Riley RMA/RME circa 1951,or Mr Dudley Dix meets Mr William Riley Jr.

The very same Shearwater 39 being launched in Hout Bay Harbour,its name is Sheer Tenacity


Riley 1500 as new and ready to take the bride and her father to the church

Left click on the picture for a great large scale view


Riley 1500 wants a new home and a restoration

If you look closely you will see a beautifull pair of ladies,one is just a pile of plastic and goes by the name of Shearwater 39,the other is a Riley RMA (it might be the RME?)it dates to 1951 and had a 1500cc engine.Just check the top picture to see what it looked like new.

Riley RMA
Riley RMA 1951 Riley RMA decorated for use as a wedding car
Production 1945–1952
10,504 produced.
Successor Riley RME
Body style(s) 4-door saloon
Engine(s) 1.5 L Straight-4
The RMA was the first post-war Riley. It used the 1.5 L engine and was equipped with hydro-mechanical brakes and an independent suspension using torsion bars in front. The frame was made of wood in the English tradition, and the car featured traditional styling. The car was capable of reaching 75 mph (121 km/h). The RMA was produced from 1945 until 1952 when it was replaced by the RME

An adjustable trailer rack idea

This load of plys,41 sheets of it,is really well secured under Andrews adjustable trailer rack

Left click on any of the pictures to view in a larger size and better detail


Corner details


Andrew does 'minor' adjustments


Andrew and his self made rack

A new customer, his name is Andrew, bought a load of 6mm BS 1066 marine ply from us this week,he collected it on his Jurgens two wheel road trailer,which is quite small and normally would be near useless for the task but not with the ingenious home made trailer rack that Andrew thought up and made himself,check it out,it adjusts and clamps the plys down to secure them.The plys will be used to skin the Hartley 37 yacht hull that Andrew has built on his own,a nice job for the seasonal holiday we will have soon,we will post his pictures at a later time.

Hot and Cold

It looks a fair bit colder than it gets in Cape Town and Uppington?


Before the snows closed in,they were totaly ice bound in the end

It all depends where you live,it was about 34c here the last day or so,Uppington further inland was 38c ,so we are lucky,I wonder what temprature it went down to in the artic circle when Annie and Trevour wintered over on Iorn Horse?

Gregory on his Dean 44 catamaran has no Astrolabe?

Well we suspect not,they go back to Chaucers time (who?) he will have a Garmin twelve channel GPS and plotter as a minimum I would think,so whats an Astrolabe? here we go.

The astrolabe

The astrolabe (from Greek astrolabon, 'star-catcher') was by far the most efficient astronomical instrument used during the Middle Ages. This small (usually half a dozen inches in diameter) disk-like object was a form of a mechanical map of the celestial sphere adjustable to the observer's position on the Earth and a particular date. It enabled even an amateur astronomer to make plenty of otherwise complicated astronomical calculations quickly.

There were three basic kinds of the instrument: one-, two- and three-dimensional, ie. linear, planispheric and spherical respectively (Reidy 1987: 1093). The commonest one and the one described by Chaucer was a planispheric astrolabe, which depicted the stereographic projection of the sky on the equator.

The instrument was so versatile in its applications that it is sometimes refered to as a form of an early analogue computer. According to Morrison (2004; the source quoted below), a 10th-century Arabian scholar, Abdal-Rahmân b. Umar al-Sufî, described in his work on the astrolabe as many as 1000 of its uses. The flexibility of the instrument was rather overestimated by that author but nevertheless the possibilities of making use of it were very numerous. Most typically, it was employed to indicate the positions of celestial bodies relative to the horizon and to the meridian, to tell time, to measure the length of the day or season or to determine the directions of the world. It was possible to calculate the heights of buildings or mountains or the distance between two objects with the help of an astrolabe. Its simplified version served seamen as a navigation tool.

