Friday 11 January 2013

The Paper Jet 14 kit, whats in it?

From CKD Boats cc thats easy, we supply the entire materials list, including the eopxies and glass tapes.

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2010/05/whats-in-paper-jet-14-kit.html

Check the link for some pictures of the CNC works.

Dudley sailing hull # 1 made from a set of plywood panels supplied by CKD Boats cc

Words below by the designer Dudley Dix @ www.dixdesign.com

The Paper Jet is designed primarily as a training boat, with the intention that it can cater for a wide range of sailing skills. I wanted a boat that will allow a club to race it as a class boat that will give exciting sailing to those who have the skills but will also allow less experienced sailors to develop their sailing skills in the same boat at a much lower level of performance. It is not suited for learning the most basic sailing principles single-handed. We recommend double-handed training until the student has enough expertise to sail single-handed. For single-handed training first learn the basics on a Sunfish or similar boat then move to the more performance oriented Paper Jet. 


The same features that I designed into it for club use will allow a family to use one hull as the platform on which Dad can have his excitement of blasting across large expanses of water but junior can sail the same boat (if he can pry it loose from Dad's grip) with a smaller rig and at slower speed.

I did not try to produce a design that will sail the pants off any of the other skiffs or single-handers. It is fast and it is exciting to sail with the Turbo rig, but from the outset (this boat was in the back of my head for over 10 years) it was intended to provide an economical path for sailors to progress between boats like the Optimist and the costly single-handed skiffs without having to trade up their boat each time to go the next step. They can build a Paper Jet at the cheapest level or the level that they think that they can handle and progress from there. Meanwhile, as long as Dad is not out sailing, the kids can use the same boat at a more basic level. It makes sailing more viable for many families. With time and skill improvements they can move into more costly boats if they feel the need

Roy

i550 sailing boat pictures

These photos came to me by way of Will in South Africa, he is building an i550 from one of our kits.

Will has been in contact with some of those sailing the i550 class in the USA, they supplied these pictures.


These boats sure look fast!


This was the 2012 US Nationals winner, boats name being Moran.


The caption mentions a boat speed of 18 knots!

Roy

Thursday 10 January 2013

St Helena Island news on line

St Helena Island in the South Atlantic has a nice on line news paper

The Independent news paper can be found here.

http://www.saint.fm/Independent/index.htm

Or try here  http://www.clickonsthelenaisland.com/welcome/

The yacht trailing at the rear of the fleet in the race from South Africa to St Helena has actually sailed faster than the leaders, according to an update filed by JOHN LESLIE (6 December 2012).

Note, Black Cat had to divert to Luderitz, Namibia, to get a new alternator fitted, basically putting them out of contention as a race winner for this event.

Photo by Neil Rusch at the start of the 1996 Cape to Rio yacht race.

The boat is Dudley Dix's own Didi 38 which he designed and built for himself, we can supply this boat, plus smaller and larger to the same build process as CNC cut kits.

Check the link to see Banjo crossing the line in Ruperts Bay, St Helena on New Years day!

The event was the 2012/13 Govenors Cup Race.

i550 transom mods

It was found that due to the low hight of the transom, pintles were pulling out of the back of the boat, a mod was to raise the section of the transom in the center.


This is the kit we cut for Will here in South Africa, it has the standard transom as supplied in the cut files we received. Check the rear post and the small ply upstand at the transom.


From inside the boat


This is what Will has copied from a boat in the USA, Tim Ford designed this modification, its on i550 hull number 88, click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Roy

Wednesday 9 January 2013

The i550 class boat in North America

From what I read a group built five boats as one lot, then drew straws to see who got each boat, what a great idea!


The boats all have the class logo on but with a different colour, thats a very clever idea.


I count four but they built five!

Pictures supplied by Eric Rimkus
 

Roy

Tuesday 8 January 2013

A wooden wheel barrow kit from CKD Boats

Jean has taken my Ford truck and gone to buy a whole load of topsoil for our lawns (joke!) the grass has gone, we have more sand and dust than the green stuff.

Of course its me who will have carry all the bags of topsoil and dressing, one by one and to the back of our home.

Part of Jeans 2o x 30 kgs bags of top dressing soil, plus the 20kgs of fertilizer, so who had to move all 620kgs, easy guess? I do need a wheel barrow, how about you|?

We need a wheel barrow, well I do but where from?

Lets make a kit for home construction, either in plywood or MDF (supawood) both will be waterproof when epoxy coated.

Does anyone want such a thing?

Seems so, lots have viewed this blog entry, contact me for pricing.

Roy

The i550 build in South Africa

This is soon to be the hotest new sport sail boat in South Africa, speeds of eighteen knots are possible!


This is CKD Boats kit #1 sent to Will in the Johannesburg area just before Christmas, he got busy right away and soon had his basic hull in place.


This is a large volume hull for a boat this size.


The owner builder is named Will, he had to work build systems out as he went along, the heat was an issue, by 9am it was 32c so epoxy and glass work was done in the evening when things had cooled down to 25c.


This really took Will very little time to build at all, he was pleased with the accuracy of our CNC cut panels and says it saved him a lot of time.

Boat number one in South Africa, whos next?

Roy

(bloging with pictures again!)


The i550 one design class in the USA

Pictures have just been made available to me that show how active the i550 sport racing sail boat has become in the USA, I note lots of females involved too, thats a great thing for any sport!


