Wandrin Star in Aratu,Salvador,Brasil

A sad sight to see,an abandoned boat, being a Durban boat,this yacht had sailed 1000 miles further than ourselves when we started from Cape Town.
It was left unlocked and was leaking through the rudder stock,I went aboard many times and pumped its bilges,an attempt to contact the owners and have it gifted to me was made but with no success.It was really well fitted out inside too.

Left click the picture to view full size,in the left corner you will see a small section of its sister ship,also from Durban,Rain Maker which circumnavigated,then on another trip with new owners John Hemmins,was lost in hurrican Luis in St Maarten.

The Aratu Yacht Club in Salvador,Bahia

Our arrival at Aratu yacht club in 1977,things have changed,there is a marina here now and a block of flats was built just under the hill at the back of the club,the water will still be nice and calm though.
Left click the pictures and chart to view full screen size.
The large yacht center of the picture is the ferro cement yacht from Durban,Wandrin Star,it was abandoned.

Yacht Brer Terrapin an Atkin 38 design at anchor in Aratu.

Aratu is on the extreme right of the picture,seen as a a large expanse of land locked water,access is via the river to the right.

The yacht club at Aratu is a family type place,its quite a long way up the river from the city,just keep bearing right and you will find it just past a naval yard,some quite large coasters go up that river but not as far as Aratu.You can take a bus into the city easy enough,or a AYC member may offer you a free ride? We anchored off but there is a marina there now,slipping of yachts may now be a possiblity?The entire water space is basically land locked,the only movement is up and down with no tidal effect such as waves,its a nice place to take it easy and work on your boat,you can paint the water line its so calm.
Left click on the pictures to view in a larger size.



The large building is not the yacht club,its a block of appartments higher up on a hill above the club.
Brasils Salvador has many interesting spots to discover for a yachtsman,with Manfred Marktel about to sail single handed to Salvador today (6,03,2010) memory comes back of happy moments in Salvador on two yachts,Brer Terrapin in 1977 and Ocean Cloud in 1988,when I was there with my family.

Didi Mini Transat Cruise Rudders

We have done a good many sets of rudders to the Didi mini transats,the first were cut by hand using templates set every 200mm down the blade,just shaping took three days,they were never going to be perfect,close was as good as one could hope for. Now we have them programed into Nigels CNC machine,we just supply him with the oregon pine blanks and he cuts the shape and profile for us,we know that each blade is exactly the same and we save about two days doing the shaping too!

Rudder Foils pre cut by Nigels CNC machine,they will shaped by hand,glassed with epoxy and biaxial glass cloth,epoxy primed and when finished,shipped to John in England when ready.

Toylander filler work starts

After removal of all the screws,cleaning up the joints with a chisel,then a light hand sand with a sander block and 60 grit paper,we were ready to apply the first mix of epoxy putty (we supply the parts to make this) there will be at least two more sessions of epoxy putty to apply,this is the part where things slow down as we sand and putty,its a 24 hr wait untill we can do the next stage,eventually we will use thin epoxy (supplied) and a 75mm foam roller to seal the entire Toylander body before we move to the painting stage.

Part one of the application of epoxy filler.

A smooth and level finish is what your trying to achieve,the epoxy filler will add massive strength to the Toylanders body,we use no wood cleats to support the body joints as with our epoxy and finger joint build,they are just not required.

Use a 50mm wide painters blade to apply your epoxy and micro balloons mix.

Filling and working cleanly is important,remember the finished surface will only be as good as your preperation.

An invite to the Wooden Boat Show

Dear Roy,
Maybe just fyi. This effort is going great. We likely will have a kit designer from NZ coming to participate. Surely you need an excuse to come to Mystic Seaport.

Carl of Wooden Boat Magazine has conntacted us in the past,this time he has sent an invite to attend the next boat show they are having,due to distance and cost,we will not be able to take up Carls kind offer but suggest to any of you in the area to drop in at the show and see all the families having fun building their various designs.

