Hout Bay Harbours Travel Lift in action

Where is this Travel Lift,its a 40 tonner by the way,well my Garmin GPS says we stopped at this position, S 34 03 132' and E 18 20 722' but dont take my word for it,check before you use those positions,basically its a hard turn left when you enter Hout Bay Harbour mouth,then head for the center mole on the far side of the harbour,the slip is on the right side of the mole on the far end.

This is Flying Cloud our Dix 43 being lifted by the travel lift in the Hout Bay Boat Yards facility,run by Warren and his crew,its a very pro opperation I can recomend.

Foxy Lady,the Zeeslang connection.

We can easily produce a bulkhead and frame set to this design if required but it will not 'measure' as the original boats had wood frames,not CNC cut marine plys we would offer,the boat will be lighter in wood epoxy though,so faster.

A Royal Cape One Design (RCOD) at speed,thanks for the words and picture Chris.

Hi Roy - I still own Foxy Lady which is a fibreglass RCOD. And yes these little boats still go like smoke. During the 2008 Vasco we regularly surfed at speeds of 18 kts. After the race the log and gps showed max speeds of 22 and 23.5 kts respectively. Neither of the drivers remembers achieving this speed but we may have been too busy watching the spinnaker leech to think about the log. We sailed a there and back race on Sunday ( abt 14 nm ) and finished first over the line and handicap. Although Foxy is for sale ( I have to sell her to finace refurbishing my Morgan 31 ) I cannot think of a better budget boat for the Sa coast. Her replacement, the L26 is a good boat, but you cant do ocean passages on one. As you probably know Suidoos II has 4 Atlantic crossings under her keel ( 2 South Atlantic Races from which she returned on her own bottom ).

Cheers

Chris

One design class boats in miniture

Colin Farlam is well known as the historian for the RCYC here in Cape Town,he is also known for his success in promotion as 'Colin Farlam Yachts', he makes and sells complete boats and also kits he can send by post. The GRP hull he is holding weighs just 3kgs,even when he has fitted bulkheads and decks using our epoxies and plys, the boat will weigh little more.

The boats design is a Sparkman and Stevens, each hull or kit Colin sells carries a certificate and a hull number prooving the design and royalty fee as paid the the designers, contact me at kits at comlumber.com for more information.

The roll of wood on wood mahogany veneer will be laminated to make a super thin modeling ply, it will be around 2mm when bonded,this makes a light ply suitable to deck the GRP one design model with, its waterproof.


February 8th, 2013:

Colins neice has just phoned me with the sad news that Colin has recently passed on.
Colin was our link with the past, he knew so much about the yachts and boats in Cape Town.

R.I.P Colin.

Roy

More Zeeslang

A sunday morning visit to the Hout Bay Boat Park saw Jean and I on the small marina,there we found Zeeslang and a nice plaque showing when the marina was opened,Johan happens to be a sailing man and a friend of mine.The boat yard is well run by helpfull staff,they have a travel lift,it will take 30 tons?

Zeeslang,once the fastest boat in RSA,she will be no slouch now?


Hi Roy

I read your article on the Net about "Zeeslang" nice to see she gets the
attention she deserves! I Have sailed a couple of times on her. Friends of
mine own her and there is a rumour she might do a long distance race, who
knows! Myself I own an old boat too with a pedigree but not as old as
Zeeslange thought. "Impact" is mine and I own her since 2001, we mainly race
her and we do well lots of wins and never lower then coming 5th place. She
was built by Bobby Bongers and is cold moulded, but I am sure you know all
that.

Great article and hope to hear from you regarding senior race

Regards

Jacqui

Our 3.8 Jaguar S Type is for sale

Left click on the pictures,they should open full size.
DuPont,USA,checked the colour as being an original Jaguar paint named New Red.


This Jaguar 3.8 S type has been family (its mine) owned this past 27 years,the car has been well maintained and various upgrades have taken place over this period,some of which are:

Engine rebuild
near new cylinder head three years ago
Proffesional rebuild of rear suspension and brakes all round four years ago,new brake hoses,all brake cyilinders rebuilt with new rubbers.
Repaint of all of the cars undertray and suspension four years ago
Wire wheels,hubs and spinners
All leather retrim inside
Wood Rim steering wheel
Radiator serviced
New water pump four years ago
Recent battery
Recent fuel pump
All stainless steel exhaust fitted five years ago,correct layout and design used.
etc etc,

The milage shown is not correct but is as posted on the speedo,I would think the car has done twice the milage?

