Hard spray dodger for a yacht

It could well be a power or even a canal boat as well?

Sized originally for a Dix 43 center cockpit yacht, it can be made smaller or larger,

http://ckdboats.blogspot.co.za/2012/12/a-boats-hard-spray-dodger-as-mini-kit.html

We designed this when an owner was faced with almost as much cost to replace his aging canvas spray dodger, since then we have done more, two were exported, one the New Zealand and the other to the USA.

The kit includes the roof and also the tempered 6mm thick glass panels and sealing caulk.

A detailed builders guide is also supplied with each kit.

The Dix 43 rudder

This one was made as what they term 'Balanced Rudder ' note the section at the bottom that leads forwards.

The forward section aids the balance and feel of the helm.

The place is the RCYC  in Cape Town.

The entire boat was in laminated marine plywood and epoxy.

A new Holiday 23 rudder

This one at least came with an idea of shape and size.

The original rudder was made with a GRP skin and with a foam core, they broke.

We asked the designer Angelo Lavranos for the design and what would be required if we laminated a new rudder from wood.

We can offer rudders and foils to many yacht designs, shipping in South Africa or World wide should not be a problem.

Didi Mini transat Mk3 kit to Holland

How much will the shipping cost?

A price just in shows that it is only R6300 and that includes the insurance as well.

If we add say R2000 to the packing crate and steel band strapping we are then at R8300/

Which is only Euros 520 or so, the R.0.E will affect the actual cost when an order is received?

The pack is 1.65 cubic meters.

The top crate holds one Didi Mini Transat plywood kit.

Seen here there is still enough place to include rudders and a foil, or North Sails and a Harken deck package as well?

Yacht rudders

Also on file is the rudder shape for an Irwin 54 we supplied, then there is the Holiday 23, a Dix 43 and a few more from the Dix Deign Didi range.

The pictures are for the Irwin 54 yacht.

When the yacht arrived in Hout Bay the lower heel fitting had broken, the shaft then bent and the local NSRI had to go and supply a tow.

We re designed the rudder at the heel fitting end so that it could be swung over to one side and the rudder removed for later inspection.

The boat was an entrant in that years ARC around the World rally, the last we heard it was off again and was by then in the South Pacific again.

Sadler 26 rudder supply

We were asked to supply a Sadler 26 rudder, this was for a new boat that had never been launched.

There were no plans and the Sadler 26 group in the UK had none either!

This is the okoume marine plywood blank that has been computer profiled to show the required shape.

Shaping the timber blank is done by power planer then hand tools.

The correct phenolic glue was used to do the lamination with, the picture shows the dark brown resin and with the powder cure additive and prior to mixing.

The foil blank is laminated marine plywood which has had the profile cut into it with the CNC machine.

The black paint shows the depth of the cutter more clearly.

We used a Sadler 26 existing rudder as a source of size, made a CNC cut file and shaped the rudder up, it was supplied in International Pains twin pack epoxy primer.

Foils and Rudder construction

Many kit orders have also become orders to supply the CNC shaped foils, either the drop keel on a Didi 26 or the foil on a Didi Mini Transat.

Part shaped and starting to look good.

Shaped in kiln dried Iroko hardwood.

The design calls for an application of some uni directional glass cloth which is applied with laminating epoxy.

kit.

This is the drop keel from a Didi 26, it has been painted with a twin pack primer...

Shipped with the plywood kit to the actual boat such items will normally ship for free when packed with the 

Didi Mini Transat Mk1 and Mk 2 interior

We may be the only company to offer a CNC cut interior kit set to the Didi Mini and up to the Mk2 version.

This came about when we had two Didi Mini Transat Mk1 boats to build.

The first boat was used to take templates from, then we could use those shapes to form the CNC cut files from.

Boat number one and in Knysna, South Africa.

Rudders and Foils

We have done a good many of these now.

At first they were hand shaped, later on the cut files were developed and we could CNC the shapes into the laminated timber.

Didi Mini Transat rudders.

We can offer the laminated timber CNC formed and you can do the final shaping yourself, Or we can finish to a painted finish in International Paints twin pack epoxy primer so that you can do the final painting yourself.

The Didi Mini Transats

These are all our Didi Mini Transats, well either supplied as a kit or built for the customer by ourselves.

This was our first ever CNC kit attempt, built by the owner and completed later by a boat builder.

We also supplied the Harken deck fittings kit.

Boat number two was an in house build, that is Mike the customer sailing his yacht and in Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa.

Boat number three was also a Didi Mini Transat, also built in house and for a customer.

This is launch day and at the RCYC.

We did a Didi 26 hull and deck build the same year, that was then shipped to the customer on the East coast of the USA.

Didi Mini Transat ply panels

They can now be supplied with a jig saw joint.

The images shown were for a Didi Mini Transat mK3  kit we shipped to Dubai.

Check the finger joints at the end of the panel, this makes joining the panels up very fast and super accurtate.

This is the backbone and stem plys, made in 12mm thick okoume marine plywood.

Didi Mini Transat kit to Canada ?

We are often asked to ship to places a very long way from Cape Town, South Africa where we work from.

This was two similar kits that we exported to California, USA.

One such place we priced today is close to the port of Vancouver, British Columbia.

That will cost around R11,000 plus the packing crate at R2000, so in all R13,000. At the R.O.E to day its about U$975.00 which seems a good price to me?

Plus we insure the kit also for that price.

Plans and the kit are extra, please contact me for a guide price, either the Mk2 or the Mk3 version.

The Interior is a possible extra on the Mk2 Didi Mini Transat.

British Seagull 40 plus in for service

It will be more than a service, as once started the restoration tends to start!

This one has many of its original parts, even the petrol tank is mainly undamaged and thats a first.

We have bead blasted the parts clean, the tank, gear box and four bladed propellor will next be repainted.

The gear box was stripped and the drive shaft and housing was cleaned, for a change this one had some oil in it but also chunks of salt that had formed into hard stones.

Dated back to April 1975 we have asked the UK parts supplier we use to send the required parts.

We will convert the jet in the carburetor to one the allows a 25:1 oil to petrol mix, given that the original mix was 10:1 that is a big step towards cleaner emissions.

The owner is based in England, his yacht is a classic ocean racer, so the older British Seagull outboard will look just the part on the yachts tender.

How many Hillman Imps in South Africa ?

This question has been asked more than a few times and just like in other parts of the World more keep being found as time goes by.

The red car is an Imp Californian, it dates to March 1967. The blue car dates to 1964, when the new owner came to see me last week he thought he had a 1965 car!

That car came from up North and 1000 miles away, it came down by road transport but another Imp up there is being prepared to drive down, when I cannot say.

Two more Imps were discovered last week also, one is a 1967 car and assembled here in the RSA.

It has been dated to 7/07/1967.

The other Imp is a 1968 car, a Super Imp and was assembled in Scotland, UK.

That one was dated to 27/09/1968.

Back to the header question?

I know of at least seventeen Hillman Imps left in South Africa, there could be more?

If you know of Hillman Imps over here please advise me, for sale or not?

There were at least five Hillman Imp race cars, one was last heard of in Durban, another three in  Pretoria, another in Cape Town.

Two in Pretoria are still around, one may be for sale?