In A Treatise on the Astrolabe Chaucer explains in detail how the astrolabe can be used, for instance,:

To fynde the degre in which the sonne is day by day, after his cours aboute.
To knowe the altitude of the sonne or of othre celestial bodies.
To knowe every tyme of the day by light of the sonne; and every tyme of the nyght by the sterres fixe; and eke to knowe by nyght or by day the degre of eny signe that ascendith on the est orisonte, which that is clepid comounly the ascendent, or ellis horoscopum.
To knowe which day is lik to which day as of lengthe.
To knowe the degrees of longitudes of fixe sterres after that they be determynat in thin Astrelabye, yf so be that thei be trewly sette.
To knowe with which degre of the zodiak eny sterre fix in thin Astrelabie arisith upon the est orisonte, all though his dwellyng be in another signe.
To knowe the declinacioun of eny degre in the zodiak fro the equinoxiall cercle.
To prove evidently the latitude of eny place in a regioun by the preve of the height of the pool artik in that same place.
To knowe justly the 4 quarters of the world, as Est, West, North, and South.



Although the hayday of the astrolabe were later Middle Ages, its history can be traced as far back as to the times of Hipparch of Nicaea (ca. 190-125 BC), who advanced the theory of the stereographic projection and thus laid strong foundations for the development of the instrument (Morrison 2004). The machine which is said to have been the precursor of the device was probably known already to Ptolemy. It was developed and refined by the scholars of the Middle East from where it was introduced into Europe in the 11th century.

An interesting and much more detailed description of the astrolabe, its history, principles of its working, uses, etc., supplemented with pictures, is available on the excellent websites:


http://astrolabes.org/ by James E. Morrison

http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m309-01a/montero/math309project.html by Laura Jamieson and Maria Montero

Thus, I see no need to repeat it here.

Fluid Film correction control,advice and our back up service

Think of a place far from the madding crowd, think of a place where heritage and nature are in harmony, think of a place with warm and friendly people .. think no more ... come and see for yourself.



Hout Bay Harbour,not far from the HBYC (hout bay yacht club) on a perfect morning last April.Thats the owner/skipper Gregory sitting in the cockpit in the red jacket,left click on the picture to enlarge it for more detail.CKD Boats supplied Superform bending plywoods to this boat to help Nebe Yachts fit it out.

Merlin is tied to the dockside,while Flying Cloud,a Dix Design Dix 43' in ply/epoxy is alongside Merlin.

We supplied the boat on the left,its a locally designed and built Dean 44', with some Fluid Film just before they departed from Cape Town to St Helena island, in the South Atlantic.They are a family of five,the children are quite small and as the voyage,their very first trip offshore,is some 1740 nautical miles,its quite an undertaking for the parents in what is a new boat, having been launched only about nine months back at the HBYC marina.Yesterday I received this sat phone message:

Hi

Thanks for your help. We are well on our way to St Helene with about
250NM to go.
The rudder stocks are squeeking a lot. One point is the joint between
the top of the tube and the top bush. Which spray should I
use, I have your Fluid film, silicon spray, WD40, marine grease, silicon
grease?

Cheers
Gregory

This was my reply and advise:

Hello All,

Thanks for your mail,I hope its been a nice easy and fast passage,let me
know.

You seem to have a good choice of lubricants! the silicon spray will be too
thin to do much,same with the WD40,tests show that only 20% of whats in the
can is usable product,the rest is attomiser and disapears! the marine and
silicon grease will do a good job but you need to dismantle the bearings to
apply that,so use the Fluid Film,it will penetrate crevices and is thick
enough to do the job and stay in place,it will actually soak in to plastic
or bronze bearings,possibly you need to strip things down when you
arrive,then re pack with grease? let me know the outcome.

Regards
Roy

This was Gregorys mail reply this morning:

Hi

Thanks for the reply. I tried the Fluid Film and it worked so we will
sleep a little better tonight.

We had a windy start to the trip for the first four days then the wind
was patchy with us needing to motor for a third of the time and now
finally we have some wind again and should be at St Helene on Thursday.


