Another Toylander kit is collected

As featured in the November 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics,find that issue,its a great read.

Pierre with our demonstrator Toylander,when the CNC cut engineering parts are welded together,we will continue the build right up to it being fully painted and drivable.
Left click the pictures to view full size and see more detail.

Pierre bought his plans late last year,then placed his order for the Toylander base kit,it comes out of two sheets of high quality 12mm ockume marine plys,plus we supply epoxy,micro balloons,screws and battens,plus we laminate the bonnet and front wing curves in two layers of 3mm Superform bending plys.

Didi mini cruise drop keel

We have already sent out a drop keel for the cruise verson of the Didi mini transat,thats in Freemantle,Australia,this one will be going to Salisbury in England when its complete,we supply and mould the lead ballast halfs too.

We use Iroko for the drop keel on the Didi Mini Cruise as its quite heavy and also hard,so it will easily take the added 400 kgs of lead ballast that will be later bolted to it,we start the process with this lamination.We use phenolic marine glue,it dries well and stays hard in any weather,hot or cold,the lamination will stay clamped on our traveling saw bed over the next few days. Then it goes to our CNC shop guys at Digicut,they will profile the Iroko blank,I will later shape and finish the keel,ending up with epoxy paint primer.View the blog every so often for progress pictures.

Roy

T8sc as a kit

This is one of the three boats that Steve Thompson will be offering as a kit,with an exciting design feature that speeds up completion for the home or proffesional builder,plans are available from Steve,kits from CKD Boats.

LOA 8.0 metre
Beam 2.5 metre
Draft 2.2 metre
Sailing Weight 1280 kg
Crew Weight 425 kg (5 people)
Complete boat 855 kg
SA UP 52.0 sq. m
SA Down 138.3 sq. m






The T8sc has been designed as the answer to the competitive sailors dream that wants to be able to cruise on his boat with the family.

It retains all the sparkling performance of the racing 8 meter yet manages to accommodate the family in style.

Being lightweight means it is capable of easily being towed by the family car.
The rig is kept simple with a double swept spreader carbon or aluminium spar and three stay configuration. Asymmetric spinnakers and non overlapping jibs are specified, making this an easy boat to sail.
Topmast and running backstays are not required. The mainsail roach is carefully designed to produce the right amount of lay off in a breeze to allow the mainsail to exhaust.
The sails are limited to one mainsail, two jibs, a heavy weather jib and two asymmetric spinnakers. Both the keel and rudder are retractable for ease of launching and retrieving.

Accommodation is ample to sleep 4 adults with provision for an extended double berth forward. The galley is L shaped with room for a two burner cooker and built in sink. The head is forward of the main bulkhead separated from the rest of the boat by a curtain. Construction is kept simple and inexpensive with the use of the interior accommodation as structural components to keep the weight down.

Features:
Multiple construction methods
Accommodation for up to 4 adults
Functional cruising interior
Large cockpit with good interior volume
Easily towed behind a medium size car
Retractable keel and rudder for ease of launching and retrieving
Great racing performance

Steve Thompson,yacht designer

Steve is a New Zealander who works offshore,he has a factory set up in Vietnam producing very high class yachts,including carbon masts,check out the web site for more info on his production http://www.tboat.com/ CKD Boats has been asked to produce kits to Steves designs,we can then send world wide via our source of export contacts,plans will be bought and supplied direct from Steve Thompson,the kit from CKD Boats,we will start with the design featured below,the 'T 6.5 kit' as Steve has named it,it is similar to his T650 design.

Steve Thompson

The work place

We get regular requests for information of what products we can supply to the interiors of boats,plus what laquers to apply as a finish.This picture is the inside of a wood/epoxy Dix 43,it was fitted out starting twelve years ago and has now been in the water ten years,the trims and surafce veneers were all supplied from the same companies we now stock,the laquers used are a quality Dulux twin pack application,with 6mm tempered tinted glass for windows,there has been no degrade in the laquer at all.The flooring in teak and holly is real wood veneer,we can supply in a plastic laminate also.

Robs Jacuzi gets a face lift

Rob wanted to make his jacuzi a little more stylish than just a rectangle,he discovered our Superform bending plys and epoxies,with adding some of his own creativity,he now has a great design thats all his own.The ply is water proof,by using our epoxy its even more so,I think it will be painted with twin pack marine coatings,it should last a life time then.





This is what Rob started with,a plain rectangle,Robs in house design using our Superform bending plys changed the look of things by some margin.

1966 Jaguar 3.8S type restoration

Our Jaguar has been under restoration since we got it about twenty eight years back,the last major works were to drop all brakes and hoses,rebuild the brake cylinders,including the barke booster,plus drop the entire back axle and its limited slip differential to be able to fit new bearings and hand brake parts while we were at it,the entire cars undertray was hand cleaned and repainted too.As the engine has a near new cylinder head on it,the correct patern wire wheels and a top quality leather interior,this car will make a good project for anyone wanting a real classic,you just need to repaint the car!

All new parts including a stainless steel exhaust system right through to the engine.

