Packing of our kits for transport,what we do for you and why

We always insure our kits at the owners expense but at our net cost,this applies to all exports and most internal deliveries,which travel by road freight companies.
Once was we used as basic materials as we could,this was based on the premise that customers would not want to pay for packing? Then as our kits began to go further and further,we had some reports of damaged crates and so on,we were lucky that not one kit was affected in any large way.So a review of what we were using and what could be done to effect a better packing standard became the issue,for our crates we moved to steel band strapping,an expensive extra,the tools and two rolls of 16mm wide steel straps,cost over R3600 alone but since this has been used we have had good reports.

We have always tripple wrapped our machined and twice selected timbers,this starts with a basic taped bundle,then a plastic sleeve tube is slipped over the entire bundle,we then add protection with a cover of corrogated cardboard,tape that,then add a second plastic tube cover for good measure,so each pack is safe and probably quite water proof too? Sawn Pine for building stocks is always tanalith treated,this is a copper solution based in water,then vacumed into the pine in an enclave,so the wood is quite damp when we receive it,this is why we never wrap our rough sawn pine,we just bundle and steel strap it as our picture shows.So when you note our packing fee with our kit offer prices,you will understand what we do for the charge you are asked for.

Roy

Kayak cutting and deluxe light plys

We had an order to cut ten off of a kayak designed by Dudley Dix www.dixdsign.com,the kayak is a super light one man boat and is skinned in a light fabric,rather than plywood,so to save weight even further, we used our special Deluxe Light Plys,in a 6mm thickness,its the back bone and bulkheads in this case,our cut bulkhead and frame kit pictured, weighed in at a remarkable 1.75 kgs per boat only,with the stringers in a light wood and supplied by the buyer.

Exporting of Boat Kits continues to expand

Romania



Zambia



Hawaii



Washington



Virginia


Pennysvania


North Carolina



Florida



California



Arizona


England

Wales
South Africa (none export)







United States of America



Kenya



Venezuela




Trinidad & Tobago








We have sent our boat kits country wide but also world wide,some days I think it is as easy to send to Honolulu as sending localy,with a recent export order to Kenya,we have now got orders to many different regions of the world,many of which we have sent kits to a number of times.The idea is to grow this blog with a list of flags to the various countries,lets see if we can add yours to our growing list! Remember we can also supply materials only,it does not have to be one of our boat kits. Around the corner,around the world,comes to mind,we have sent five orders to the general Pacific Ocean area to date,this came about via our kits but soon led on to orders for others who were doing boat refits,we supplied the materials required at a lower price than could be found locally .

Roy

Thin Plywood for Model Making

Or for any other use you can think of? those of you who are modelers,scale boat and plane builders may be interested to know we can supply thin plywoods.

We have irregular requests to supply decent thin three ply,normally its made from Ockume and is about 1.6mm thick,not bad for a sheet of plywood is it.We have stocked this when it became available,which is not at all often,this suits our requests to supply it,which again,is not very often! The last four sheets we sold came from Bruynzeel Plywoods in Holland,made to a BS1088 marine ply standard and faced with african mahogany of the Khaya (which means house) species it was a really nice ply.

The phone just rang,the caller asks about 1.5mm modelers ply,he was too late by a month I informed him,he tells me he can actually buy it in from another source but a sheet thats as large as a telephone book's cover will cost him all of R300,thats U$39 by the way,now I have heard of expensive but thats way out by my way of thought.

We can supply at much better prices ex factory,which will take about six weeks,better six weeks than not at all? they make what they call a two and a three ply,each lamination having an insert of a super thin strong paper to stabize the construction,the paper is so thin,its not actually visible at all.There is also the option of an exotic species on one face,with eighty species to choose from,I assume one will suit you.We have samples if you can call by to our factory.Ex stock we can offer the 3mm Superform plys,plus range of 1mm thick Flexiveneers that may do what your after?

Roy

Tef-Gel anti seize paste for metal

Some products arrive with us by recomendation,one such product
being Tef-Gel,a paste given to us in a tube applicator,by one of the owners of the two Didi mini transats we were building at the time,this was about five years back? The customer is a proffesional ships captain,he had sourced the anti seize paste in the USA and requested that all of his boats deck fittings were installed
using Tef-Gel,which we duly did.

The packaging says 'Ultra Tef-Gel',the corrosion eliminator and anti-seize lubricant,great but does it work? time as ever will tell on this one,well thats five years back and since then I have used some of what was left of the Tef-Gel on fittings on my own boats mast,thats a 16mtr alloy mast, which will weigh about 180 kgs stripped bare of all its fittings.