Cheers
Gregory

Mushulu14' power boat

Left click on the picture to view FULL (very) size.

A new power boat for our design portfolio is the Mushulu 14' ,its penned by Mark Bowdidge in Austraila,in the next week we will do the costings to this boat and have it ready for orders and shipping world wide.

Roy

Flying Cloud,the record maker,which stood for 136 years

Flying Cloud,the model

Flying Cloud (Clipper)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud" off the Needles, Isle of Wight, by James E. Buttersworth, 1859-60.The Flying Cloud of 1851 was the most famous of the extreme clippers built by Donald McKay in East Boston, Massachusetts, intended for Enoch Train of Boston, who paid $50,000 for her construction.

The Flying Cloud was purchased at launching by Grinnell, Minturn & Co., of New York, for $90,000, which represented a huge profit for Train & Co. Within six weeks she sailed from New York and made San Francisco 'round Cape Horn in 89 days, 21 hours under the command of Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy. On July 31, during the trip, she made 374 miles in 24 hours. In 1853 she beat her own record by 13 hours, a record that stood until 1989 when the breakthrough-designed sailboat Thursday's Child completed the passage in 80 days, 20 hours. The record was once again broken 2008 by the French racing yacht Gitana 13 with a time of 43 days and 38 minutes.

In the early days of the California Gold Rush, it took more than 200 days for a ship to travel from New York to San Francisco, a voyage of more than 16,000 miles. The Flying Cloud's more-than-halving that time (only 89 days) was a headline-grabbing world record that the ship itself beat three years later, setting a record that lasted for 136 years.

The Flying Cloud's achievement was remarkable under any terms. But, writes David W. Shaw,[1] it was all the more unusual because its navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy, who had been studying oceanic currents, weather phenomena, and astronomy since her girlhood in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She was one of the first navigators to exploit the insights of Matthew Fontaine Maury, most notably the course recommended in his Sailing Directions. With her husband, ship captain Josiah Perkins Creesy, she logged many thousands of miles on the ocean, traveling around the world carrying passengers and goods. In the wake of their record-setting transit from New York to California, Eleanor and Josiah became instant celebrities. But their fame was short-lived and their story quickly forgotten. Josiah died in 1871 and Eleanor lived far from the sea until her death in 1900.

On June 19, 1874 the Flying Cloud went ashore on the Beacon Island bar, St. John's, Newfoundland, and was condemned and sold. The following June she was burned for the scrap metal value of her copper and metal fastenings. [2]

A reporter for the Boston Daily Atlas of April 25, 1851 wrote, "If great length [235 ft.], sharpness of ends, with proportionate breadth [41 ft.] and depth, conduce to speed, the Flying Cloud must be uncommonly swift, for in all these she is great. Her length on the keel is 208 feet, on deck 225, and over all, from the knight heads to the taffrail, 235 — extreme breadth of beam 41 feet, depth of hold 21½, including 7 feet 8 inches height of between-decks, sea-rise at half floor 20 inches, rounding of sides 6 inches, and sheer about 3 feet."

Traditional boat regatta

Left click on the picture for a better view

That green schooner in a blog prior to this one,was at the same event as these two,its todays picture and a really good close up of what these boats are all about,the one to the left of the picture is Irish but the event was in the USA on the east coast.

PYI inc,USA suppliers of top brand marine products

With an unknown on looker,Errol and Cheryl Berhens prepare to strip my Max Prop to re-pitch it to more suitable pitch as recomended by Fred of PYI Inc,thanks for the advice Fred!


Flying Clouds Max Prop Classic 18" two blade propellor,it had just been repitched by my good friend Erroll Behrens,he worked out the reference marks positions as given by Fred of PYI Industries USA.



