Boat Trailer Plans Australia | Cape Cutter 19 Capable Little Cruiser

Boat Trailer Plans Australia

The Cape Cutter 19 was commissioned by Nick and Lyndsay Voorhoeve as a GRP trailer-sailer, styled after the traditional working craft of UK. It was first built in South Africa, then the company was sold to Honnor Marine, who have built them in UK since 2003. To date more than 125 GRP boats have been built and we have also sold plans for nearly 70 of them, to be built from plywood.

These little boats have proven to be very capable little cruisers, with a surprising turn of speed. They have won the modern gaffer division of the Round the Island Race (around the Isle of Wight) a number of times. I designed the CC19 to handle the boisterous seas and winds found around the Cape of Good Hope, so it has proven quite at home in the sometimes rough conditions around the Solent.

Most are used for family cruising but some have made interesting passages. Top of the list must be the voyage that Jo Sinfield made on "Bandoola". She was built for him in Cape Town in 2002, then shipped to Myanmar (previously Burma), 1000 miles up the Irrawaddy River. Jo sailed her down the Irrawaddy River to the Bay of Bengal, across the Andaman Sea to Thailand then to Singapore.

Jo Sinfield and "Bandoola" sailing the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.

Another remarkable journey was the fund-raising voyage that Mike Brooke made with his CC19 "Theos Future", to raise funds for research and treatment of a congenital eye disease. Mike is an ex Royal Marine and highly experienced dinghy sailor. He circumnavigated England in June to September 2008, with a variety of friends and family crewing for him on various legs. He raised more than his target and was able to buy important hi-tech equipment for treatment of the condition. Theo is Mikes nephew, who was born healthy but lost his sight to the condition within months. Mike continues to raise funds by selling his book about the voyage, "Fight for Sight on Theos Future - A Voyage of Hope & Endeavour". If you want to read his story and support this very worthwhile cause, you can buy his book at http://www.theosfuture.org/.

Mike Brooke sailing "Theos Future"

I have just read of another voyage by a CC19. This was a circumnavigation of UK, made by David Farquhar on CC19 #11, "Pipistrelle". David didnt intend to circumnavigate, he set off for a few days of sailing to see how his boat went, then just kept going. He harbour-hopped and spread it over a three-year period before arriving back at his starting point. David is now part-way through doing the same again and estimates that to date he has sailed about 4000 miles on his little ship.

David Farquhar and crew Fiona on CC19 Pipistrelle

These very capable little boats have wonderful character and are well-loved by their owners. It will be interesting to see where else their owners may take them (or be taken by them).

To see more of this and our other designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Boat Plans Aluminium | International Cape Cutter Week 2015

Boat Plans Aluminium

The Cape Cutter 19 is a popular little gaff cutter that I designed for Nick Voorhoeve of Cape Cutter Yachts. Originally built in Cape Town and exported to UK, production moved to UK when Honnor Marine bought the company. Since then many boats have been built and rumour has it that the factory currently has a waiting list for boats to be built. In addition to more than 100 GRP boats, more than 60 have been or are being built by amateurs, from plywood.

Plywood Cape Cutter 19 "Tiptoe" built by Ian Allen in New Zealand.

This pretty little gaffer sails very well and has earned a very loyal following. Her character and sailing characteristics have resulted in bigger sisters coming off my drawing board as well, the Cape Henry 21 and Cape May 25. The Cape Charles 32 is now part way through the design process.

Earlier this year a group of GRP Cape Cutter 19s met in Cornwall to sail together in the first International Cape Cutter Week. After a successful event, they have now announced their plans for International Cape Cutter Week 2015, from 23-31 May 2015. The sailing area will be on the rivers and waters surrounding Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the River Orwell. For this event they hope to also have entries from Europe.


International Cape Cutter Week 2014 from Charles Erb on Vimeo.

If you have a Cape Cutter 19 or are building one and you are in UK or Western Europe, this is an event that you might consider as a holiday destination for next year. You will meet others with their boats, cruise in company, learn from each other and no doubt have a great time. I have been invited and hope to be able to be there. Time will tell whether or not that works out.

The 2014 event was enjoyed by all participants. The 2015 event is getting off to a great start, with three confirmed entries already.