Family BoatBuilding 2010 at the WoodenBoat Show

This year we're going to take a slightly different approach with Family BoatBuilding at the WoodenBoat Show (if you haven't already, please see the website, at www.FamilyBoatBuilding.com). The WoodenBoat Show will be June 25-27, 2010, at Mystic Seaport.

For a variety of reasons, primary being to give our families or groups a number of great boats to choose from, we are asking numerous organizers to produce their own Family BoatBuilding event, within the Motherlode of All Family BoatBuilding events at the WoodenBoat Show 2010. I would LOVE to have 10 or more different organizers, each helping perhaps 5-10 families build the boat you decide to provide.

Ideally, each organizer will have a different boat design/kit.

The overall concept is simple: Provide a kit to the family or group, give them support and education, and help them complete the boat in 2-1/2 days, with a grand launching at noon on Sunday. The goal is to have the hulls primed before launching. (If you think your kit will require an extra day, we can arrange for a Thursday start. Although this may be difficult for some families' schedules.)

We will help you secure the families. The sooner we have enough organizers signed up, the sooner we can promote to enroll families. Our past history indicates this won't be a problem. In addition to our own efforts, we will embark on a nationwide and regional media blitz, in which your organization's name and mission will be prominent. But we can't wait until the last minute. So please let me know sooner rather than later. The absolute last day to commit to participate at the WoodenBoat Show in this fashion is April 15, 2010. (If the dates don't work for you or you'd have to travel too far, maybe we can help you find a northeast agent or friend.) BUT: Please be advised that interest is VERY STRONG right now, and we have a limited amount of space. The sooner you commit to your participation, regardless of the number of families you think you will have, the better we will be able to accommodate you. So just tell me “Yes” and the specs of your boat (not all particulars are necessary at this point – for example, the price. That can wait until April 15. But LOA and type of boat will help.)

We won't charge you for the space at the WoodenBoat Show, and we will give you four (4) free admission passes for the duration. Extra staff and your participating families must pay for their own admission.

So, we promote the different boats and organizations, and the families choose which one they wish to build. They will then contact you directly. You set the price for your kits and you collect the money. You may also secure sponsorship for your portion of the event, and display your sponsor's or sponsors' banners within your area (nothing too loud or commercial, please. I will be checking...).

We will also try to obtain some national sponsorships to help families who can't afford the entire cost. But this business climate is not very conducive at the moment.

I'm very excited by this new approach, and I hope it answers some of your needs as well. It certainly addresses our families' expressed desire.

We need to get more families on the water. We need to help them become boaters for life.

Please review the above and www.FamilyBoatBuilding.com. And call or email me with any questions you may have. We greatly look forward to your participation in this important component of the WoodenBoat Show 2010. Thank you for helping us make a difference to a lot of great people.

My very best wishes to you, Carl

carl@woodenboat.com
tel. 207-359-4651 USA.

Toylander kit glued up

CKD Boats are the official agents in South Africa for Real Life Toys,the designer and makers of the Toylander,we can supply plans only,a body kit,or a drive away car.

The proof of the pudding is always in the eating as they say,with this Toylander kit we did a lot of our own development and made it with finger joints,which is what we introduced the the Didi Mini Transat interior,the reason was simple,it saves messsy and heavy corner cleats,its also a lot faster to assemble,this glue up took less than a hour going slowly.

Tommorrow the screws will be removed,then the joints will have a light sanding,followed by gap filling with epoxy and micro balloons as a thickener,all part of our kit we supply.

T 590 as a kit boat

This Steve Thompson design will soon be available from CKD Boats in a plywood/epoxy kitset form,plans are from Steve.



LOA 5.86 metre
Beam 2.38 metre
Draft 0.3 - 1.6 metre
Total boat weight 230 kg
Crew weight 220 kg (3 people)
Keel weight 140 kg
Total sailing weight 590 kg
SA UP 25.4 sq. m
SA Down 62.4 sq.
LOA 5.86 metre
Beam 2.38 metre
Draft 0.3 - 1.6 metre
Total boat weight 230 kg
Crew weight 220 kg (3 people)
Keel weight 140 kg
Total sailing weight 590 kg
SA UP 25.4 sq. m
SA Down 62.4 sq. m

Sail with the sensation of going a million miles an hour with a keelboat safety.