The fittings on the mast are either similar alloys or 316 stainless steel,either attatched with monel rivets (good) or stainless steel machine screws or self tappers,which may be made from 304 grade steel? (not so good) as disimilar metals do not get on at all well,the more 'noble' basically eats the less noble up!

Five years back I installed a new Lewmar 46 self tailing halyard winch on the same mast,that was fitted to a 316 stainless metal winch pad,fabricated to fit the shape of the alloy section,it was fastened on with 6mm stainless machine screws,around the same time, a full length spinnaker pole mast track too,all screw fastners were installed using the Tef-Gel paste,as much in hope as anything else,who knows if this stuff will work,thought I at the time.

Now that same mast is in the factory for a complete strip down and twin pack repaint,so all fittings we had to remove,it was very noticable that those fastened with an application of Tef-Gel were really easy to remove and no sign of corrosion was to be found,this was a test that was not pre planed,it just worked out this way.

The refit of the same mast will happen in the next week or so,new stocks of Tef-Gel have been ordered from the suppliers and each and every fastening will be replaced using Tef-Gel,the cost of which is tiny,when you consider a mast may be valued at R200,000 or about U$2600 or so?

New Fastners? I would say this mast
has 120 x 4mm and 50 x 6mm fastner holes in it,this time no stainless fastners will be used at all,only monel rivets,the spaces between all stainless to alloy surfaces will be coated with Tef-Gel and if we can find suitable very thin 1mm flexible plastic sheet,that will be used as an insulator too.

You can also use Tef-Gel as I have,on auto engine rebuilds,noticably my alloy engines from circa 1963 Hillman Imps,spark plugs are very easy to remove and
the Tef-Gel paste becomes a good sealer,cylinder head bolts,which are mild steel in the alloy block,which is not a good mix of metals,have been found to be easy to remove,with no sign of any damage to either the alloy block or the head bolts.

Tef-Gel stock should soon be in our Cape Town store,various size packs will be aavailable,contact me for your requirements.

Roy

Spurs propellor shaft rope cutters

We all take out insurance on our boats and expect the payout to cover the damage should this happen,we also carry a spare wheel in our cars,which is sort of an insurance policy of course.Ropes around a propeller shaft need an insurance all of itself,one such policy is made by Spurs in the USA,a top quality and once off purchase of one of their shaft rope cutters will cover you.They are easy to install,normally at such time as you haul your boat for a bottom paint job,otherwise on a travel lift or even between tides against a wall or drying poles.They are servicable too,a simple instruction guide shows you when to replace thrust bearings.Sizes vary depending on the boats shaft diameter,contact me for information and prices.

Roy

PSS Shaft Dripless Seals

We try and introduce and stock products we know something about,either as we have used it ourselves or know of others who have done so,this then forms a part of what can be offered,especialy on our larger boat kits when we supply the boats fittings,sails and engine.The PPS dripless shaft seal is our new offering,we have an order to fill on the Didi 38 full boat kit shipped out recently,having used a similar type shaft seal on my own boat for eight years,I can assure you the idea works,mine has not dripped a drop since its installation,gone are those days of repacking the old type stuffing box,which needs a drip or two for lubrication anyway.

Floating About (time)

This tender,its a local GSM 'Duckling' glass reinforced design and is hanging on the back of a Dix 43 made from wood/epoxy,the yacht is now eight years old but the tender will be heading for twenty five years now?The addition of the 135mm diameter inflated tubes means the tender is very much more stable,it is also nice when you come along side yours or anothers boat,as its built in fender.The tubes on this boat are inflated by a single end fitting,you just pump the tubes up with an inflator every so often. We can offer the same type float tubes,alloy bolt rope track,fasteners and fender washers as a kit.All we need from you is the length of each side of the tender and a template of the bow shape,prices will depend on the size of your dinghy of course,the tubes can be in white,grey and red also,we can ship world wide.

Roy

Rudders and Foils CNC shaped

The first two Didi mini transats we built http://www.dixdesign.com/ had one pair of rudders and an aft foil each,the second of the two also had a forward foil due to the boats cant keel arrangement,this was the first ever Cant Keel Yacht launched in South Africa.We made the first rudders and foil in an old method style,shapes taken as templates from the designers drawings,this saw some three and a half days hard work to have the three blades shaped,even then they prooved to be less than perfect and we actually replaced the rudders at our own cost later on for a set we had CNC shaped.After the CNC shaping takes place,it takes one man just three and a half hours to free them off with a power planer and belt sander,time saved,is money saved of course and more to the point,they are correct! We now offer the CNC shape work,roughed out or as finished units,as part of our Didi Mini transat kits extras.Other similar work is always considered.