To see more of this design and others from our office, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | Kit build Dix 470 Plywood Catamaran

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

Assembly of the prototype Dix 470 plywood kit by Exocetus Yachts in UK is progressing nicely. This is the second hull, with improvements added into the kit since assembly of the first hull. These photos were sent to me by Exocetus.

Exocetus is able to use more advanced methods than would be used by amateur builders but the kit is set up to allow those with more basic facilities to produce comparable quality. Being the developers of the kit, they have cut all of the components themselves on their own CNC equipment. They also have a large press that they use to join multiple sheets of plywood into long panels or other large components, like bulkheads, cabin soles etc.

Sheets being joined into long hull panels by means of a press.

This long outboard hull panel was pre-assembled into one large piece before installation.

Inboard hull side fitted, with horns for major bulkheads projecting into the bridgedeck area.

Bottom panels were fitted installed.

The side panels were glued into longer lengths for convenient assembly with the equipment available to Exocetus. For my own projects and more primitive methods, I prefer to assemble skin panels in single-sheet lengths. This leaves considerably more scope for adjustment during installation to remedy any possible errors that arise due to builder error. The bottom panels were installed in single-sheet lengths, to allow accurate fitment at the centreline joint.

In the last photo above, the jigsaw joint was aligned using a strip of plywood, wrapped in plastic tape, as a temporary butt-strap. A short screw into each lobe of the jigsaw pattern ensured accurate assembly and held the joint securely until the epoxy had set.

For more info on this and our other designs, visit http://dixdesign.com/ . For more info on the kit and options, go to http://exocetus.net/ .


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Boat Designs And Plans | Jims Didi Sport 15 Nears Completion

Boat Designs And Plans

Followers of this blog have read about the DS15 being built by Jim Foot in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. His project is nearly done and is looking great. He is into the rigging stages and should launch in a few weeks.

Foredeck and mast deck panels fitted.

Foredeck almost complete. Spinnaker chute on right of centreline.

Jims DS15 tries her dolly for size, showing her clean, modern hull.

DS15 shows her bottom and her performance potential.

Clean lines and powerful stern.

Mast and standing rigging, waiting for her sails.

Next instalment should be launching and sea trials in a few weeks. Until then, see more at http://dixdesign.com.

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Dinghy Boat Plans | Website Hackers

Dinghy Boat Plans

We had a hacker problem a few days ago, someone hacked our main website and implanted malicious code into all of our pages on Sunday. Two of our alert supporters were very prompt in notifying me about the problem so that I could fix it. Thank you Vincent Houle and Luca Lafranchi for helping us, instead of deleting our website from your bookmarks.

I replaced all of the bad files about 1pm Eastern time but I dont have a record of the time that the hacker posted on my site on Sunday. I also replaced my password with a much more complicated one for added security. The old one was quite complicated and way out of the ordinary, so I dont know how the hacker figured it out. I guess that it is possible but not likely that someone at the hosting company stole it. In an attempt to cover all bases I am moving my website to a server that I consider to have a better level of ethics and better security controls.

I hope that the transition will go smoothly, probably later today or tomorrow. If you do notice a break in our web and/or email service, please bear with us and try again in a few hours. If you continue to have problems then please post a comment below this post.

A major reason for my decision to change service providers is that many supporters in Turkey have not been able to view our website for a year or more. It is being blocked for some reason in Turkey and I have not been able to get this corrected. I hope that the change of server will reconnect us with our Turkish supporters.

Everyone should have good security software on their computers that have access to the Internet. Your security software should have caught the malicious code if you visited our website while the code was active. If you visited Sunday or Monday and your software didnt alert you to a virus then please do a virus check on your computer for the JS/Kryptic ANQ trojan, which can compromise your computer system.

Thanks for your support and for bearing with us through the change of servers.

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Boat Plans Australia | Didi 950 Progress Lifting Keel Option

Boat Plans Australia

Mike Vermeersch in Ravenna Ohio turned over his Didi 950 hull a couple of weeks ago and sent me a video of the process.  He turned the hull with the help of a few friends, using the spit roast method and a pair of engine hoists.

With the hull settled in her new cradle, Mike has settled into doing the epoxy fillets and coatings, ahead of starting on the interior joinery.

Epoxy coatings progressing on Mikes Didi 950

While builders have been making material progress with their builds, I have been doing the drawings that detail the lifting keel version for Fred Grimminck. Fred is building his Didi 950 in Queensland, Australia. He has also turned his hull in the past fortnight.

