A vessel securely moored in Hout Bay Harbour

There are many, is it six? sunken fishing boats sunk on the slip side of the harbour.
Due to the  theft of sea cocks and metal hull fittings, this is in full view of the
Harbour Masters office. There is of course no harbour master employed in our harbour
these days.

High Tide

Note the mooring line, thats just in case she floats herself and trys to leave port?

Low Tide,its not very deep here? pictures by Roy McBride using a Ganon G11 digital camera.

This old boat was not vandlised ,she sank in an easterly gale tied where she lays ,in this case a hull  plank sprung and the one crew member aboard that night, could not contain the in rush of water. I suspect that this and the other six are available for free, if you raise them yourself?

Lavranos 56 monohull

We have no stock monhull of this size, a USA enquiry to a 55ft yacht kit got me thinking of this boat.


Sea Angel 56

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Kevin Johnson Boatbuilders in Devonport is built this under contract from Sea Angel Yachts, the first Sea Angel 56, a fast offshore cruiser for a local yachtsman. Built in wood, grp/epoxy sheathed, the boat has been designed so that it will look after the crew when the elements are at their toughest.

The boat is being built to survey and certification by New Zealand, and European authorities. Hull plating on the Sea Angel 56 is four diagonally laid skins of mahogany ply, glassed over for ease of maintenance. Internal finishes will match those of similar sized yachts at the top of the market.

The Sea Angel 56 incorporates all the equipment for safe and comfortable gulf cruising and ocean passages, including: genset, dive compressor, air conditioning, washing machine, watermaker, airconditioning, and all those other things that make a modern yacht a pleasure to spend a lot of time on. It also carries all the survival equipment necessary for safety when in places where assistance cannot be expected. The large cockpit has been designed so that it can be a preferred sleeping area when the yacht is in the Hauraki Gulf, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean or the Mediterranean.

LENGTH OVERALL 17.00 Meters
LENGTH DWL 14.92 Meters
BEAM 4.66 Meters
DRAUGHT 2.25 Meters
DISPLACEMENT 20,000 Kilograms
FUEL CAPACITY 1100 Liters
FRESH WATER 1000 Liters
POWER VOLVO TAMD 31M 80 KW
MAINSAIL 68 Sq Meters
ROLLER FURL HEADS'L 80 Sq Meters
CODE 0 100 Sq Meters
GENNEKER 140 Sq Meters

Note: This boat is a large project,its not your normal amature build kit set,rather a team job that will require a trained boat builder/manager. Having said this,in many respects, building can become easier as the size gets larger.

How hard can that be!

Roy

New mast kit build to the Optimist

Tommorrow we start a new mast set to the Optimist kit we sell.You can buy in alloy at more than twice the price and six times the hype but which mast will be better on the day? We weighed the mast kit,it came out to 3.66 kgs wrapped,so an acceptable weight.

Our Optimist kit,its dry assembled and as you can see at someones garage driveway.Its quite an easy job.

Optimist dinghy mast kits

Packed and showing an optional plastic mast ring we import direct from the manufacturers in Europe.


Goose neck halves CNC cut from 15mm ockume marine plywood.


The crate closed and lid screwed down,note the steel band strapping,the carton contains epoxies.


Contents of a crate with two Optimist kits inside.

We have just exported two sets of Optimist kits,they fit easiliy into a crate we made,plus a carton to pack the required epoxies in.As often happens the base order for two Optimists and a builders jig became more when we were asked to supply the required inflatable floats and sets of masts too.The mast sets were priced from the Optiparts agent and in Silver alloy,we placed the order for two sets at a rather high price per set,only to find they are not stock items.

We then looked at what was required and costed the same in wood and for R2000 a set,complete with small parts such as stainless saddles,plastic cleat and plastic jammer,to this we added a set of CNC cut boom goose necks and then wrapped the whole lot as a kit.We weighed the mast kit,it came out to 3.66 kgs wrapped,so an acceptable weight,we can offer selected timbers that will save more weight so I would think around 3 kgs a set?