This is one FUN little boat! Perfect for entry level sailing to regatta racing. The T590 can be sailed by any combination of two heavyweights, four youngsters, or Mums and Dads.

Anyone can get out and enjoy the simple pleasure of sailing.
It's fast and sporty but so easily sailed. Perfectly balanced with only main upwind, it really lights up when you pop the spinnaker for that downwind excitement.

Effortlessly towed behind a small family car the T590 can be trailered to your favourite sailing spots, be they harbours, bays or lakes.

You do not have to be large and powerful to sail this boat as it has been specially designed with the younger or smaller sailors in mind.

GP14 International Class in CNC kits

We have just received a request to cost a GP14 kit,designed by Jack Holt some fifty years ago,there are hundreds of yacht clubs in the UK using this design and I find the class is active in South Africa too,we will have a kit price on the latest Mk3 design shortly.
Roy

The GP14 is another boat that resulted from the collaboration between the drawing board of Jack Holt, the eye for practicality from Bell Woodworking’s Dusty Pollock and the inspired vision of Group Captain E.F. Haylock, the then Editor of Yachting World Magazine. Having already had the foresight that ‘youth’ would be the future of sailing and commissioned the Cadet, Haylock now pursued another of his groundbreaking ideas, that as that leisure time grew, dinghy sailing would need to involve all of the members of the family. In these early post war years, none of the dinghies that were available were suitable for this purpose, as they were almost exclusively boats from the development classes, fast, with limited space cockpit space and ‘tippy’.

At Haylock’s instigation, Yachting World published a call for designers to submit plans for a multi purpose dinghy that would be stable and seaworthy, yet fast enough to offer competitive and exciting racing. The boat would have to be light enough to make for easy handling on and off a trailer and would need to be capable of being rowed or of being driven by an outboard motor and to cap it all, would have to be simple enough to allow for home construction from a kit of parts. This requirement for a single boat that could fill so many roles was so new that none of the designs submitted were acceptable. One of the best designs had come from Jack Holt, who at Haylock’s request increased the freeboard of his planned 14 ft dinghy. As with the Cadet, the design Jack finally settled on was simple, but remarkably effective. Again, it utilised a single hard chine hull that would offer a high degree of initial stability, yet the simple ‘box’ approach to the hull form meant that the boat could be easily constructed by an amateur builder in plywood. The other advantage of the Holt design was that it resulted in a large cockpit, that Jack equipped with seats, a thwart and floorboards!






Class: GP14

Status: International


Website:


Designer: Jack Holt


Year of design: 1949


Length: 4.27m


Beam: 1.54m


Weight: 133kg


Sail Area (M²): 12.85


Spinnaker: 8.4


Sitting out Aids: n/a


Construction Notes:


Wood/GRP/FRP

Toylander bonnet buck

The front bonnet buck as required to take the two layers of thin Superform bending plys,I have not worked out how we will do the next step,follow the blog to find out!

Our in house demonstrator Toylander is about to be glued together,it will need a front bonnet and some closing radius pieces to go on the top of the front wings,as two Toylander kits have been collected recently its time to make the front bonnets and close pieces jigs.

Our Ockume marine plywoods

Marine plys cost a good bit more than lower grade hardwood exterior plys but why? well in marine plys both faces are clear of repairs and the internal veneers are full faced and have no damage either.With marine ply the finsh is smoother and the weight is as much as 30% lighter than exterior plys,you get what you pay for,so use the right ply when you build your boat,you will never regret it.
Left click the picture to see more detail.

We have always supplied the right quality marine plys,stamped and made to the BS 1088grade,this is what a stack of 30 sheets of 9mm plys look like,you can see the high quality.

