Off the beach in Hout Bay

We had a strong NW yesterday, by evening it was gone and cool but the bay was quiet flat, this large cat stayed all night and is still there this morning, not very often we see this!

Size matters, I have just spoken to one of the crew, this boat is 82 feet long!

The boats name is On Verra.

This morning we have rain, the catamaran is safe enough in these conditions, be aware that in most conditions and that means any winds from the East, South East and South West, its safer to enter the harbour close by and take a berth on the HBYC marina.

VHF radio is not normally replied to, you may get a reply if I happen to be on a boat and with channel 16 on.

CKD Boats cc can offer catamaran kit from 35ft to 55ft in designs by Angelo Lavranos and Dudley Dix, build it yourself and live your dream!

Roy

The old & new HBYC club house?

This story starts about twenty years back  in 1993 when Alan Batley was the HBYC commodore and I was the Marina Officer, things were moving in the right direction as far as the move to the harbour from the beach site where the old club now stands, Its just about taken over by sand dunes now!

Picture taken in January 2013, all pictures by R McBride

When its time to move, its time to move!

The proposal to use the 17mtr GRP catamaran design by Bob Van Niekerk was seen to have many drawbacks, sewerage and  the water space it would take up being just two of them.

I then asked a well known architech to do a draft proposal based on a structure to be built in front of the hard standing site we now had the lease to.

A Revel Fox Architects proposal on Lot 86.

I had been able to secure the boat park space from the Nature Conservation Departments chief director, Dr Johan Neethling, who suggested we share the site with the ABC (atlantic boat club) after discussion it was seen they did not want a joint venture, so the HBYC Marina section took on the entire site as a boat park.

Revel Fox drew up plans for the building to be done  in three stages, the idea was to start the ground floor, then grow the building to the upper floors.Looking at the HBYC club house as it stands today, its clear to see we would have made a good job of it.

Note the water space, that was to be the length of the building and outwards nine meters, which is then deep enough for a keel boat.

We first had to develop the new club boat park and hard standing lot. The site was  open space in the front, a wire side fence to the left and a concrete slab fence to the right, with a rear boundary wire fence on the line near the main road outside.

 We had a front fence with seven meter wide gates installed (maximum catamaran width being built here then, Richard Berties idea) plus installed water, power, a container as a lock up store (a Robin Reid gift) plus a new Marina Managers office on top of the container, with access steps, the Marina section spent some R34,000 on the site.

At the time of the discussion over the hard standing site, I asked could we also have  the area known as Lot 86 which was in front of the new boat park, that area was 34mtrs long x 15 meters deep and with waterfront access, a perfect site for the much needed new HBYC club house.

This was taken under consideration at the time but we were granted the water space where Muirels Munchies is now to build a Travel Lift haulout structure. Added to that we were granted the use of the drying sand spit inside the end of the North wall, this later disapeared when the space under the wall was filled in with concrete.

We also had written  permission to move delinquent boats/owners to the outside of the North pier, plus place moorings for larger yachts inside the South East wall, this was granted but never used.

The period was 1993 and just before the elections which South Africa held with great success, however those which had been without the vote up untill the general elections,

were already making demands and even a non political post such as the Department of Nature Conservation were themselves feeling some political pressure, the signing of long leases was then becoming an issue.

In the end  the lease for Lot 86 was granted for just ten years, the Marina section wanted to fence it and place portable toilets on it and at their cost, however the main club felt we should not do so and as it was the HBYC that held the lease, nothing in the end was done to upgrade that site, we may have held on to it had they done so?

This would be part of the view from the clubs floating dock in front of the proposed new club house.

The eventual loss of the lease to another fish processing company now wanting our Lot 86 site became a court case, which ended in the Supreme Court, the lease was overturned and against the HBYC.

The committee then had little choice than to take over the boat park space from the Marina Section, a longer lease was required and that fell to the club to apply for, this will have been around 1999 or thereabouts. By then my time as marina officer had passed, Dr Johan Neething of the Department of Nature Conservation had taken an early retirement but his right hand man, Dr Van Zyl was still working  at the department.

The boat park was a large site, left unused for decades, our use was the first of any importance since I had moved to Hout Bay twenty years before. With the formal application of the HBYC to have an extended lease drawn up for the clubs new club house, another application was received as well.