Conservation Stuff and Bio-Magic

We hear the word conservation on a daily basis now,at this time the main theme seems to be targeted at Global Warming and why its happening,if indeed it is happening,keeping an open mind on the matter seems the best choice right now? From a company stance,we try to use products that are from renewable sources,surely this makes sense for us all,its one thing to use a product for your personal gain but totaly another if we remove the species from the face of the earth?

To try and meet this factor,we are pleased to advise that our Superform bending plys and our Ockume marine plys are from renewable sources,it was Dudley Dix of http://www.dixdesign.com/ who told me about the Ockume species being regrown,the suppliers of our Superform bending plywood was enforced by the country they produce in,to proove that all species used in ply manufacture in their factory, were from a renewable source,so strict was the government,that they actually stopped production in the factory for two weeks while the truth was prooven! The end result was a CE certification to the fact that all materials,glues included,are none harmfull,either to the workers in the factory or the end users in some other part of the world.

CKD Boats cc took up another option,at first this seems to little to do with boats but as time goes by,it may factor in to some ideas regarding marine sanitation,especially pump outs of raw sewage into our waters.Enter Bio-Magic! http://www.biomagic.co.za/ this came to our notice around four years back when a very good friend Alex (notty) Notman (we did two ocean crossings together) took on the Bio-Magic agency for Great Britain and Ireland http://www.biomagicuk.com/ Notty thought a market existed and soon found he was correct,he in turn had been told about the product by Clive Breed,a mutual sailing buddy who now resides in Auckland,New Zealand http://www.biomagic.co.nz/ .Bio-Magic is becoming global,try www.biomagic.com.au for Australia and www.biomagic.com for the USA.

Bio-Magic has many uses,Notty has targeted the sanitation side,RV homes,Canal Narrow Boats,Campers and of course Power and Sail Boats,in fact anything that has a toilet.Bio-Magic is fully bio degradable,this means you can discharge it and the related waste into a municipal drain and if you do pump it into the ocean,no poisons exist to do nature any harm.So you will find two signs outside our factory,one is CKD Boats cc and the other is Bio-Magic SA.Check out or web sites or contact me direct for detailed information.

Green Boating Products,say:

Biomagic sewage holding tank treatment
This product is pitched towards those who have sewage holding tanks or cassette loos. One of the main reasons for smelly holding tanks, or the failure of the sewage to break down, is the lack of oxygen. Biomagic is a Formaldehyde-free treatment for holding tanks which is rich with oxygen, thus breaking down the waste and eliminating the odours (not simply masking them), environmentally and economically.



What is BioMagic?
BioMagic is an oxygen rich liquid that is manufactured from water, oxygen and nitrogen. There are no dyes, poisons or harmful chemicals in it, so it is safe to humans, animals, plants and the environment. A perfume is added for identification purposes only.



What does BioMagic do?
It controls and eliminates unpleasant odours and assists the breakdown of human waste faster and naturally, without the use of poisonous toxic chemicals. It even breaks down normal toilet paper into liquid. Soon, this type of product will replace all the poisonous odour control agents presently being used.



So, how does it work?
BioMagic is a natural bio-stimulant, enhancing Nature's ability to break down waste products. Unpleasant odours are produced by waste when natural bacteria, already present, do not have sufficient oxygen to complete the breakdown process. Oxygen-rich BioMagic assists natural bacteria to work more efficiently. Treating waste with BioMagic produces a harmless and odourless liquid residue that can be flushed away without causing harm to the environment.

So What’s the advantage of using BioMagic?



BioMagic does not poison the environment but works with nature. It does not kill the essential bacteria that help nature to break down waste products and it does not stain your skin or harm your equipment. It is cost effective as well, so there is no reason to continue using the old poisonous chemicals to treat your waste. BioMagic-the-Future is here now. It has an indefinite shelf life and is not affected by sunlight. It will be accepted by all environmental agencies and will not result in damage to sewage systems, wastewater treatment plants, the water table or the environment. In some states in the USA, poisonous chemicals have been outlawed by City Councils because they are causing millions of dollars of damage to wastewater treatment plants. It will not be long before legislation will be introduced in the UK and RSA to prevent the poisoning of the environment. Then, BioMagic may be the only treatment accepted.



Where can it be used?
It has an indefinite shelf life and is unaffected by sunlight. It can be used anywhere there is an organic waste and odour problem including, chemical toilets, sewage holding tanks and grey water holding tanks in boats, narrow boats, and deep-sea power or sailing boats




Roy