AIS and what it is

I was looking for a ship in Britain,discovered a web address run from my old home port of Liverpool and in very little time discovered the ship tucked away in a port of Englands east coast,I not only found which port she was in but at which berth too. copy and paste this into Google,then start searching places like the Irish Sea,you will find vessels and be told what they are doing,speed and destination. http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?map=mersey

Fitting our drop keel down under

The drop keel foil is the internal shape we have supplied etch primed with Sigma Coatings etch primer.



Davids drop keel box installed in the while it is still upside down.

Thats down under the boat and down under the world in Fremantle,Australia,David is building a Didi Mini Transat Cruise kit we supplied early this year,as an add on we supplied the boats two rudders and it drop keel foil,plus the 400 kgs of moulded hot pour lead,as we have the correct moulds in our store.The foil is made from laminated Iroko wood,then CNC cut to profile with the final finish and shape work done by hand,we then epoxy/glass it with unidirectional glass as specified by yacht designer Dudley Dix of the USA.

David has built the basic hull now but has left off the radius chine panels at this stage,I suspect to allow light and air enter and that will help him fit the sturdy drop keel box he has pre made.

Holiday snaps,a little culture

One of my regular customers sent me some pictures of his pet pigs (honest) he also sent me this one, which is a remarkable performance (even in still life) by a bunch of guys,I know which one is my customer but I aint telling!

Roy

Herritage Day sailing pics?

The plan was good but the Cape Town boat show started on this years 'Heritage Day' here in the cape,so no pictures of Flying Cloud a Dix designed 'Dix 43'(wood epoxy) this year,we still have some great pics of Dixy Roller out in Chapmans Bay though,taken a few weeks back by Max.

Kayak is completed using our materials supplied.

Well,as far as being fully water proof,it is complete,Alain may want to paint the boat next? this was a father and son,plus small grandchild project done over a number of months,its a nice family adventure,next they will be trying it out.We can supply floataion bags and life preservers,flare kits too!

Learning as we go

My thanks to Full Circle magazine for publishing the original story,please left click on the page to view it full size and read the text.


My dear mum is now 84,she is alone and misses her husband and my dad who died a few years back,she was here with us recently for Janet and Nigels wedding,we tried to get her to think of using a computer and stay in touch with us when she traveled back home,my mother was not really interested,even though she was a typist in her working years.

Here is a nice story of a mother of a customer and friend of ours,he is in New Zealand but the brother who set up a PC and communictations world wide lives just across the road form where we live,as they say we are never too old to learn,if we want to that is!

The ninth Cape Town Boat Show,24th to 27th September

The show will open in the morning,which this year is a public holiday,named Heritage Day its also named National Braai Day,so I had better get my charcoal and braai tongs ready for action later in the day.



We are told over 160 stands will be on display,thats in the main CTIC halls and also in the V&A Waterfront,where boats will be on display too,thats a long walk,so take the water taxi (free?) see you all there tommorrow!

Roy roy@comlumber.com

This Cruising Life

Left click the picture to view in a larger size.

The picture sums up life as we want it? work for it,build it,sail off in it,enjoy it,so why not,the picture is of Taffy (in red shirt) and Shirleys Lavranos 39 named The Road (royal order of anchient druids)the hull is black with a staggered white line all along the center,just like a normal road! Taffy is of course a welshman.

The place is Scotland Bay,Trinidad,two of the guys on the boat at last sundays raft up,will soon be doing the long trip to the Panama,then Pacific Ocean and eventually all the way back to Hout Bay,where Taffy,Shirley and Rubbish the parrot sailed of from originally.

AIS by Watchmate with a built in receiver

This is new for an October release,the screen now has its own receiver built in,you will still require an antenna splitter,which we can supply also.
roy@comlumber.com

AISWatchMate®RX Two Channel Receiver and Display
The AISWatchMate is now available with an integrated two channel AIS receiver.
Excellent receiver sensitivity for maximum range.
Designed especially for highest AIS performance.
Easy to install. No external "black boxes".
Winner of two international innovation awards.

OverviewFeaturesBenefitsSpecificationsDownloadsThe AISWatchMate RX incorporates an internal high performance two channel AIS receiver with the award winning AISWatchMate collision avoidance display. Vesper Marine has designed the AISWatchMate RX to help avoid collisions at sea. Using the Universal Shipborne Automatic Identification System (AIS) the AISWatchMate RX displays data from all AIS equipped vessels in your vicinity. Audible warning alarms are sounded if a potentially dangerous situation exists.
The alarm sounds whenever a ship is detected that will come dangerously close even though the ship may still be many miles away. You are alerted immediately with the closest point of approach (CPA) and the time until CPA.

