AIS from a black box connection

All of those we have supplied the Watchmate AIS to have raved over its performance, its a life saver they tell me. Now companies are selling the black box reciever side only, the idea is you link it to your laptop or chart plotter, the thinking is then you have AIS but whats not said is how good (bad) it can be to go this route.

Right click on the picture above, it should open to a size you can then read.

The Watchmate 670 display only, this will connect to your existing black box type signal supply. It uses a very low 3 watt 12volt supply, thats really low!

When advising customers about AIS its worth reminding them that AIS is about safety information and they should ask two key questions about any AIS device;

1. How do I ensure I don't end up with so many targets (boats) on my display that I cant make good decisions about the safest course to take?
2. How do I ensure that I don't have so many AIS alarms going off that I end up ignoring them all and tuning my AIS alarms off?

These are two questions that anyone experienced with AIS ask us on a regular basis.  The less experienced are in danger of simply buying a black box AIS transponder, connecting it to a chart plotter and saying they have "AIS"; unfortunately they are missing out on the key safety benefits of AIS when they do this.

Demonstrating the WatchMate filtering features addresses question 1 as WatchMate filtering declutters the screen and leaves only the high priority boats on display.  The second question is addressed by showing customers the four separate Alarm settings that the WatchMate has for each of the Profiles it can be set in (Anchored, Harbour, Coastal, Offshore). The flexibility of these Alarms simply means that the system is configured to only provide alerts in real danger situations not when every boat comes in to a set range.  A feature that is unmatched by any other AIS product.

Another way to highlight the difference between an AIS device with a dedicated display versus a black box AIS is to discuss the table above.  This table compares the WatchMate 850 with the ICOM transponder and a generic black box transponder.  As the table graphically highlights if customers choose a black box AIS transponder the safety functionality they get is variable at best and in many cases nonexistent.

However if they have already invested in a black box AIS device and don't want to upgrade there is always the option to provide customers with a WatchMate 670 Display which instantly provides them with a much more intelligent dedicated AIS safety device that addresses the questions above.

We can supply new Watchmates direct from the factory, they in turn supply the exact parts you will require for your boats system, they also have a downloadable update program which can be accessed from their web site for free.

Roy

Will a real boat builder please stand up?

Thats if we can find one these days! I guess its all about the ebb and flow of orders and keeping the factory doors open, plus as far as the word REAL is concerned, just how many genuine boat builders in South Africa can we find?

Here is a genuine boat builder, its Peter Randle on Nandi, a Didi 34 that was owner built from one of our kits.

This is one real boat builder and as we can see he is standing up!

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2010/02/peter-randle-boat-builder.html

I have asked Peter to do a costing on building one of our Proteus 106 kits, this will be a good time to ask him as he is doing the finishing touches to one of our Cape Henry 21 kits right now, Peter tells me it will be launched and moored at Hout Bay.

This boat was built from plans and has the optional longer transoms which cover the rudders.

When we have prices from Peter we can offer our kit as a Hull Deck and Bulkhead completed unit, right up to a sailaway package and ex Cape Town.

In Thailand and launched with a used set of spars and sails, the owner is still really happy with the boats performance.

Owner, Rick with his boat, at 35 feet this boat is made to cross oceans as a cruising boat.

http://www.lavranosyachtdesign.co.nz/sc_10m-multi.htm

The interior consists of four berths (two doubles + 2 singles), a saloon settee, a practical galley with icebox, and a toilet compartment, all with standing headroom . She is totally functional, and all that is needed for comfort at sea. She is configured with two machinery and keel variations: A 4 stroke 20HP outboard on a hinging nacelle is fitted for economy, as is tiller steering, with "kick up" rudders. If the motor starts to make trouble it is easily replaced. I haven't worked out how many times you can relace it to equal the cost of diesels. However saildrive "single cylinder baby diesels" can be fitted, as can fixed mini keels. Other "choices" in the "gilded lily" approach stretch to installed toilet & holding tank versus chemical / fitted bucket , installed water tank versus fitted 20 lit container storage. However with the outboard and daggerboard combination, and simplest accommodation gear, we have the fastest boat AND the shallowest draught for the smallest outlay. People lose sight of the fact that comfort at sea revolves round some very simple "basics", a dry bunk with good ventilation, a place to prepare hot food, a place to sit out of the sun & elements, a private toilet, standing headroom. The rest is "bells & whistles" which all come at a price of increased cost, maintanance, and degrading performance.
The rig is the simplest possible, with a pair of cap shrouds and headstay triangulated, single diamond. The sail inventory is essentially a mainsail, a roller furler jib, and a storm jib. Optional: Genneker.