Max Prop two bladed Classic


This company is based in the USA but from what I have personally found,is quite prepared to assist buyers or those requiring only information on their products,even if they reside offshore.eight years back my good friend Notty,gave me an 18" twin bladed Max Prop ( i told you he was a good friend) the local agents could not really tell me how to pitch it correctly to my Perkins 4108 diesel,so I sent a mail to PYI inc and by return,Fred sent me all I needed to know.This week another friend needed similar information but on a 24" twin blade and a 100hp turbo diesel Yanmar,I asked him to try Fred at PYI inc and again,Fred came up with the goods,thanks Fred and PYI inc for super service!

Roy

Taken from PYI inc web site:

PYI Inc. is one of the premier manufacturers and distributors of high quality marine, boat, yacht, and ship equipment and supplies.
Founded in 1981, PYI takes great pride in quickly responding to our customers ideas and needs. All of us at PYI have not forgotten that without you, our customer, PYI does not exist.
Our goal is to provide quality, innovative marine equipment with an unsurpassed level of customer service and satisfaction.

CKD Boats cc Scales,a design by our customer Dave

Dave is a good friend and fellow member of the RCYC,he bought a set of Didi 34 plans before Dudley Dix went over to the USA,Dave is now building his boat,we supplied materials as he required.Dave has a proffesional helping him but suspected that the normal type of scales and measuring our epoxy glues out,would just confuse him,so Dave designed his own set of fulcrum scales based on our epoxy mix ratio,which is 100grams epoxy to 65 grams of which ever cure agent we have supplied.The clever thing is once set up and balanced to zero,you can put what ever amount of epoxy on one side,as all is then needed is to balance the center pointer with cure agent,thanks Dave!

Didi 38 Bulkheads assembly,continues well

Didi 38 bulkheads being set in place,left click to view the picture full size and see the details.

Tom is doing one of our Didi 38 kits,he has taken a little more time to mark out and attatch cleats where the internal joinery will finally be installed,all joinery positions are ready marked on the designers plans,so you can easily fit them once the bulkheads are glued together,check them out,please also notice the important central and overhead line,you will see a plumbob hanging down near the rear bulkhead,this can easily be moved along the overhead line for checking center lines as you work,a very simple solution.

Schooner looking good

Perfection to my eyes.

TBA


I have to admit I know nothing at all about this boat,excepting I think it looks really balanced and a nice boat......

Introducing Mark Bowdidge of Bowdidge Marine Designs

Mark,with his daughter and a good catch of the day,click on the picture to view full size.






Mark contacted me last week,would we like to handle his designs as far as offering them as CNC cut kits? It took no time at all to view his web pages and realise that Mark has many new designs that do not clash with what we already offer,so Mark has now joined our world wide team of tallented yacht designers,welcome aboard Mark!

Some background information,taken from the Tom Fexas Yacht Design (TFYD) ,USA,web site.

In order to gain the skills needed for such an influential career, Tom took the Westlawn course in yacht and boat design, in addition to his engineering degree from SUNY Maritime. As his office grew and projects piled up, Westlawn continued as one of the principle sources for design talent. TFYD has employed the following Westlawn alumni: Tom Fexas, Jay Coyle, George Rodzon, Earl Alfaro, Stuart Kityama, Nick DiMatteo and Mark Bowdidge.

April 29, 2008 Annapolis, MD: Over the past four decades, Tom Fexas Yacht Design (TFYD) has repeatedly turned to the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology for first-rate design talent. Most recently, Westlawn alumnus Mark Bowdidge, was placed at TFYD making an incredible seven Westlawn alumni to be employed there

Working your way around on the Picton Castle

Sailing around the world takes on the term working your passage.

View from aloft


Making spars

Woodworking skills

These sailing ships do not fix or paint themselves,each and every crew member has to work to look after the boat,it may just be cleaning or paint work but it has to be done,its a daily routine.

The Picton Castle,Cape Towns regular visitor

This sailing boat has been to the cape many times,normally she will take the option to use the Syncro Lift in Cape Towns working harbour,befriended many years back by the TBA (traditional boat asscociation)she normally hosts a visitors day just for TBA members,CKD Boats quoted on new yard arms in oregon pine,the wood alone was over R500,000,we never got that order!