This was for the second empty plot and next to what was by then our boat park, a company processing fish needed space to develop a new factory, they needed a larger plot than was the case with the vacant plot next to us.

Dr Van Zyl phoned me and proposed that the HBYC agree to loosing 25% of our boat park and as a part of the main clubs new extended lease agreement? While I was by then off committee I did agree that the offer made sense and the lease was made and signed on that basis.

The rear of the new HBYC club house, the high building  with the green roof is the unused fish factory process plant, thats two fish process plants in such a small harbour, the other and first one is in the building to the right of my picture.

The three story factory then built to process fish was later a failed venture and now stands mainly unused and in front of the HBYC club house, effectively blocking the clubs view of the 122 berth marina that we have developed in the harbour.

The so called new HBYC, one of a few attempts to replace the old one on the beach. The club works well, its friendly and is very comfortable inside.

The fabrics and finishes in the new HBYC are far better than those at the old club premises.

Captain Notty, a visiting long distance sailor tests out a pint of his favourite Windhoek draft lager.

 

The Hout Bay Yacht Club as it is now, February 18th 2013.

                   As they say, the rest is just history as to what might have been?

Roy

Steel v GRP or Wood Epoxy

Some weeks back I did a blog on Wood/Epoxy v GRP it seems that subject has its attractions and to date some 185 have  viewed the topic.

Find the topic here  http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2013/02/woodepoxy-v-grp-laminate.html

I find that Dudleys book, Shaped by wind and wave compares steel with wood and grp, the differences are large, the weight penalty for steel is huge.

Words and pictuure are by Justin and taken from his SA Boats blog.

Try www.sayachts.blogspot.com there are some great South African boats to be found in that site.

Boats and boat-design have fascinated me for quite some time. There simply is no more interesting mix of art and science in existence. Nothing more likely to generate a good discussion about form and function, all mixed up with adventure, adrenalin, tradition and good living! I was therefore very happy to receive a copy of Dudley Dix's new book - in which he explains his personal perspectives on design priorities, and how they have been formed through his own experiences of living, sailing, and boat building in the "Cape of Good Hope", a.k.a. Cape of Storms!

In my copy of the same book, its US$30 only by the way, find it at www.dixdesign.com you can buy your own copy on line, its worth the money!

Page 70/71 tells us that for equal weight, a steel hull skin must be about 20% of the thickness of that for a GRP hull and 7% for that of timber. So while the steel is strong the weight penalty can be very large.

 

Page 95 and section 12. Plywood as a Boat Construction Material.

 

Paragraph seven:

 

Steel has a density 5 x that of GRP and 13 x that of of good plywood, so a 4mm steel plate is equal to but weaker than 20mm of GRP and 52mm of plywood.

 

The fact that plywood/epoxy boats are strong, is quite clear!

Roy

DART the real GSM story

I have just had the pleasure of reading the above book, writen by Sandy Brunette, number 0423 of just 1000 copies published and  loaned to me be Eric (thanks pal) it is a limited edition publication that blows much of the myth about car and man (men) its a long story and one worth reading if you can find yourself a copy.

I say man, that was Bob Van Neikerk, there were others, Willie Meissener was one of them, Bob was the designer, Willie the motor engineer, what a partnership!

Van Niekerk in a Lotus 18 at Killarney Raceway, Cape Town.


Bob was able to switch from cars to boats and all in between, read the story below, my thanks to the Sunday Times, dated September 2nd 2012 for this story.

Greg Mills


Jacob van Reenen ‘Bob’ van Niekerk passed away peacefully in his Hout Bay home on 23 August 2012, aged 84. During his lifetime he produced South Africa’s own sports-car, more than 170 boat designs and a few other mind-stretching inventions.

He has been lauded internationally as a ‘genius’. He has spawned boat-building enterprises from the UK to New Zealand. Yet little is known of him at home.

At the time of receiving this sad notice, I was en route to Lake Kariba. In the back of my mind was to keep an eye out for the famous Meteor III racing catamaran powered by two 450bhp Nascar Holman-Moody V8 engines, which Bob designed and built and which in his and Kenny Stephens’ capable hands had won the SA offshore powerboat championship in 1969 and finished fourth in that year’s Isle of Wight race, the World Championship of the time.