LENGTH OVERALL 10.600 Meters
BEAM 6.360 Meters
DRAUGHT 0.370/1.75 Meters (dagger up/dwn)
DISPLACEMENT 2800 Kilograms (light)
MAINSAIL 48 Sq Meters
ROLLER FURL JIB 24 Sq Meters
GENNEKER 58 Sq Meters
FRESH WATER 140 liters (installed or 20 lit containers)

Roy

Shadow of Lothian at the Royal Cape Yacht Club

We first met George Faquarson when he arrived at the RCYC on Shadow and as a single hander, this was around September/October 1979, as the slide I have copied is dated October 1979.

The event was The Parmelia Race, it was to recognise the days of the clipper ships that sailed between Great Britain and Australia.

Thats George in the blue oilies, a friend is blowing up a display bottle of scotch whiskey, George is very much a scot!  Thats me in the blue jeans and jacket, with George Dore standing behind me, who is the guy behind George wearing those huge platform shoes though!

Roy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmelia_Yacht_Race

A stern tube inner fitting for a 32mm propellor shaft

This bronze stern tube fitting has a new rubber bearing fitted, it will take a 32mm shaft as it is but the fitting can also be down sized to take a 30mm shaft size as well, you would need to press the existing bearing out to do this ( remove the small stainless steel grub screw first) . The short piece of bearing in the brass pipe is the offcut from the new 32mm rubber bearing, which would be handy as a sample when you next want to fit a new bearing.

The packing in the fitting looks good still, the spare packing was sold this morning, its a 3/8" size and a half meter in length. This type of stern tube screws into a 45mm tube which then carries water along the shaft and to the Cutlass bearing at the propellor end of the shaft. The flow of water comes from the raw water cooling side of the engine, which then passes to the tube hole fitting and then out of the back of the stern tube.

Roy

Building Roys boat

This is the boat I designed for myself after going cruising to Brasil, by then I was back in Liverpool. I had ideas to build at home but took up employment at the Shepperton Film Studios and for an interior design company. The building place was on an island on the River Thames, I could make frames and rip plys at work, they all traveled on the roof of my 850cc Mini to the boat yard about twenty miles away.

 I had worked out that a boat around 34 feet was plenty for my needs. The idea of a self built laminated plywood boat appealed to me, each and every one of those planks you see had to be hand fitted to each other with hand tools, as we had no AC power on the island! I am using bronze Gripfast ring nails to glue the planks together.

I named the design the Bahia 34, the picture was ( i think) taken by my dad Robert Henry McBride, using Kodachrome slide film, he probably used my own Canon FT film camera?

The design was self taught and working from a scale model, made from balsa wood, I sorted out the final shapes to things like shear and freeboard. I ended up selling the bare hull on and eventually returned to Cape Town after a tour of work in Sudan. I still have the drawings and a model boat kit could be prepared in 6mm MDF for you if anyone wants to build one?

I might do well to add that since I built the hull in the picture, designs and methods have changed in a big way. Today and thinking of the Dix Design radius chine construction method, hulls can now be built with far less skills and effort and in a fraction of the time my boat hull took me.

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2009/02/self-design-and-build-of-my-bahia-34.html

Design rights to this set of plans are held by Roy McBride.

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/08/designs/bahia/index.htm

Made as a model, the design could then be viewed from all angles untill I was sure the design would work when built.

My mother has climbed onto the boat  and can be seen on the hull under the canopy.

Roy

Johns Didi Mini Cruise in the water

We have sold many of the Dix Designed Mini Transats, some in recent years have been the Mini Cruise.The idea came from the fact that this is a very spacious boat inside, so why not increase the head room and give the boat a lifting keel.

 

Photo supplied by John, the the owner builder. We sent him the kit to England, then as he progressesd the rest of the boat such as the drop keel and lead ballast, even the Harken deck package.

Roy

Henry has an ID tag ring

As Henry grew up we found it ever harder and more difficult to know who was who in our garden, it even got so bad that other pigeons would fly into the house and also the garage, just as Henry was free to do.

Henry in the garage sporting his white leg band, it seemed not to bother him and was a loose fit. Henry eventually flew off one morning and we never saw him again.

By now Henry was around six months old and a big lad, keep an eye open for him and that white leg ring on his right leg!

While our Henry was totally tame, we soon found that a smaller wild female bird would enter the house after Henry, she still does and we can be working in the garden, she will land right next to you. When hungry she will come right up to the kitchen window, so in some respects we still have a tame pigeon. Of course we have named her Henrietta!

Roy

Myra, a book about a car by Colin Davies

I have no idea how many books Colin intends to write, this is the third one he has had published, so he has quite a tallent it seems.

