Progress report on wooden boat repairs

A week and a bit more I posted that a fishing boat was under repair.

Today we can see the excellence of the new structure, all built either off the boats own decks or the floating punt along side.

The wood used in Keruing, either that or Balau, the Keruing steams well but the Balau does not.

A class repair and on a boat that will by now be at least sixty years young.

Side planks next week and they will require a steam tube session to make the required bends.

Roy

Sunshine break in Hout Bay's winter

Today we have rain, lots of it and up to 50mm predicted?

Click on the image to enlarge it.

The yacht is a Dix 43 in a wood/epoxy build, some upgrades were done to the primary winches in the cockpit, the mainsail cover also.

The helmsman with suitable experience can sail this yacht by himself (or her) ,  the mainsail will need a man forward to reef it but with that done, the yacht has all the sail controls in the spacious cockpit.

The as new Lewmar sheet winches are sized 58:1  and 44:1 ratio, giving  an easy job when handling the headsails. They are both alloy and self tailing, the forward winch controls either the Staysail or the Harken series three head sail furler, a jamber backs up the black Sampson braid control line when the Staysail is in use.

The rig is a Cutter but the inner forestay can be unhooked and lashed down to one side, meaning that even in lighter airs the Genoa will tack easily.

The break in the winter rains allowed a little sun tanning but not today as its pouring with rain!

Roy.

Hout Bay Sunday classic car driving

Why not, it was really nice weather on Sunday morning, so a drive around our side of Hout Bay and a visit to the award winning Engen garage for some petrol was a good idea.

Collen is the supervisor there, he is in the car in this picture.

Collen knows quite a bit about the Hillman Imp, as a friend in Johannesburg was doing the over head camshaft  on his car and Colin was there watching.

What a nice mornings drive!

How hard can this be?

The car is a 1967 Hillman Imp Californian Coupe, an export model sent to Mozambique.

How I ended up with it and dating back twenty years is another story.

Roy

Hout Bay Yacht Club marina in winter

This is a very typical winters day scene in Hout Bay, given that winter here is often wet and stormy, we do got some really nice spells of calm weather and with warm sunshine and blue skies.

John is reading his book and seated on a bench off yacht Gambula, the bench was fastened down on the aft deck at one time but was donated to the marina.

Sailors walk to their yacht and to be honest this really is winter at its best, the air was a warm 24c (smile)

How nice can this get!

The camera is a Canon G1X digital as my Canon G11 died with its lens extended................

Roy

Working with International Paints

The boat in the picture was painted from new with International Paints, its a system which has proved its worth many times over in the sixteen years since the boat was painted.

The boat is being given a service and the sheet winch pods are having the original teak cover board removed. The teak was the cause of a leak and really the Lewmar STA 58 and 44 winches, which are only a few years old will look a lot nicer on the clean white Interthane 990 polyurethane gloss top coat than on the un varnished teak.

This pod was refurbished and then coated with our 816 epoxy and 205 cure agent, some glass cloth went into the assembly to add strength as well.

The paint system is Intergard 276 white epoxy primer, six coats with a small foam roller due to wet sanding between the layers, then Interthane 990 top coat, which was three coats applied with a spray gun.

The winches will be refitted next.

With the job done its time to remove the teak cover board on the Port side of the boat and refurbish that side so things look the same.

The idea is to have a cleaner looking cockpit area!

Roy

The Cape Charles 32 revisited

January 2016, the plans are still not finished, please contact me to be placed on the update list on the Cape Charles 32 design.

News in from the boats designer looks good.

I have two firm orders for the Cape Charles 32 and others champing at the bit. The design is progressing and should be ready for builders to start within a few more weeks.

Regards,

Dudley Dix
Dudley Dix Yacht Design

This boat is a size we can relate to when we need a boat that will be home to a couple or even a small family,its large enough to sail most places and being traditional in its rig,as low cost as its possible to find,you can make your own mast from a kit we can supply or we can make one complete and ready to raise for you.

The interior layout would be flexible within the boundary of the bulkhead stations, I would think Dudley will supply more than one interior layout option?

Roy