The Meteor had reputedly ended up on the Lake in the early 1970s, though its ply-construction is unlikely to have survived the ravages of time and Robert Mugabe. Stephens, my godfather, and something of a likeable rogue, had taken me for a spin in the cat in Simon’s Town aged just six. I remember being terrified by the buffeting and banging of the waves even in the relative calm of the harbour when doing just 40mph.

They were brave men. And in the person of Bob van Niekerk, an undoubtedly great one.

What many may not know was that when I asked Bob to design a proposed new and floating Hout Bay Yacht Club based on his 17 meter long GRP power catamaran he designed for the SA Navy, he was pleased to do so.

Where are those plans, I may still have them. Bob handed over his proposal for free, I am pleased to tell you that the HBYC committee then saw fit to write out a reasonable payment queque for Bobs services, Bob was delighted!

Roy



 

Garmin 120 GPS antenna revisited

I had a recent mail about a blog posted last year.

http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2012/04/garmin-gps-120-antenna-connection.html

The stick antenna on the Garmin GPS 120 I have should work it seems?

I tried it on a Garmin GPS 192C plotter with an internal antenna, that unit is a 12
channel recieve set, with the GPS 120 inside the boat I saw no fix.

But what will the result be when connected to my Garmin GPS Plus 2? that set is an 8 channel receiver,  in this case the 120 antenna worked.

The satelites are all there but only three are being worked at this time.

The signal was not that great, three bars only but as a back up and a decent way to recycle old electronics, the old Garmin 120 antenna may well be worth having on board?

Note, for this test the required BNC co-ax plus was not fitted, the center core pin only was fitted to the Garmin GPS, the signal could improove with the correct plug fitted?

With the (old) Garmin GPS 2 plus 8 channel fitted with its folding short stick antenna we do see a stronger signal and it also is working an extra satelite.

 

Nice when things work!

Roy

Painting Eddies Argie 10

This does look nice!

Thanks for the pictures Eddie, you should be on the water soon?

The Argie 10, designed by Dudley Dix, built by Eddie from a kit supplied by CKD Boats cc.

Eddie asked me what that half moon cut out on the transom is for?

This was my reply:

Hello Eddie,

 

Your pictures showed some good detail and made a nice blog addition, many thanks for them.

 

The notch will be for a single sculling oar, to use a single oar to go forwards you place the oar in the notch, with the blade held vertical

Then with a side to side motion you also add a twist to the action, this will move the boat forwards at quite

A decent pace, try it and see!

 

Nice question, also a nice blog as well.

 

Regards

 

Roy

Nokia 5000 rear cover and battery wanted

We sort of lost the back cover and battery to our Nokia 5000 cell phone, purchased only in August 2009, we are informed by the local Voda Shop who suppied it that neither the case or battery is in stock.

when the Sim Card is inserted in a spare phone, not all of the addresses come up, we need a spare battery and rear cover, can anyone help?

Designed in  Finland and made in India!

Roy

Web site down ( was down)

Well its about week four now that the www.ckdboats.com web site has been down.
Who is responsable is not clearly known or understood but as of yesterday a payment was made to the host that holds the website and I expect money will sort the issue out, it may be running tomorrow
then again it may not!

For those who want to contact us, try the phone at 27 21 790-3859, its also a fax line, or email at

roy (at) ckdboats.co.za or kits (at) ckdboats.com , change that (at) for @  please.

Normal service will be with you quite soon!

I have just tried the link to CKD Boats as posted above, the site now opens and shows

http://www.ckdboats.com/index.asp

I was able to open the various pages, if anyone out there can do the same and drop me a line to say they can I would like to hear from you.

Go to the Contact Us page on the website, you will then find the link by email.

Roy

My thanks to Christiaan, Justin and Alex for confirmation that we are back on line!

Sailing on yacht Brer Terrapin

I could have taken this picture, in fact I took some myself from much the same position when on the same boat on my first South Atlantic crossing from South Africa to Brasil.

Picture kindly supplied by Ruth.

Ruth did the first ocean crossing with her husband Pip, who built the boat with his brother Mike and also their father, they had their baby son with them on that crossing.

 Was this picture taken on the first trip or the return back from Rio de Janerio to Cape Town, I would like to think so but do not actually know!