This one is about Colins 1952 Jowett van, it morphed into a trials machine, complete with a supercharger too. Its here in the Cape right now.

All of Colins books have one thing in common, they are true recollations of things past.

Roy

Hout Bay fishing boats

Seen here on a fine afternoon, one would never guess the sea miles these boats must do to earn a living?

Picture by R McBride

Dragon class yacht restoration

This is not really a great time of the year to do such work, unless the contractor is organised and protects himself and the project against the winter weather.

Older Dragons are made from wood, three laminated layers of mahogany on oak in this case.

This is hard work, either inside or outside the boat will have you climbing and twisting position all day long!

The decks have been re caulked with Dow Corning 813 black silicone. The inside of the hull and frames have been cleaned an treated to a coating of AR600 thin epoxy and 3M microballoons.

The outside of the hull, including fairing in the one ton lead keel is being treated with ABE 201 twin pack epoxy paste, suitable for both above and below the water. All products have been supplied

 by CKD Boats cc.

Roy

McLaren M6 at Killarney Race Circuit

Seen here was one of the many classic race cars which now return to South Africa for the replica of the Springbok Series each spring.

This McLaren is listed as an M6, Marcus Mussa was the entry and driver, he hails from the Netherlands, no date was given for the age of the car. (1967?)

From the web:

The M6 ​​was a car with a monocoque frame made of aluminum that had both innovative for its time and an unusual attention to detail. The engine used the M6 ​​was the small-block Chevrolet engine built by George Boltoff and proved extremely reliable. That year was Dennis Hulme McLaren racing side by side.

The mixture of racing hardware in one space on this weekend is just an amazing sight to have seen!

Time warp cars and to be found in Cape Town once a year! http://www.atlasf1.com/2000/aut/cox.html
Masten Gregory, a legend indeed!

Michael Cox from Kansas City, Missouri, writes about his hometown hero and a legendary racer: Masten Gregory Sports car legend Carroll Shelby called him "the fastest American to ever go over and race a Grand Prix car;" He scored a podium finish in his very first Formula One World Championship Grand Prix start (a first by an American) and was also a winner of the world famous Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race; Formula One legend and two-time World Champion Jim Clark considered him to be his hero

The origianl badge, what do the F1 McLarens carry today I wonder?

Running any engine at a Cape Town meeting without an air filter is not to be advised.

V8 power in such a small car must be fun.

Two of the many race cars not only on display but racing out on the track over the two day program.

Roy

The i 550 in South Africa

We looked at this rather fast boat some years back, now after a client asking us to look at cutting a kit for him, then approving his order, we are setting up to start his boat on his order.
Will is the customers name, we have bought his marine plys for him already.

Message taken of Wills own blog page on Sailspace.org.

http://www.sailspace.org/hull471i550.html

Well the time has come to put my social life and money where my mouth is because I have decided to build an i550. Over the course of last week I contacted Watershed boats in the USA and asked Tim Reiter to get in contact with CKD boats in Cape Town to negotiate a deal to put i550's into CKD's kit portfolio. This they seem to have done and pending some final wheeling and dealing the i550 should be available in kit form in South Africa!

More than this, I have placed a deposit with CKD and bought plans from Tim at Watershed and I am now licensed to build Hull # 471. Hopefully the first i550 to be built in South Africa! Exciting times...

Watch this space for the progress!

Roy

Dunlop R7 Racing Tyres on a 1961 Lotus 21

Since my first interest in motor sport there has always been the racing tyre made by Dunlop, they named it the  R7, it has a very distinctive tread pattern.

I see that Dunlop now re make the same tyre and with various compounds to suit the track and weather.

Dunlops R7 race tyre pattern, its so distinctive.

A formula car ready to go out and parcitice.

The car is a 1961 Lotus 21 the driver being Alex Morton from the UK.

Lotus F1 are back near the top once more, status quo at last!

This car is now fifty one years old, heritage being kept and raced, all so accessable at the Killarney Track if you pay for the full ticket, recomended!

This is inside the new pits complex, its such a fantastic idea to have an area under cover and where cars,drivers and crews can cool off between races.

Killarney Race Track, February 2012, the revival of The Springbok Series, what a place to be !

Roy

Solvesta, the book by Colin Davies

Possibly this is a cruising guide after all, having just read the last few chapters and before that sailed up the East coast of Austrailia, where day after day, Collin was making some on the spot decisions to stay or go, could he make the Torres Straight at exactly the right stage of the tide? Would he make it through The Hole In the Wall cut at Gugari Rip in the islands West of the Arafura Sea, Pacific Ocean and above Australias Northern Territory?

