib, and a storm jib. Optional: Genneker.

Fast Forward returns home to Hout Bay

This was one of those boats that was meant to go places, which it sure did!

They arrived back yesterday after a ten year circumnavigation.

Just one more look, this is Ken looking back at Hout Bay and in March 2003.

http://hbycclub.blogspot.com/

Check the link to find the info on the boat.

Yesterday and tied up after a trip down South Africas east coast.

This picture by R McBride

Roy

Rowing oars, made in Cape Town

One of the companies we supply makes a fine rowing oar from  American white Poplar, they look and work well and the Poplar is clear and a similar weight to clear Oregon Pine.

Glued up and ready for finishing.

Finished and ready for clear lacquer.

Sizes are the standard 6ft, 7ft and 8ft with specials to order as none are kept as a stock item.

Roy

Frank Hornby is remembered, born May 15th 1863 (r.i.p)

I did an entry on this amazing man some years back, then a few days back I noticed that that entry had moved to the number one in views very recently, why, I thought it was related to his death and this turned out to be correct.

I grew up in Maghull, Merseyside, Lancashire and only recentyly I walked past Franks grave in the local church on my way to see my mother in a care home close by.

The guy in the picture is my old friend from camping club youth days, Les French, he had told me he was involved in the Frank Hornby group. Picture and words below are taken from the Liverpool Echo, my thanks to them.

Maghull Art Group Exhibition is involved with the town’s Maghull Hornby Festival which takes place this weekend, May 18 and 19.


An image of Frank Hornby by group member Bob Joy will be among those on display at the exhibition.

Maghull Art Group will also be showing off their work at its spring exhibition which will form part of the Hornby Festival.

It takes place at Deyes High School between 10.30am and 5pm on both days and pictures will be available for purchase.

Frank Hornby’s 150th birthday marked on Google’s UK homepage

The Google Doodle - a stylised Google logo - in honour of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Frank Hornby

Head to Google.co.uk today and you’ll see a Google Doodle made up of toy trains to honour what would have been the 150th birthday of Frank Hornby, the inventor of Hornby Model Railways, Meccano and Dinky Toys.

Despite having no formal training in the subject, Hornby created and produced three of the most popular engineering-based toys of the 20th century.

Seen as a toy visionary, Hornby first patented his Meccano construction set of re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles, gears, nuts and bolts in 1901, though at that time he called it Mechanics Made Easy.

He established Meccano Ltd in 1908, which went on to produce the die-cast miniature model cars and trucks that made up Dinky Toys in the Thirties. The company also produced the Hornby Railways model train sets.

Hornby’s birthday will be celebrated through a four-day festival in Liverpool, where he was born. The Hornby festival will include a play, a lecture at the Museum of Liverpool, and an exhibition dedicated to the toymaker, while elsewhere in England Frank Hornby Week was launched on Monday at Brighton Toy and Model Museum.


Yes, I was one of those kids who grew up building things with Meccano, only then I never knew the inventor lived within walking distance from my home!

Roy

More on the subject can be found here http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/News-and-Comment/A-Google-Doodle-for-Frank-Hornby

A whale seen in Hout Bay last week

Not only in the bay but in the harbour!

This is nothing new but when we saw lots of power boats around it we thought it was dead and they were towing it out. As whales as common place but from around September each year where we live, it was a surprise to see one this early in the year.

With the whale taken out of the harbour and then tied off to the HBYC beach marker bouy, we were then informed that the council would later come out and remove it, they have a disposal unit for this kind of work they said.

A day later and the whale was still there, same again the next day, so it was not dead?

Seems it was never alive either, it was a prop for a very large film shoot done in and around the Hout Bay Harbour!

Roy