The commitment

The Mc Brides family yacht,Ocean Cloud arrives in Punta Pargo,Venezuela,
Left click the picture for a larger image,the camera was my Canon FT with a 50mm 1.4 lens and Kodaks Ektachrome pro slide film.

Some times the larger picture is best left unseen,I have built a number of boats for myself,stopping while you work,to ponder just how you will ever mangage to finish what you have started is a very backward move,the last time I thought like that I said to myself 'Roy never ask your self that again',I never did and I finished the boat just fine.

I think its important to only attempt to build what you can handle build size wise,both physically and finance wise,recently we had a sometimes caller visit to say he just had to have a 40ft yacht,any other size was too small,he wanted the Didi 38 as the stretched 40ft option,there is no bother in that but as the Didi 34ft is still a lot of boat for he and his wife,it would have been a good option as well,costs rise as size grows,the guy never came back,he was maybe asking out of his pocket book allowance,better to build small than not build at all.

Also never sit with a blank page and add up all the items needed to finish your new build,the numbers can look massive but what happens as we build is deals and offers just arrive,free adverts in Sailing Magazine here in RSA have worked wonders for me,they will for you too.

Bending or flexible plywood in Cape Town

We are the direct importers of Superform bending plywood,with distributors in and around Cape Town we are now looking for other retailers in other centers.
Superform is made in 3mm,5mm and 8mm thicknesses,the sheet size is 1220mm x 2440mm in cross grain or 2440mm x 1220mm in long grain,it is waterproof.Contact roy@comlumber.com for prices.

Some use ideas with our bending plywoods:
Curved desks and counters,columns,concrete shutters,boats,soffits on buildings and any curved structure that requires a stable form.
we also have flexible veneers,which are very thin and in a twin ply,around ten species are availablle ex stock.We can also supply a flexible thin ply in a 1.2mm thickness and a stiffer thin ply in a 1.8mm thickness.

Didi mini cruise hull finishing

These pictures were sent to me by Dave who is building one of our Didi mini cruise kits down in Freemantle,Australia,while its not required in the plans,David has decided to put a layer of glass cloth and epoxy over his hull skin,looks like he made a very good job of it too.

Thin Plywood in Cape Town,a new product from CKD Boats cc

This thin ply sheet is in African Mahogany,we also have white and pink beech,white maple,cherry,white oak,teak and american walnut,we can post anywhere pending the size of your order.




We are asked now and again for thin plywood,now we have stocks of our own flexible wood on wood veneers I decided to make a sample sheet of laminated plywood with it,glued up on friday with water proof pva wood glue I find we have a very acceptable sheet of thin ply this monday morning! The thickness looks to be just 1.2mm only,there is some tension in the panel,this could be designed out by adding another layer inside as a balancer,we then have a 1.8mm thick plywood,at this time sheet size is 610mm x 610mm we can make to 1220mm x 2440mm if required? the face finish is outstanding.

We make yachts expensive?

Black Cat at the start of a South Atlantic Race,she did two of them,the design is named Didi 38 and was the first radius chine development by Dudley Dix,he has since sold hundreds of sets of plans to yachts of many sizes using the same ideas,we can sell you the plans as well as a kit,on the Didi 38 we cut bulkheads,hull and decks,also the cockpit and coachroof,building is easy.

Some news on plans sales from Dudley:

Hi Roy. It is a few hundred now. The Didi 26 leads the numbers at over 250, followed by Didi Mini with 110. Didi 38/40 is more than 60 also. In lapstrake plywood, the CC19 and CH21 have both passed 50 boats.


A Skype message from boat designer Dudley Dix:

[2010/02/27 07:28:17 PM] Dudley Dix says: While looking for an email address on-line for Neil Rusch today, I happened across your Duckworks article on reducing the cost of yachts. I had read it long ago and reread most of it again now. Great article.

The basis of the artical is that in real terms yachts and boat are not so expensive,I am assuming you do have some disposable income of course,its the add ons that raise the cost to yachts,electronics being number one and who needs an engine anyway? you can find my words in the web site at www.ckdboats.com
Roy