The Optimist wood mast and spars kit

We normally ask buyers of the Optimist boat kit to either make their own mast set or buy the quite expensive alloy options.

There is another option,we can make it the way the design was intended,in wood,why not!


How hard can this be!

The moulded black plastic mast support ring is a stock Item.We can also supply a Harken deck package with your kit.

That really hard to find Harken part 387R 16mm block that fits at the mast and sprit joint is also ex stock.

R McB

The hard dodger or spray cover.

This idea has been a huge success,the relief from both wind,sun and spray while still having a full view of whats happening around us is just perfect.

Seen here on a Dix 43,we can re size some to fit smaller and larger boats.

 Lots of comfort and space and no worry about polycarbonate windows fading from the suns UV either. Do you know that tempered glass is made locally for far less than polycarbonates of a similar thickness.

Locally we supply in parts,which are the CNC panels to form the front and sides with.The glass is clear tempered,we can do a tint also,Dow Corning 813 silicone is supplied to glue the glass in,you will require no fastners with this product.

 Granny takes full advantage of the comfort and space inside the dodger.

The curved roof panel has a special egg crate type plug or mould to form the playwood lamination over. All epoxies,glass tapes and cloth come with the kit.We can ship as a flat pack world wide.

Hout Bay looking from the Chapmans Peak Drive side.

Superform Bending ply ex stock

This was posted last week? We now have trade size packs,for normal retail please contact our outlets at either Citywoods in Parrow,or Davidson Boards,who have a number of outlets.

For any technical back up please contact myself.

Superform is CE approved,important to know on any job,vital on exports.

Roy

Roys Hillman Imp Years,now at http://royckdboats.blogspot.com/

Some of you may know my interest in a car named a Hillman Imp? The saga starts in Liverpool when I was seventeen,I bought a one owner light grey (Rootes balmoral grey) Hillman Imp and it started from then on. All sorts have been said about how good and how bad this car was,it must have had its faults but post WW2 this was fully accepted.

My first ever car,it was super reliable too,I did a couple of trips to the continent with it and took my mates,check the roof carrier,that car was loaded!

I have recently joined a WPMC forum and posted around 380 items on my Imp experiances,its been a fun trip and I am not anywhere near finished but there is a problem. To access the forum we need to sign up and if after a few months,we add nothing into it,we are removed.

http://www.classiccarracers.co.za/forum/

So I have started a new blog thats dedicated to the Hillman Imp,it will also have our other cars,friends cars too but the main thread will always by the Imp.

You can view it at the link below,its titled Roys Hillman Imp Years.

http://royckdboats.blogspot.com/

Killarney Cape South Easter event,4th to 5th February 2012

Seen here in what are named New Pits is my good pal Eric Wells,a competant sailor and fellow Hillman Imp owner.We had a great day at the races!

Thats a reproduction Lola T70 in the background,the MGA has had just three owners.One was Spike Milligan,he was there yesterday and told us the engine has not been opened for about 25 years!

Two very nice classics,they both look new,one is and it has an air conditioner.

The names and my unintended self portrait (look into the paint)

A Lola T70,not a Hillman Imp to be seen.

Eric and Spike,thats the Lola T70 behind them.

Spikes drive,he is over here from the UK specially to drive to drive in this event series.

The car is a Camero V8

All pictures by Roy McBride,the camera was Canons G11 on auto setting,som tele lens was used on a few shots.The glorious Cape Town weather and sunshine helps this kind of work! We arrived before 8am to take full advantage of the light from the morning sun.

Dans Wharram Tiki 38 painting

Dan sent me a tiny picture of progress on the Tiki 38 he has nearly finished,launching will soon be on his mind? The Wharrams are of course really easy to transport from one area to the next,the Tiki 38 will fit in a forty foot container,or will it? you will need two such containers,one for each hull I expect.

We started by supplying the materials,plys,timber and epoxy,then CNC cut the bulkheads and moved on to the hull skin panels as Dan was progressing.The decks are in Nidacore,we can supply that but you will need to cut it yourself.