Roy and Vic

A rare picture of me with Vic Haark the manager of Clutch and Brake Supply,or CBS for short,the event was my collection of the very last 6 1/4" Lockheed clutch assembly left in South Africa,I needed that for the 1967 Hillman Californian Imp I had just found in Pietermaritzburg.Vic was an Imper himself,prooven by the very large picture he had hanging in his works office of the British Saloon Championship winner known as The Bevan Imp,Vic gave me his picture and its now displayed in my garage at home,thanks Vic!

Rope works tradition lives on

Its nice to see that tradition lives on in Hout Bay,at least rope wise that is,some years back I spliced all my mooring dock lines to stainless thimbles myself with some help and demonstration from a friend named Nick,recently when my line chaffed through,I asked Lars on the boat next to me, if he can do an end to end splice for me,this is the result,as you can see its very neat and has saved my spliced end and the line is back in use.

Nick is a pro boat captain,Lars is a pro diver and fisherman,recently Steve on Dixi Rollar sailed off,Steve is yet another man who can splice lines,Lars tells me that Anna on the boat next to him, is better at splicing than he is.On our last long trip on Ocean Cloud,we had Simone aboard,she did a Turks Head around our steering wheel to show its center postion,she also crafted a Monkeys Fist on a throwing rope end, when it was known we were about to meet up mid ocean with yacht Four Skippers to exchange our cold beers for their warm ones.Not forgetting Charles of Figaro V,another ex pro diver who can splice lines with the best of them and all this in our harbour too!
Left click to view the pictures full screen size.

Brands Hatch 1970 Hillman Imp

George Bevan Imp Racing.
Just check those round stickers on the roof,there are seven first places there!
left click the picture to view in a larger size.

Didi mini cruise rudders

John in the UK bought a Didi mini cruise kit from us about a year back,he has now built the hull and recently turned it over,so now he has placed his order for the two rudders and the drop keel foil and 400kgs cast lead ballast (we have the moulds) plus the engineering parts such as tiller,chain plates,deck stantions,push and pulpits,this is a regular event and a welcome part of our daily works.
We can only glue up one rudder blade per day due to the space taken on the traveling table saw we use as a base,its perfectly flat and ensures the blank glues up the same way,the glue is water proof phenolic,the same glue that is in our marine and water proof plys.

Clear oregon pine (no knots) ready to be thicknessed in the planer,our planer has a four cutter blade head,it gives an exceptional smooth finish.
The clear oregon has been ripped on our circular saw,then planed to a uniform thickness and is ready to laminate.

Yacht Melody FBYC

Melody sank on moorings,rather than raise her,she was towed to one side as she is in this picture.With a little luck she may still be saved,anyone want a classic yacht?

The original of the photo below is said to hang in the Algoa Bay YC,on the back of it is writen the boats owner and builder,who was a retired british naval officer.The boat is plank on steamed frames.She was sold in a bar one night in Graaff Reinet for the sum of R1.00 only,the buyers were David Price and Brian Hoskin (david later married Fiona Chisham,who was wed to the late Brian Lello)this was around 1959 when the boat was (we think) sailed down the coast to Cape Town and the RCYC club waters.

Price later gave the boat to Phil Nankin,he was then the senior officer in charge at Grainger Bays General Botha training facility,this was where Phil kept the boat,later on and when the site was closed and taken over for residential use,Phil gave the boat back to David,who seems to have passed it on to another owner, who took the boat to Simonstown and the FBYC,where she sank and still lays today?
All information kindly given to me by Colin Farlam,the RCYCs historian,Colin knows the boat very well as he used to sail on her.
We now need a nice person with a back pocket deep enough to restore Melody,any takers out there.

This boat is still under the water in FBYC I had a diver check her hull out about ten years back when I restored the Tumlaren,Astra,the hull was said to still be good,it still be today?

Mark collects his Argie 15 kit set

This is Mark with his Argie 15 kit,its always a great day when we get to meet a customer,some who we never meet as they live so far away,Mark lives close by so in his case it was an easy fetch.His kit includes the two extra sheets of plys which are cut to give him the optional side seats.We will feature Marks build as he progresses and sends us his pictures.

The Red Road to Cape Town

You may well ask what has this concrete engineering got to do with boats and our company? well for one thing it will allow both staff and customers to access our premises without their own transports from the city and towns as far west as Atlantis on the west coast.The red strip thats being laid right now,goes right into the city center under Table Mountain in the distance,there will also be a cycle track following the same route.This is all part of the cities commitment to Fifa World Cup 2010,which starts in 112 days only.We sure have a lot of highly trained men on the ground now,whats in store job wise after this year?

Green Stuff

We have moved to source sustainable timbers when we can,why sell mahogany,meranti,oregon when we can sell poplar that is both fast growing but comes from a managed plantation,its the same with marine plywoods,the Ockume veneers are also from managed plantations.

Having just machined some SA Pine (radiata species)which has been CCA treated (tanalith) which is a copper based solution in water,the treatment turns the wood to a green colour as you can see,I then stacked it next to some machined poplar for an Argie 15 kit,I realised that both are green in colour and also green in a management sense,the pine saves imports and its high costs as well. The poplar machines up in a pale straw colour,sometimes with green and brown streaks,that later changes to a light brown when it is exposed to the air,it looks very nice,far nicer than the metranti we used to supply in its place.