Five times a Cape Jaguar Drivers Club Concours class winner,this is a good example of this model,which was Jaguars entry into a limited slip differential with inboard disc brakes that reduce weight at the wheels,driven firmly,even in wet conditions the car is very positive due to the diff,which was also intoduced on the Jaguar E Type.The car would be improoved with a full body respray,I can arrange this at an extra charge.I can also ship world wide,the car is in Cape Town,South Africa.The price is R130,000 which is U$17,100,Pounds Sterling 10,850 and Euros 11,850 or as the exchange rate adjusts when you read this mail.

Roy@comlumber.com

Class B AIS Transponder

Watchmate AIS is available from CKD Boats,Cape Town.
Left click pictures to view and read full size.

AIS antenna spliter for the Watchmate AIS

Tony was installing the antenna spliter to his Watchmate AIS today,this box is a clever bit of kit,it means you can still use your existing masthead VHF antenna for transmission on VHF but also send and receive with the AIS,plus,this unit allows you to also receive FM AND AM radio signals too,what a bonus.

The Argie 10

Picture credits,all taken from the Dix Design web site.



This was Dudleys first venture into mass produced dinghy design,free plans were issued in the evening news paper The Argus,many must have been built at that time,its still a very good design.Light enough to carry on a small cars roof rack carrier but large enought to carry four adults with ease,sail,row or motor power,its happy with any of the three.

The Dixi Dinghy

We have found this boat is being looked at more and more,while its our smallest kit boat its also a big load carrier,its fine under motor and sail its also low priced at R3299 for the base kit plus plans.divide by 7.5 to get to a U$ price.
Sergey Kravchenko made a nice job building his Dixi Dinghy in Khabarovsk on the River Amur in Eastern Russia.

Dixi Dinghy Tender.

Dixi Dinghy sailing.




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The Pink Boat

This is new to me,pink paint primer,the boat is a Cape Cutter 19 we supplied as a kit to Ian in Picton,New Zealand,Ian is close to being ready to do a final fill and sand,having a primer of another colour is no bad idea,it allows you to moniter the coats that follow,as in white on white can be hard to see? for fairing and finding those high spots,a very light mist of grey or black can work wonders,as soon as you apply a sander block,the darker colour comes off but the hollows and bumps are exposed,its an auto trade trick,try it and see.

Traditional mast repairs

Traditional style,Steve raises his new top mast on Dixi Rollar,the original wood one having snapped off while on a trial sail in the bay prior to sailing off to Brasil,the new spar is painted steel,Steve tells me its is painted,he tried a steel section that was hot dip galvanised,it was a fair bit heavier than a bare steel section,so painting with marine grade paints made sense to Steve.
Left click pictures to see full size and just how casual Steve is up high in his rigging!

The Shipwreck

We have been 'gifted' a fine model of an old sailing boat,at some time it was mostly fully rigged but seems to have hit quite a storm in later years,its time to raise its top masts again and make her look a little more presentable,the deck fittings are fantastic,tiny bronze,rigging screws,cannon,anchor,propellor,lots more,check her out in my office next time your in the area.Thanks to Lars off Redfin for the gift.

Roy
Left click the picture to see more detail.

Flying Cloud from aloft

Ten years old today,the boat was/is a one off,Dudley Dix drew the hull and deck lines but in steel,later designed the steel keel shoe and balanced rudder assemblies,I built the boat and added the center coach roof,later the hard dodger,the end result was very pleasing.She is one ton lighter than the original steel design,with a 50/50 weight split on the keel to boat when launched,so always sails well,even though the boats mast is 1.7 meters shorter than designed.The hull took me six weeks only to build on my own,excepting a little help in the first few days setting up the bulkheads.We can offer CNC cut bulkheads to this Dix 43 design.

A birthday boats mast head vista

A general view from the top of Flying Clouds masthead looking towards the village of Hout Bay,thats the back of Table Mountain in the distance.The marina is accesed from the north mole,the HBYC is located at the other end on the land,its behind that fish factory with the blue roof.
Left click pictures to view full size,pics by R McBride using a Canon G11 on auto setting.

Flying Cloud from the masthead

The view from the top of this Dix 43 is great,the boat is wood/epoxy,now ten years old today,thats January 17th 2000 that it was launched,time to get the flags out!