Picture credit will be posted when I know the name, Eric Rimkus supplied it


PDX #1 in the background.  FYI, if you don't know the story, the 5 boats we built are a group build with us each getting a boat at the end by drawing lots.  We all worked together to build the boats so they are pretty much all identical.

Hi Roy,

The North American class association say it’s ok to use these pictures to publicise the boat on your site. We just need to give the photographer credit if you decide to use them (see email attached).

My thanks to Justin and Will for sorting out how to reduce original very large the picture files!

Roy

Monday 7 January 2013

The first Retro 29 build

Said to be a perfect boat to take on the Governors Cup Race fleet to St Helena island next December 2014, the owner and builder has less than two years to get to the start line!


This is a view of Hout Bay from 7500 feet up, taken by local sailor Tojan.

Why a repeat of this fine picture? well Google will not allow me to access my picture files on the PC and the first Retro 29 will be built in the village below.

St Helena Island is around 1740 nm ahead and on a magnetic bearing of 333 degrees on the yachts compass.

Time to get my own boat ready?

How good could that be!

Roy


The Dix Design Retro 29

http://www.dixdesign.com/29Retrodidi.htm

Words below from the boats designer Dudley Dix

This design was commissioned by a client who likes the concept and features of theDIDI 26 but wanted a more classic appearance. He plans to build it himself in Hout Bay, South Africa from a kit supplied by CKD Boats.
Most of the boat is the same as the DIDI 26, with some obvious differences.

 The springy sheer curve was achieved by adding bulwarks that are 100mm (4") high in the bow and taper down to normal toerail height for the length of the cockpit. This gives safety for working the foredeck but allows crew to sit comfortably on the rail at the cockpit.


News in from Will who is building South Africas first i550 sail boat.


The Sentinal, Hout Bays landmark on arrival, photographer unknown.

Ps. Good news on the Retro 29, will be interesting to see how she turns out – However, Billy Leisegang – the guy in charge of this years Governors Cup told me the next Gov cup is only in 2016 due to airport construction – I wanted to enter something too! Should be plenty of time…

CKD Boats blogs with no pictures

No picture blogs?

Well again its looking this way, I can see no way to download my picture files, only pictures that are on the blog already! this is one of them.


A small hand plane made by Mulholland in Belfast, Northern Ireland, model number 245, its over 100 years old, what a gem to use.

News on the kit boats as of 2013:

Today may sort of be the start of the 2013 working year? we have materials to buy in for the Retro 29 to be built here in Hout Bay, the CNC work should be cut this week also.

So we start the year with an order and new boat.

How nice is that!

Roy

Sunday 6 January 2013

Winchcombe in winter

This picture was sent to me by my  pal Ken, an old Camping Club member like myself.


Just like me he has moved from the Merseyside area but managed to stay in England still, this is his winter weather!

http://www.winchcombe.co.uk/  Winchcombe is down in the Cotwolds, sort of west of the British Midlands.



This is our weather and in Hout Bay and South Africa, some 7000 miles south of Winchombe. The boat is a Didi 34 named Nandi and built by the owner Nick in around two years building time, Nick used a CNC cut kit from CKD Boats cc, we supplied the International Paint system too.

Roy

Didi 38 Black Cat eats up the miles

These are the basics of words from the Governors Cup Race organisers, as after a slow start and a stop at Luderitz, Namibia, Black Cat stormed off after the fleet and has now recorded a faster daily average since the restart than Banjo the winner of this years race.


Picture supplied by Dudley Dix and taken by Clive Dick.


  Interesting commentary on Black cat….

Gooday All,

There are now 3 yachts reporting less the 50nm to the finish line at 0900 CAT this morning, 1st in should be the Norwegians on Maggie followed by either Patches or Tico-Tico.

Ocean Cloud (92nm) who’s tracker has not pinged since the 2nd of January should be at the Island later tonight with Silver Cloud (122nm) and Black Cat (148nm) probably crossing the finish line in the early hours of Monday morning.

What is really impressive is that Black Cat who detoured to Luderitz, and only resumed racing on Sunday 30th December 2012 will have covered the 1332nm from Luderitz to St. Helena in 8 days averaging a very respectable 167nm per day.

Banjo the ‘Line Honours’ winner averaged 166nm per day from Simon’s Town and the Governor’s Cup winner ‘Reaction‘ managed a 144nm average 24hour pace for the race. Perhaps the Crew from Black Cat will be the first entrant into the next Governor’s Cup because I’m certain they, like Tinus Groenewald from Reaction, will have some ‘unfinished business’ to avenge in 2014.

Weather out on the approaches to St. Helena Island: Wind SE 11 -18knts, Still pretty overcast with 8/8ths cloud cover and waves of between 1 – 1.5M.

- John Leslie







Picture file from PC testing,Google has made changes!

This may mean my days as the blogger from CKD Boats cc are over? excepting Justin, the web master from the HBYC has seen a way into my picture files!

Many thanks Justin!

Sort of reminds me of the way Microsoft changes things, not always for the better, why change what worked just fine before!

Roy


Justin Phillips and Henry

 Just for info, this is the screen I see when I click the picture icon on blogger. Note the various options under “Select a file”, and then a button the right called “Choose files”.  That’s the one that sees my PC files.

 To include this screen in the email, I pressed “Print-Screen” button when the screen was displayed, and then Paste (or Ctrl-V) while in the email composition.

 
Cheers

J