Unique and customisable alarm and filter settings help to eliminate false alarms. Ships and alarms are displayed in a prioritised order assisting you to safely navigate in crowded shipping areas.

The AISWatchMate RX has a built-in AIS receiver. It can be interfaced to other on-board electronics and will provide full AIS output. However, it is not necessary to connect it to anything other than a GPS.

Traditional Stuff?

Left click on any of the pictures to view in a larger size and see more detail.


Gumptions Dynema rope chainplates by Equiplite.

The yacht Gumption at Hout Bay.

Traditional dead eyes,picture by Max.

Dixi Rollar,sailing in Chapmans Bay,note the traditional rope and dead eyes.Picture taken by Max.
As a founder member of Cape Towns Traditional Boat Asscociation and a person who is interested in things that went before,I am always pleased to see old ideas being re invented,Harken have been using rope loops for some while now,they save weight and take up any angle required,inclding a twist,only custom made fittings will allow that,the related cost can make the idea not worth it?

The RCYC,HBYC and FBYC had whats called a 'feeder race' at the weekend,boats from the three yacht clubs would meet at Hout Bay and race to FBYC in Simonstown on sunday morning,then be ready for the Spring Reggata next week end,whats traditional about this you may ask?

We had a few very high tech boats arrive,carbon,mast,booms,spinnaker poles etc,one boat,Gumption, really caught my eye though,its rod rigging was fastened to the boats hull with loops of rope! looking closer at the boat I noticed the boat had no deck cleats for mooring,rather loops of rope exiting the hull where a mooring line would tie to,this saves weight and again,the fastening angle is always 100% correct.Ian Frazer at Sparcraft,Cape Town, has just told me the rope is made from Dynema and produced by a company named Equiplite Chainplates,try www.equiplite.com Ian agrees with me that the wheel has turned 360 degrees,as what was done decades before in traditional rope,then changed for exotic metals,has now returned to rope but in modern fibres,so we now have a whole new range of traditional boats!

My pictures show the boats feature,I also include some pictures that Max took on a cruise into Chapmans Bay on Dixi Rollar recently,she has just beeen re rigged with traditional dead eyes.

Johns Didi mini cruise build progress pictures

John has applied his first coat of the epoxy we supplied,he will now sand that and apply a second coating,John hopes to be turning his hull shortly.



We ask all of our kit buyers to send pictures if they can,this certainally helps others who are building our kits elsewhere,this way one builder will normally be on a different stage of the same boat and he can find out in pictures whats next?

Singer Chamois Coupe for sale,1969 model?

A similar model,this one won a prize in its class at the Imp Clubs 2007 Hop Farm annual club meeting.




We know some of the Imp class of cars are now very rare but few as rare as the Singer Chamios Coupe we now have for sale,thought to be a 1969 model but as no paper work or engine/chassis numbers exist,at the time of writing this can not be confirmed,what can be confirmed is it is a four head light Singer Chamois Coupe,the picture of the front of the car tell us that much.

For those needing more info please email me at Roy@comlumber.com ,we can ship world wide,with an engine and transaxle if required.

Some known history:

I spent about 3 years fixing up the car:

Cut rust from rear quarter panels, repaired both sides’ outer and inner panels with fibre sections
Full respray
Rewired
Retrim roof/side/door panels
Re-upholstered back seat cushions (front seats were still good)
Fit new carpet throughout
Retrim and refurbished the dash, adding a custom hardwood dash insert with full set of individual Jeager gauges from a Citroen!!
At no point did the car have decent wheels: I got it with 13 x 7 Ford “Rostyle” wheels that had the mounting holes reamed by hand to fit. I wanted to fit Minilites, but at the time could not set the money aside…The only other issues that remained were to repair the waterpump (I planned to eventualy fit an electrical pump and recore the radiator), and find a driver side window, but then I accepted a job in and relocated to the USA. The vehicle was in storage for about a year when a friend’s friend made an offer on it…



Now that I have it back the issues are:

Chassis plate (removed from position next to fuel filler before respray) missing
Engine and gearbox was sent for refurbishing by previous owner, but the shop closed down…I may be able to trace the owner of the shop, but what happened to the drivetrain no-one knows
Front seats, rear seat cushions missing
Sideshafts…one missing, one present but not fitted, thus rear hubs can not hold wheels (which are also missing) on car…
RH front brake drum and shoes missing
Front indicator/parking lights missing
two dents on right side above and below rear quarter window (but should be an easy fix)


The body is still largely straight and rust-free, but what is perhaps more important is that none of the trim went missing!!!, and all glass remains intact (except for drivers window which was never there)

If I remember correctly, the chassis number was along the lines of B722000853, but I am not absolutely sure…I do know that at the time I researched it all indications were that it was a 69 model, and propably one of the last made.



