Brands Hatch 1970 Hillman Imp

George Bevan Imp Racing.
Just check those round stickers on the roof,there are seven first places there!
left click the picture to view in a larger size.

Didi mini cruise rudders

John in the UK bought a Didi mini cruise kit from us about a year back,he has now built the hull and recently turned it over,so now he has placed his order for the two rudders and the drop keel foil and 400kgs cast lead ballast (we have the moulds) plus the engineering parts such as tiller,chain plates,deck stantions,push and pulpits,this is a regular event and a welcome part of our daily works.
We can only glue up one rudder blade per day due to the space taken on the traveling table saw we use as a base,its perfectly flat and ensures the blank glues up the same way,the glue is water proof phenolic,the same glue that is in our marine and water proof plys.

Clear oregon pine (no knots) ready to be thicknessed in the planer,our planer has a four cutter blade head,it gives an exceptional smooth finish.
The clear oregon has been ripped on our circular saw,then planed to a uniform thickness and is ready to laminate.

Yacht Melody FBYC

Melody sank on moorings,rather than raise her,she was towed to one side as she is in this picture.With a little luck she may still be saved,anyone want a classic yacht?

The original of the photo below is said to hang in the Algoa Bay YC,on the back of it is writen the boats owner and builder,who was a retired british naval officer.The boat is plank on steamed frames.She was sold in a bar one night in Graaff Reinet for the sum of R1.00 only,the buyers were David Price and Brian Hoskin (david later married Fiona Chisham,who was wed to the late Brian Lello)this was around 1959 when the boat was (we think) sailed down the coast to Cape Town and the RCYC club waters.

Price later gave the boat to Phil Nankin,he was then the senior officer in charge at Grainger Bays General Botha training facility,this was where Phil kept the boat,later on and when the site was closed and taken over for residential use,Phil gave the boat back to David,who seems to have passed it on to another owner, who took the boat to Simonstown and the FBYC,where she sank and still lays today?
All information kindly given to me by Colin Farlam,the RCYCs historian,Colin knows the boat very well as he used to sail on her.
We now need a nice person with a back pocket deep enough to restore Melody,any takers out there.

This boat is still under the water in FBYC I had a diver check her hull out about ten years back when I restored the Tumlaren,Astra,the hull was said to still be good,it still be today?

Mark collects his Argie 15 kit set

This is Mark with his Argie 15 kit,its always a great day when we get to meet a customer,some who we never meet as they live so far away,Mark lives close by so in his case it was an easy fetch.His kit includes the two extra sheets of plys which are cut to give him the optional side seats.We will feature Marks build as he progresses and sends us his pictures.

The Red Road to Cape Town

You may well ask what has this concrete engineering got to do with boats and our company? well for one thing it will allow both staff and customers to access our premises without their own transports from the city and towns as far west as Atlantis on the west coast.The red strip thats being laid right now,goes right into the city center under Table Mountain in the distance,there will also be a cycle track following the same route.This is all part of the cities commitment to Fifa World Cup 2010,which starts in 112 days only.We sure have a lot of highly trained men on the ground now,whats in store job wise after this year?

Green Stuff

We have moved to source sustainable timbers when we can,why sell mahogany,meranti,oregon when we can sell poplar that is both fast growing but comes from a managed plantation,its the same with marine plywoods,the Ockume veneers are also from managed plantations.

Having just machined some SA Pine (radiata species)which has been CCA treated (tanalith) which is a copper based solution in water,the treatment turns the wood to a green colour as you can see,I then stacked it next to some machined poplar for an Argie 15 kit,I realised that both are green in colour and also green in a management sense,the pine saves imports and its high costs as well. The poplar machines up in a pale straw colour,sometimes with green and brown streaks,that later changes to a light brown when it is exposed to the air,it looks very nice,far nicer than the metranti we used to supply in its place.

Kidz's Stuff chair kit

The perfect gift for your children,a chair they can assemble from a flat pack themselves,supplied either unpainted,or in a range of bright colours in a high quality paint finish,the range will include a table,bookcase,bed side unit,bed and anything else we can think of.

Traditional Atkin 34.7 ft Vixen arrives

This boat arriving in Hout Bay from Simonstown,was drawn in 1950 and built in 1952,more pictures of Vixen in another blog later.
Left click the pictures to view them full size.


VIXEN is a 1950 design by John Atkin; 34’7” on deck, 32’ waterline, 43’ overall, 13 tons, gaff cutter, 1950. She was built by Joel Johnson at Black Rock, Connecticut in 1952 of eastern white cedar on oar frames. Her original owners, James and Jean Stark, circumnavigated 38,000 miles taking five years. William and John Atkin based the hull shape on the Colin Archer lifeboats from Norway.
An Atkin Double-Ender

Plans are still available,we can CNC cut a set of bulkheads and intermeadiate stations for you,plus supply all materials,including the correct glues,caulking cotton and copper rovings if required,contact:
Roy@ckdboats.com

No how-to-build article on Vixen was ever published, so you will have to be satisfied with the blurbs from the yachting press below. Vixen measures 34 ft. 7 in. on deck, with a length of 32 ft. 6 in. on the waterline. Her beam is 10 ft. and draft 5 ft. Freeboard forward is 4 ft. 10 1/2 in., 3 ft. 11 in. at the stern and the least freeboard is 2 ft. 11 in. She displaces about 26,000 lb., with a 9,500 lb. external lead keel and 1,500 lb. of inside ballast. She was designed for Jim Stark, specifically to make a circumnavigation. He had a suc­cessful trip taking five years, as he liked South Africa and Tahiti so much he stayed there several months each.

