Saturday 3 January 2009

Who agrees we have Global Warming



We went for a sail in Chapmans Bay,thats just south of Cape Town Port,this was what the local weather was like,very nice,you can see its really a fine and clear day,it was a tad chilly though.

Roy

Thursday 1 January 2009

Hard dinghy designed by Bob Perry for Jakatan




Here is our next kit offering,its January the 1st 2009,so as good a way to start the new year as any.We do not yet have any strip planked boats,we will have another in the next few months but Bob Perry's 10ft (3.1mtr) design will be our very first.View this web site to read about the owners (Jeff) specific requirements,it all makes perfect sense to me.

http://www.jakatan.com/jakatan_014.htm

On this boat our kit will be the male mould on which to form the hull strip planks on,this will be CNC machined from MDF,its later removed and discarded,we will also supply the transom,cut to shape,all wood cove strips,epoxies and glass cloth will be included.The sail and mast plus Harken hardware can be included also.Plans will be supplied direct from the Robert Perry Design Office.

Wednesday 31 December 2008

Famous boat designers,Bruce Kirby,his Lazer



Thats Bruce Kirby to the left,with Eric Jespersen,of Jespersen Boat Builders,Vancouver Island,British Columbia,Canada,builders of the Robert Perry designed Jakatan.

I mention the Lazer to give a comparison to the 'Paper Jet 14' we sell as a kit,the Paper Jet is some 15kgs lighter than a Lazer,there are 26 sets of plans now sold,we are looking forwards to the other 181,974 orders!

Roy

Bruce Kirby:

It was two years later, in the fall of 1958, that he tried his hand at serious design work with his first International 14, which became known as the Kirby Mark I. He designed the boat for himself after having raced in Cowes for Canada against British and New Zealand teams; but before his boat was completed four friends had ordered boats and the designer took the fourth one out of the mould. In that Cowes regatta the Canadian team won, but only because the wind was predominately light to medium. Every time it blew up a bit the Kiwis were superior upwind. So Bruce's Mark I was aimed at speed upwind in heavy air, and it turned out to be quite fast in those conditions. In all there were 28 Kirby Mark 1s built, and there were two of them, including the designer's, on the Canadian squad that won the team event at Toronto in 1961. Six more Kirby 14s were designed in the ensuing 14 years, and in particular the Mark III and Mark V sold very well in all countries where the class was popular.

Bruce, Margo and their daughters Janice and Kelly moved in 1965 from Montreal to Chicago, where Bruce became editor of the old One Design yachtsman Magazine, which is now called Sailing World.

Six months later, at the same time as he was working on his Mark V International14, he was asked by a Montreal friend to design a Ïcar topperÓ dinghy, and the result of that was the Laser, which hit the market in January of 1971. The success of this little boat - there are now 182,000 worldwide - inspired the designer to resign from the magazine and go full time into sailboat design.

Bob Perry,yacht designer,his schooner Jakatan


Jakatan.


Eric Jespersen (the boats builder) and Bob Perry are now standing in the newly inverted (and wet) hull. Bob is in the future galley on port side. We are looking aft towards the companionway.



Jacatan profile picture.


When I did the report on the Bob Perry design named Orphan,I asked Bob if he could send me a better print out than I could manage with the Sailing magazine issue scan I had managed.Bob told me that the Orphan design was hand drawn and on paper and he could not send it to me by email but he gave me a few of his designs as an option.

Introducing the schooner Jakatan.

Roy:

That entire rig is carbon fiber, gaffs and all. The gaffs have single halyards and work very well.

Yes, this boat could be strip planked or cold molded.

Bob P.

The boats owner says:



Jakatan was designed for the windy waters of San Francisco Bay, its home port. The name of the boat is derived from the names of my wife and two daughters, Janet, Kate, and Anne. Nineteenth century lore also said it was good luck to name a boat with seven letters and three A's so you see more than a few boats with that combination

Bob tells me the boat is 41 feet long,(13.2mtrs)its a composite build with an all carbon single control line rig,its easy to reef and its a pleasure for the Californian owner to sail.The boat is composite built but could be done in strip plank or cold molding,so CKD Boats could offer this boat as a kit.