R McB

Postal stuff

We receive orders and when required send them by the SA Post Service,to date we have never lost an item,they may take some time but the goods have always arrived.The risk,once we have posted is tranfered to the customer,a tracking number service can be supplied at and extra fee. Once we have handed the goods over to the post office,the order is fully executed and is then to the buyers risk.

Late last december 2011 we had a parcel to ship to a customer in the USA,the postage was about R1580,to me,thats a lot of money,this was on 7.6 kgs near enough. Weeks went by and still the parcel had not arrived,using the USPS the customer could track it had been to US customs and cleared to USPS and that was the last we heard of the parcel.

Then it turns up where we sent it from,Hout Bays Post Office here in South Africa!

The returned parcel as collected,we had to pay a further R30 to get it back too.

I was expecting some fault or other but as you can see,while the parcel was a little knocked about, it was near enough intact,the contents were perfect,nothing lost or damaged,having done packing for years,we pack well.

The SA post office had added some yellow tape to secure one edge,at least they were doing a decent job but why the returned parcel?

I was really lost for an answer,then I saw it.

This folks,is the US Customs arrival sticker,the customs stuck it over the delivery address,imagine!

So when the USPS got the parcel they could not see who to deliver it to.They did not try too hard did they?

By either moving the customs sticker,or opening the plastic envelope on the side of the box with our invoice and buyers order,would have shown the delivery address.

HOW HARD CAN THIS BE!

Now we send by Fedex,lets hope the valued customer gets the goods.

R McB

The www.ckdboats.com web site is down

Thanks to Ken,a regular CKD Boats web site viewer,for informing me that the site was down.This is not making much sense,we have pre paid to the year 2013 and we have not even seen the end of the first month of 2012!

We are assured it will be working within 24 hours? so give http://www.ckdboats.com/ a try later?

A Dix 43 in wood/epoxy,the hull was owner built in six weeks only there was some assistance with cleaning and removing the epoxy drips under the hull as it was laminated.

The new Optimist build continues

Stuart has a great selection of G clamps,I wish I had so many!

I have started gluing the Meranti strips to the gunwhales and it seems to be turning out ok.

I am finding this quite a slow progress as I have decided not too loosen the G-clamps until the epoxy has dried.  I did use quite a number of screws to hold the first strip in, but still, when loosening the clamps I did notice small hairline gaps appear, so I tightened them up again.

Would I be correct in saying that the screws used on these first strips should also be removed as with all others?

I have advised Stuart to use screws to hold the new rails in place untill the epoxy fully cures,this can be some days.Then remove the screws and back fill with epoxy and micro balloons/Fumed silica mix.

Hout Bays no swim zone

I was one that protested about a sewerage outfall pipe in the bay,the council did not listen (do they ever) and went ahead,its called progress?

Its never quite clear just where they did put the outfall pipe but the picture shows exactly where? This picture was taken last saturday morning,the blue/white waste continued untill late afternoon.

At first I thought it was fish,then later when I came back over Chapmans Peak,it was clear they were discharging some sort of chemical,thats not poo,so just what is it?

Hout Bay TV and The Sentinal news paper,we need you to find out about this.

How hard can that be?

R McB

Teak by the truck load

We have imported our own teak (tectona grandis) for many years,over twenty for sure.Starting with plantation grown,we soon moved into genuine FEQ (first european quality) shipped from Singapore and others in that region.

My first trip to discuss quality plantation teak saw me meet up with others from India,who were finding supplies of their own natural growth teak was becoming too expensive.

This plantation teak log was cut from forest planted about 85 years back,the logs are harvested in a controled maner,new trees are planted and old growth can grow back again.

Today I am in contact with a farmer who planted teak saplings about 14 years back,we need them to be a little older than that before the tree is large enough to be commercial.

The company Commercial Lumber cc grew out of teak sales,we then started to stock other species as well.Today the market has changed,less teak is used so the stock is smaller but the quality is now higher.

We import to longer lengths and as kiln dried,still as FEQ but a better standard,normally used to lay as teak decks,its still the number one timber for boats.