Norfolk Island makes a plan to land its new Mack Truck

A mail came in from a friend,its how folk do things on islands with no formal harbours,St Helena Isle comes to mind too?

As there is no harbour in Norfolk Island, this is how they get big objects ashore. Amazing!


I can attest that it’s a great place for a relaxing holiday. We really enjoyed the place.

Clive.

Didi Mini Cruise Deck fitting

We love to get our customers build pictures,its really what keeps this blog alive and I hope interesting,John in England,has just sent me a picture of his boats deck and coach roof progress.We are about to send him his deck fittings pack,which follows the original CNC kit,then his rudders,drop keel,stantions,push and pulpits,plus the tiller and related links.

A toy Tractor could be next

With another kit Toylander being sent to a customer in Port Elizabeth on South Africas east coast last friday,Toylanders are now well accepted from us.Another enquiry asks that we once more to look at the tractor that Real Life Toys in the UK offers,we need their permission to copy,cut and sell those too,having sold a reasonable number of Toylanders under their licence,this should be no problem.We are still devloping the Toylander kits,being at the electric motor stage,so a tractor will probably take a while to sort out,finding those rear wheels looks like fun!

There are some complicated shapes on the bonnet and front nose,even more so than with a Toylander,they will make a Tractor kit more expensive if we supply those shapes. Which we have already with the bonnet and front wing corners as a standard part of our kit,read Robs email below.



Roy


Fantastic! The kit is here all safe and sound, got it lunch time and rushed home to open it. Two parcels. Was surprised to get the shaped bonnet and eyebrows, Plus Glue and screws. Did not realise this was part of the kit. Thank you.

Got the epoxy and some powder as well. Am going to need some instruction the use thereof. Now to get cutting and building.

Regards

Rob

Brer Terrapins Navigation light

This came in from Alan in the USA,seems he kept the boats navigation lights when he sold the boat on?

OK this might be a little too obscure but here is the result of some research I did on an oil lamp from the boat that now sits on a bookshelf. The few brass lamps that came with the boat were corroded and brittle. This one looks good but leaks so it never saw field use. The electric brass running lights were also in pretty sad shape but I cleaned them up and replaced the electrical guts in them and they worked very well. I don't remember a red interior glass for this as noted in the email below.

Alan,also sent mail to the lamps makers,their reply is below and most interesting!

Dear Alan,


You are right, this is a DHR-anchor light. An product from the time, mid sixties, that a riveting machine was just introduced in our company in order to make producing easier and faster.
But it has been sold once as a NUC(Not Under Command)-light, all round red.

That means that there should been an interior red glass cylinder in the light. Otherwise the label should have shown ‘anchor light’.

Actually the wedge burner is not correct. This is a flat burner (flat wick) and used by the British and its Commonwealth partners,

They were using plain lenses. We, on the mainland, were using Fresnel lenses, completed with a round wick burner.

At this moment the light is still in production.

I hope this info is sufficient for you. If not, let us know.

Best regards,
Mario den Haan, man. dir.

DHR
Fascinatio Boulevard 1182

2909 VA Capelle a/d IJssel
Tel.: +31-10-240 06 53
Fax: +31-10-281 08 50
http://www.dhr.nl/
Trade Reg. 24129532 Rotterdam

My own time spent on Brer Terrapin was one of learning and once I had my own boat,a similar navigation light was purchased from Mercer Bach and Hickson (i think) we have since used it in far off places like Brasil and Venezuela but also when anchored in some nice places in South Africa,the lamp  never goes with the boat if we sell,we keep it at home for those times when the electricity fails!

Note,I fancy I can remember the round red lens which fitted inside the lamp that Alan says is now missing.

Tale Teller sails the 2010 HBYC Opening Cruise

It was a picture perfect day,light breezes,calm seas and Tale Teller ,a restored  (number114,circa1934) Vertue 26 out on the water I was able to get some shots with the Canon G11 digital camera set to auto,some shots were in a tele photo mode.