 I find it to be a great read and a for sure this book, while in effect being Collins personal diary of his trip, surely is a must have volume for anyone considering the same voyage.

For a change I am doing a book revue myself, this means I have to read the entire volume of course, at 149 pages its quite a read! From my side I do at least have first hand information on the route as far as Venezuela, so my ability to judge and pass comment on Colins story can be based as far as the mainland after Margerita Island.

Thats Colin behind the TBA history and John who is Colins printer behind the Solvesta book.
Both are quality productions and well worth the price. In fact a situation on Solvesta when she left FBYC will be worth the cost of the book, the wrong spinnaker poles ends failed so early on that they bent the pole and wrecked the ends.

From Colins first page introduction:

Many people have found themselves, like me set adrift in middle age. My wife Carol had died and my two sons, Andy and Nick, Emigrated, so I found myself in Cape Town, faced with the dismal prospect of working alone for the foreseeable future just to pay for a house, car, TV set....in fact, just to exist!

(continues)

I am still reading and passed Panama and Galapagos just yesterday!

How good can this be.

Roy

Late monday, having sailed the Pacific, a visit to New Zealand , I am now in Australia.

Is this book a good read? well Its sure writen as it happens, mistakes and all, Colin keeps saying he was happy doing a little as possible but to me he did so much! The book is not in any way intended to be  a cruising guide, it is full of chartlets and pictures, more for a general guidence to the reader than anything else.

You may be very hard pressed to find a better and more up to date sort travel book the circles the globe, Cape Town to Cape Town. For myself I found it was just asking me to get out the BA charts of the areas that Solvesta went to, only then will you see where he went and why.

The trip back to South Africa comes next!

Roy

Cape Towns Killarney Race Circuit, a day at the races.

This was February of this year and Eric wanted to leave Hout Bay by 7.30am, I was ok with this but thought it an early start non the less. It soon became clear to me that this was a correct decision, we had all the time in the world to see the cars and to meet some of the drivers.

All pictures by R McBride

Over the noise of Ford racing engines, Eric talks to Sarel Van Der Merwe, one of the top South African rally and race drivers with expriance overseas, Le Mans,France and Watkins Glen,USA, come to mind?

As you can see, some conversation was reduced to hand signals.

Sarel van der Merwe

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Sarel van der Merwe
Nationality	South Africa
Born	(1946-12-05) December 5, 1946 (age 65) Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Retired	2002
Championship titles
1975, 1977-1985, 1988 1994 1994, 2001	South African Rally Drivers Championship South African Saloon Car Championship South African Modified Saloon Car Championship
Awards
1976 1997 2002	Springbok Colours South African National Colours MSA Lifetime Achievement Award

Sarel Daniel van der Merwe (born December 5, 1946) is a South African former rally driver, who was a multiple South African Rally Drivers Champion. He is sometimes referred to as "Supervan".^[1]
Van der Merwe won the South African Rally Drivers Championship a record eleven times in 1975, from 1977 to 1985 and in 1988. Van Der Merwe also drove one NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen for Hendrick Motorsports #17 Tide Chevrolet Lumina team in 1990 while the team's regular driver, Darrell Waltrip, was recuperating from a severe leg injury a month earlier, where he finished 24th.^[2] He also held the SA Saloon Car Championship (1994), SA modified Saloon Car Championship (1994 & 2001), and won the 1996 Castrol International Rally in Swaziland. He received his Springbok Colours in 1976 and his South African National Colours in 1997. In 2002, van der Merwe was awarded the Motorsport South African (MSA) Lifetime Achievement award.^[3]
Van der Merwe began his racing career in 1967 racing saloon cars. His international career took off in 1983 in the IMSA series in the USA, with his most notable win in the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona race driving for Kreepy Krauly Racing, an all-South African team in a March 83G-Porsche. He shared the win with Graham Duxbury and Tony Martin. Van der Merwe did exceptionally well in the 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans where he finished 3rd on debut. In the 1986 Le Mans race, Sarel pulled in a lap early and Jo Gartner took over. A lap later the suspension broke and the car veered off the Mulsanne Straight in the middle of the night and Gartner was killed.
He retired from competitive motor racing on November 23, 2002 after Round 12 of the Vodacom Power Tour at Kyalami.^[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarel_van_der_Merwe  my thanks to Wikipedia for publishing this information.

Sarels drive for the weekends event, I think the car is 46 years  years old!

Note, it is in fact a 1966 Ford Galaxy Coupe, entered and owned by Lindenburg Racing/Lazerus Ford, one of the faster cars on the day for sure.

Sarels Ford V8 waits to be unleashed onto the tarmac at Killarney.

Roy