Whereas the car was a fine example to be preserved when I sold it, now it would be good for spares, donor car, or for building a coupe from an existing saloon, or (shock, horror!!!) modification/rodding/racer, or given enough resources, restoration back to spec

Toylander,the start and the end in stages

Buy your original Toylander brand plans from CKD Boats.


This is the intened end product,not one from our kits but there is no reason why this high standard of finish should not be the result.



We cut our first Toylander series 2 some while back,the customer did the build himself with the help of his son,I must say the idea of creating a project such as this and being able to have your child work with you has its attractions,there is always some work to do and when your finished your daughter or son can drive it,the learning process is a quantum leap in engineering,from building the shell,which requires a person to read and understand drawings,to the joinery and building,which of course requires the use of hand tools,both wood working, mechanical and electrical (12 volt dc).The end result will be a learing process that will give an insite ito the use of tools many years down the line.

Packing another kit,we can now supply tempered glass cut to your sizes.

In this case the toughened glass will sit inside the rebated frame it belongs to.


Mike applying shipping lables.


Whats inside the crate.

I had an enquiry as to whats happening here right now,the past few days we have packed a hard dodger kit thats going to New Zealand,this follows our development that started at least a year back,the demo unit turned out great and based on that we can now offer sized based around the first one.

The structure is very solid and has its toughened glass rebated into the 15mm marine ply walls,with 7mm deep and 15mm wide section,the 6mm glass sits well bedded in the Dow-Corning 813 silicone sealant we also supply.Toughened glass is quite low cost here,so we can now offer that in either clear or tinted,all we need are your sizes or templates,we can pack and ship anyplace?

AISWatchMate®

This is the information you will receive on each vessel.

I have been an advocate of the AIS system since I first found out about it a few years back,the basics say all vessels over 350 tons must have it installed,this then gives out a constant signal such as the boats name,heading,speed and call sign number,plus what it may carry too.The transciever is an exppensive item but for yachts persons a reciever only can be quite low cost,the lower the cost,the less you get and with the bottom end units you will need either a plotter,radar or PC to display the information.

We have been asked to source a AISWatchMate and we expect to see some arrive in this country soon,you will still require a transponder/receiver and we now recomend the Icom MXA-5000 which will work well with the Watchmate,for more info read below.

We can ship either the Watchmate or Icom MXA-5000 world wide,please contact me on pricing at roy@comlumber.com

Target Plot Provides a radar-like display of all vessels within the selected range. The display is oriented heading-up so it's very easy and natural to interpret. Dangerous and lost targets are readily identified.

Graphical Plot Shows Crossing Situations Shows the relative position of a target vs. your vessel at the closest point of approach. This provides a graphical view of the crossing situation and clearly indicates whether a target will pass ahead or behind.

CPA and TCPA Computes the closest point of approach and time until CPA. Alarms may be based on these and other factors.

Bearing and Range Computes the bearing and range to each vessel. Bearing can be displayed in magnetic to facilitate easy visual identification using your compass and binoculars (requires magnetic variation data supplied by GPS). Bearings can alternatively be displayed in true or relative to your vessel's heading.

Prioritisation Vessels and alarms are presented in priority order.

Filtering To minimize clutter and false alarms, vessels can be filtered from either display or alarms.

CPA alarm Triggers alarm if a vessel will come too close. Full control of alarm parameters.

Guard alarm Sounds alarm if any vessel comes within the specified range. Both CPA alarms and guard alarms may be used together.

External alarm trigger In addition to the internal alarm, an external buzzer, alarm, or signal light can be interfaced without requiring any additional relays (max 2A).

Consise and easy to read displays
Uncluttered easy to read display shows all available AIS data.

Class A and class B Displays AIS data received from all class A and class B transponders.

Safety messages Displays received AIS Broadcast Safety Messages. These messages may contain important safety, navigation, weather, or shipping information.

Aids to navigation Full support for AIS aids to navigation including off-position and virtual aid indicators.

GPS failure alert Alerts you if your GPS stops working.

Transponder monitoring When coupled with a transponder it will alert you if the transponder has an operational problem, such as transmission failure.

Large backlit LCD Adjustable daylight viewable backlit 125mm (5") LCD.

Easy to use Four buttons control all features. Each button is clearly labeled on-screen. Buttons are backlit for night time use and illumination brightness is controllable. Each setting has on-screen help.

Ultra-Low power consumption Designed for minimal power consumption the AISWatchMate is extremely well suited for energy conscious vessels.

External interface Easy interfacing to optional computers, chart plotters or other devices.