Note,it should be recorded we had a north west gale the following day!

Mail in from Tale Tellers owner:

Hullo Roy


What a group of really lovely photographs you have captured and sent on to me.
I have owned a few boats in my life, but I mean it when I say, that never have I had photos like the ones you have sent me.

Thank you very much……………..

Yes, we were fortunate to be given an almost perfect day for the opening cruise, and very satisfying for every one to see so many boats out on the water. Some short cruises here and there sounds a great idea
and look forward to hearing more about them in due course.
Pity I did not have a camera aboard to catch a few shots of you and your own boat. It really looks
grand especially with those beautiful tan sails. Make me think about getting another suit like

yours for “Tale Teller”. Dream, dream, Maben.

Best regards

TOM

These pictures will open larger if you left clickon them.

Roy

Eureka canoe boat kit building

Nigel who runs our CNC shop,has just done the cut file to Micheal Storers really nice Eureka Canoe,he has a set of plys cut out and is about to assemble it for his own use,watch this space as they say,Nigels build pictures will follow,the pics below are off Mike Storers web pages.Kits can now be supplied to your order in a reasonable time from order.

Michael Storer Boat Design

Eureka Plywood Canoes Page 2 Photos

Brer Terrapin gets an Aries vane gear

The place is Salvador harbour,Bahia,Brasil,the year is 1977,the boat is an Atkin Ingrid 38 hand built by Pip Smith with help from his dad we believe,the construction was carvel planks,African Mahogany (khaya) on Oak frames.We had just sailed the boat over the South Atlantic Ocean from Cape Towns Royal Cape Yacht Club,the electronic steering gear we started out with lasted all of four days,after that we hand steered.The boats owner Dennis,then imported a vane gear from its designer Nick Franklin in Cowes,Isle of Wight in the UK,

Brer Terrapin was sunk by a hurricane  on moorings in New York,USA in 1968 after Dennis later sold the boat,she was down a week and later raised,the after starboard side was smashed and her whole interior from midships aft was removed,the boat was repaired and later sold to Alan,who says he bought her cheaply,Alan then owned the boat untill 1991,selling her on to an Irish man who wanted to take her home.
Alan contacted me via this blog,does anyone know where Brer Terrapin is today?

The camera was a Canon FT SLR with 1.4 lens the film was Kodaks Ektachrome slide film,which when scanned recently has stood up very well to the test of time.

Roy

Email from a later owner,Alan,USA.

It's been along time since I smiled as hard as I did when I saw your post on the Brer Terrapin. Where was the internet back in the 1980s when I had to write letters to the South African Consulate to get confirmation that there were no leans or encumbrances on the Brer Terrapin so I could Register her in the US and letters to the Cruising Club of Cape Town to try and find out something about her history. Nothing from either.


I purchased her cheap in 1983 from a Guy in Stamford Connecticut. She had gone up on some rocks during a storm in 1979 and sunk in about 10 feet of water. When I bought her the hull had been repaired and the Volvo rebuilt, but the aft end insides where gutted and trashed, everything was moldy and full of silt, the wiring pulled out and there were some other issues but she was salvageable. And some of the amazing details under the dirt and silt like the green stone sink in the bog and the carved terrapin made it feel like she still had life in her. Some mid-restoration photos attached.

I spent the next few years getting al lot of the work done and sailing around between NY and New England. Lived on her (most of the time) while I finished school in Long Island. Also in that time a wife, kids and real job came along and in 1991 I sold her cheap to an Irishman named Cornelius Callahan who's plan was to sail her back home. Never did find out if he made it.

Thanks for filling in so many of the pieces. I have some more photos and would be happy to give more details to anyone interested. Fair Winds....

Alan.

An Optimist kit to Switzerland

Its always nice to get an order but especially when its from a country we have not sold into before,this time its Switzerland,the customer whats a bright finish,so we have sold him a kit with a mahogany wood package as an extra,it will look very nice against the BS1088 Ockume marine ply hull.