Roy

Building details of Eddies Argie 10 dinghy

The builders plans and instructions are good, photos often simplify the method and build process, so here are a few more that Eddie supplied from his building of the Argie 10 kit we sent him.

The method is named a Stitch and Glue process, the stitches in this case are done with bare 1.62mm copper wire, once the tapes inside have had their epoxy cured, the copper is then removed.

 

Glass tapes and epoxy, very neat Eddie!

 

 

With the epoxy and glass tapes done, the hull is bonded and can be filler faired, then painted, we supply an International Paints painters guide with each kit sold.

 

The hull is ready for fitting out now, seats and mast step strcucture

 

 

The mast step prior to bonding with glass tapes and epoxy.

Roy
 

Andrews Tididi build progress

I have just looked at Andrews blog on his Hartley 37 build, progress indeed!

http://ankro-andrewrogers.blogspot.com/

This was not one of our CNC cut kits, Andrew had hand lofted and setup the frames, then wehn the stringers and keel section was ready he came to CKD Boats cc for the plywood hull plating.

That later became epoxies and WBP plys for the interior, a very nice build process and very well done!

Andrews words:

 

The picture is taken from Andrews blog page.

 

Well she is slowly starting to look more like a yacht on the inside too. I am on a bit of a roll at the moment and seem to be able to achieve more and more in the limited time available.
The partial bulkhead on the starboard side is complete with all the necessary framing attached for the settee berth, as well as the chart table, and is ready to be fixed permanently to frame #6. The one on the port side is still to have it's framing attached before it can be permanently fixed to the frame.

 

Two brothers and two boats

Two Boats is a place name on Ascension Island, in this case its two boats for two brothers who both bought Argie 10 kits at the same time, made sense we could pack and ship for less.

 

Brother Eddie has made a fine job of his Argie 10 kit assembly and is now asking about the Argie 15 kit!

 

 

This looks very neat and really well put together

 

 

The Argie 10 kit uses three sheets of ockume mmarine ply, the Argie 15 uses six sheets.

 

Nice build Eddie.

 

Roy

 

 

 

Paper Jet racing in the USA

Taken from the Dudley Dix blogspot.

We have developing news for the owners of boats to our Paper Jet design. We are in the very early stages of organising the first formal racing for the Paper Jet class. It will be part of a larger event and we need enough entries to have our own start. If we can get a large enough fleet of Paper Jets we can maybe have our own course. 

 

Boat number one and built from a CNC kit supplied by CKD Boats cc , Cape Town.
Skiffs are not happy on windward/leeward courses, so liked by dinghies with conventional spinnakers. They cannot be competitive against conventional classes when the emphasis is on beating and running. Skiffs prefer triangular courses, with reaching legs that allow them to sail at full potential. I am at my happiest on my boat when blasting at high speed on a beam to broad reach, when my PJ can really stretch its legs and fly past most other boats. Granted, I am sometimes on the extreme limit of control but the exhiliration of skipping off the waves and sometimes passing powerboats is worth the price of the not-so-occcasional capsize. It all helps to remind me that I am alive and enjoying the experiences of life.

Dix Design adds Jig Saw joints

We now have the CNC files for a Didi 38 / 40cr, the files contain jig saw joints on both the bulkheads and also hull and deck skin panels. The saving in assembly time will be quite a lot, no more hand planes and joints are so easy to assemble!

Pictures will be added when we have cut some sample boards, so check back in a day or so?

Roy

Hout Bays changing seasons

This weather frontal, that plus the constant rain of yesterday may well herald the arrival of the changing of the seasons?

The beach is this close to our home, check the SW front moving across the bay, thats right to left.

Is that a cloud or a UFO?

 

What ever it is its leaving!

 

 

All pictures by R McBride using a Canon G11 on various settings

 

To the right is Hout Bay Harbour with Chapmans Peak Drive on the mountain behind, well worth a visit.

 

Roy

 

Dudley Dix in the USA saw my blog, as an ex resident and long time surfer and sailer in our region, he commented as below.

 

Change of seasons here too. Daffodils are starting to bloom.

That cloud looks much like a lenticular cloud formation, as happens downwind of a mountain. Might have been from the SW wind lifting over the little koppie above the viewing area of Chappies, then dropping down and bouncing up again off the water.

 

DD.