New Didi Mini Transat Mk3 version

DUDLEY DIX YACHT DESIGN

Didi Mini Mk3
Radius Chine Plywood Mini 6.5

One of Dix Designs most popular designs has just been given performance facelift,check those chines aft.



From the Dix Design web pages.
In the 10 years that we have offered plans for the Didi Mini, we have sold plans for 90 boats. Apart from a redesign of the aft deck and a continual expansion of build options, it has remained the same basic boat sold as the Didi Mini Mk2. Now we introduce a major redesign, as the Didi Mini Mk3. It has some major changes from the earlier versions while retaining the same basic structure and detailing. It remains suitable for amateurs to build economically but performance will step up a notch or two.

Introduced in the Didi Mini Mk3:-

~ Updated hull shape with broader stern and topside chine

~ Extended cabin roof, forming protected cuddy over front of cockpit

~ Easier access between cockpit and interior

~ More power from broader and flatter stern

~ Water ballast of fixed keel version further outboard

~ Bow and stern ballast tanks in canting keel version

~ Tacking daggerboard in canting keel version

~ Redesigned foam flotation, cleaner interior

~ Inboard chainplates for tighter genoa sheeting

~ Larger square-head mainsail

Overall, these changes produce a boat that will be more powerful, faster, more weatherly and more comfortable to sail.

This cruising life,Salvador,Bahia,Brasil

Left click to view an enlarged picture.

With friends and their yachts sailing off right now to Brasil,this is a good time to post a picture I took,its in 1977,we are with the crew of two other boats,one is the Eckhoffs,Donella,the other is a family from Durban but I do not recall their family name or the name of the boat,it was about 36ft long and a pale blue.Dennis off Brer Terrapin is standing up and suggesting our plan of action for an evening ashore and a beach braai.The camera was my Canon FT with a 1.4 x 50mm lens.

Pirates,Somalia

Actually,its no laughing matter but maybe some of the world powers are a joke?
Left click to read the words.

Vampire Jets

We have a second order to supply Hendrick with our Resolution 816 epoxy and 205 cure agent,while the plane may fly,its construction is wood being in plywood made from birch,so when we think of it,planes and yachts are very similar,they both fly in one way or another!

The Vampire Jet designed by de Havilland, Hatfield. Some 1500 were built at English Electric Preston in the 1940's.

Design and development

Interior layout of the Vampire FB Mk2The Vampire was considered to be a largely experimental design due to its unorthodox arrangement and the use of a single engine, unlike the Gloster Meteor which was always specified for production. The low-powered early British jet engines meant that only twin-engine aircraft designs were considered practical; but as more powerful engines were developed, particularly Frank Halford's H.1 (later known as the Goblin), a single-engined jet fighter became more viable. De Havilland were approached to produce an airframe for the H.1, and their first design, the DH.99, was an all-metal, twin-boom, tricycle undercarriage aircraft armed with four cannons. The use of a twin boom (similar to that of the Lockheed P-38) kept the jet pipe short which avoided the power loss of a long pipe that would have been needed in a conventional fuselage. The DH.99 was modified to a mixed wood and metal construction in light of Ministry of Aircraft Production recommendations, and the design was renumbered to DH.100 by November 1941.[2]

Under specification E.6/41 for two prototypes, design work on the DH.100 began at the de Havilland works at Hatfield in mid-1942, two years after the Meteor.[3]

The Moth hydrofoil

We have been asked to develop a Moth hydrofoil kit,whats a Moth says I,checking on the web I see its nothing new but they can be expensive,exciting too I bet.We have asked one of our team of designers to give the idea some thought,its a possible thing,so watch this space,as the kit will not be expensive,there is so little boat!

Flying Cloud,a Dix Design Dix 43

How big is a big boat,there probably is no answer to that but the 45ft american yacht that used this cradle before this boat, sure looked a whole lot larger than this Dix 43!We have boats on our kits offerings to 55ft but size is not an issue really.
Left click the picture to view full size,the camera was a Canon G11 set on auto.

This was not a boat built from a kit,it was hand lofted and hand built,the hull took me six weeks working eight hours a day to build.It was the learning curve on Dudleys radius chine construction start though,so in some ways the beginnning of what became to be known as CKD Boats cc.We can offer CNC cut bulkheads on this design,also the very similar shaped Dix 38 and 45.

SSB Radio ground plates

The issue on a boat of a decent SSB ground plate always causes discussion,I can only advise what has worked on my own boats and worked very well,the basics are a decent radio of course,then a copper foil to ground it with (not a wire) you then link up to various things that will help the cause,steel tanks and the engine are a good start.In my case I have always had a copper plate with a large slab anode fastened to it,not so neat but it works very well and as the engine is connected to the anode,I have never ever had any worry with corrosion in the engine,so its working two ways in my case.I have just added an upgrade in a dynaplate,thats the bright yellow slab next to the anode you can see,its a mass of bronze balls sintered together to make a connected mass,but not solid,you can blow air through it,the size you see is said to equall five (5) square meters of ground plane,I should have a very good set up now!

Inside the boat,one of two mounting bolts on the dynaplate,the brass shim foil goes to the anode stud which is out of sight under the pipe work,the anode stud already has a 3" (75mm) copper foil ground strip in place.Why the brass strip? I have run out of copper but have brass shim stock,its the same thickness so I used that.

The copper plate is about 550mm x 550mm,it will get some growth on it but not much.