The Optimist Dinghy

The Optimist Dinghy has been around for 63 years?. This is a perfect design to complete between parents and their children. It is also has an Olympic Class of it's own making it the ultimate extra mural activity.
Originally made in wood it was then replaced by a 'GRP' design. This design seemed to be stronger and much lighter than the older wooden boats.
The Wood-Epoxy design is still built to the original class rules but certain changes were made to make the design lighter and even stronger than the 'GRP' design at a fraction of the price. With adding the additional thin epoxy saturation to the hull it keeps the boat's surface from drawing in moisture that could add weight.

One of our Optimist kits sailing,note the bright finish inside the boat and the white painted finish outside,very practical I think.

Our kit as a set of parts looks like this before packing,we supply the glues and glass tapes also.

Cape Town Central

Central to the world,Cape Town can supply most marine and other products world wide and all the branded names your used to and trust.

Thats not a train station I am talking about,thats our On Line Shop,we started on the export side about eight (8) years back and so far we are still receiving requests for quotes and shipping,the pricing must be competitive,as we have a full deck kit of marine  hardware to send to England and  this week we have received an order from Switzerland for an Optimist kit and also a delivery of a Watchmate AIS to the Canary Isles,we turned the AIS order around within 24 hrs of payment,the Swiss order  will be cut and ready in about a week.

How to make your own Guitar

Alister contacted me recently about his hobby,he makes Guitars and wanted to know can we supply him with both bending plys and flexible veneers,he bought two sheets of each and the photos show the jig he made and how some American Walnut he sourced glued up,in this case we were trying to supply wood on wood veneers,our walnut is wood on craft paper,we thought the glue line would be affected but its open to trial.

The Big Bang

Not the real big bang but one ofour very own to start the Hout Bay Yacht Clubs opening cruise last saturday,many thanks to Jeremy who supplied the pictures.

THE NAUTICAL GUN SALUTE


Delivered on the occasion of the salute by the Honourable Order of Hout Bay Artillery for the sail past to mark the opening of the 2010/11 sailing season by the Commodore of the Hout Bay Yacht Squadron



They defended our shore with hot round shot and grape

When the enemy tried to invade our fair Cape.

Now we’re a Republic, no longer at war

Friendly fire honours those who come to our shore.

The sailors of Hout Bay now we also toast,

They brave the South-Easter (or so they do boast)

So may our libation bring winds that are fair

Neither typhoon or flat calm – the sailor’s nightmare.

Fine ships and our cannon we bequeath to our sons

The spirit of Hout Bay, the boats and the guns!



Gunner Jeremy Hele

Aries mount base is around the bend

This is the basic former of the platform,which will be 320mm from front to back and 150mm deep,it will have a top and a back on it next,then be glassed with biaxial glass cloth and more ofour 816 epoxy.

Just look at how tight a radius our 5mm bending plys will shape too,this was an easy job given a jig was made first,making copies is very easy of course,the furniture trade comes to mind and we have just supplied a maker of guitars for the same reason.

Well it may be but it may also work,an Aries vane gear needs a support base to extend past a transom boading platform,so one is being made from our 5mm waterproof bending ply (ce approoved) more stocks arrived last week,I can tell you who has it if you email me at kits@comlumber.com we can also ship country or world wide.

The HBYC opening cruise,with Hansa Brewery and an Octoberfest mug

What a great event,there are at least 90 pictures I took but lets start where it ended,with a beer mug! More pictures will be posted tommorrow.

Roy

Ocean Bound and its Aries Vane Gear

This weekend I was talking to David Scot Cowper about his two trips around the world on his yacht Ocean Bound,he used the same Aries Vane Gear on both circumnavigations,he went east and west about,at the time the only man to do this.

Gregs Didi mini cruise hull build is turned

Gregs father in law,Garth with his build and a proud moment after turning the hull,its his first boat buildI think.

Greg and his father  in law have been enjoying their build of the Didi mini transat,it was to be a race version,then they went for the cruise version with its lifting keel,we supplied the extra materials as required.