The lifting keel version uses a keel support box of identical footprint to that of the fixed keel version. The difference is that the keel has to slide through where the motor sits in the fixed keel boat, so the motor has relocated to below the front of the cockpit and has a saildrive. The keel support box for this version has the casing built into it, with a flange at the top edge for bolting the keel securely in the down position. In the raised position, the keel is at approximately the same level as the bottom of the rudders. Draft is 2.35m (79") with the keel down and 1.15m (39") with the keel up.

The keel is lifted by means of a tackle, with the tail led to a dedicated winch that is recessed into the galley counter. This is a simple system, without the waterproofing and complication issues of leading it to a cabin roof winch.

Accommodation of the lifting keel version of the Didi 950

This lifting keel offers Didi 950 owners the possibility of having a racer or a performance cruiser, with deep draft, that can live on much shallower moorings or can access shallow anchorages.

To see our full range of designs to a wide range of concepts and materials, please go to http://dixdesign.com/.

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Boat Plans Skiff | Cape May 25 Trailable Gaff Cutter

Boat Plans Skiff

Thirteen years ago Nick and Lindsay Voorhoeve commissioned the Cape Cutter 19 design, which they built in GRP in South Africa. They marketed it very successfully in UK for a few years before selling the company to Honnor Marine, who moved production to UK. It continues to be sold by them through Cape Yachts. We also sell plans for amateurs to build this design in plywood and it continues to be one of our popular small cruiser designs.

"Tiptoe", Cape Cutter 19 built by Ian Allen in New Zealand

Time showed that there was considerable demand for a slightly larger version of the same concept. That resulted in  a client in Australia commissioning the Cape Henry 21. To date we have sold plans for 130 plywood boats between the two designs, with a slight leaning toward the bigger boat.

Cumhur Regay built his Cape Henry 21 in Turkey

More recently I have been commissioned to design two more bigger sisters to the Cape Cutter 19 . The Cape Charles 32 has been waiting in the wings for a long time and will remain there awhile longer. The design is about half-finished and there are a few people waiting for it but there are other things getting in the way (life, sailing, surfing etc). The other one, the Cape May 25, is now complete and plans are ready for anyone who wants to build her.

The Cape May 25 is 253" long on deck and 240" on waterline, with beam of 98". Draft is 2ft with the centreplate up and 54" with the plate down. Lightship displacement is 4500lb. Her weight and beam mean that she is not really a trailer-sailer but is trailable with a large vehicle and will require special permits to be towed on public roads. Her forte will be the ability to sail into shallow areas that are inaccessible to most other sailboats of her size and to be taken home for the winter to save storage costs. Another strong point that she shares with her sisters is excellent speed, resulting from the long waterline, fine bow and generous sail area.

Cape May 25 Sail Plan

My client for this design is a tall person and needs extra long berths and ample sitting headroom, so the forward berths are 2.2m long. The cockpit is also long enough for him to sleep there on balmy nights.

Unlike the smaller sisters, the  Cape May 25 has guardrails. It also has wide cockpit coamings that are comfortable for sitting out, leaning against the guardrails.

Construction is lapstrake plywood, over stringers and permanent bulkheads. This is more challenging than basic stitch & glue construction but it does result in a gorgeous boat that really shows off the builders achievement. The smaller sisters have shown that these boats can be successfully built by amateurs with reasonable but not expert woodworking skills.

To see our full range of designs, go to http://dixdesign.com/priceabr.htm.

To see our range of plywood designs, go to http://dixdesign.com/priceply.htm.

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Boat Plans Pdf | Beautiful Shearwater 45 Available

Boat Plans Pdf

The Shearwaters are boats of which I feel proud. They are very pretty, they are capable in all weather conditions and they are fast. The Shearwater 39 has an enviable reputation as one of the most seaworthy designs ever to come out of South Africa, a country that is known to have some of the most severe sailing waters in the world. These boats turn heads wherever they go, partly because they are so pretty and partly because they sail past many boats that look faster.

Shearwater 39 "Shoestring III" on launch day.

The Shearwater 45 grew naturally out of the reputation that was earned by the 39 and was developed out of the moulds of the 39. It has more length with no freeboard increase and with very little extra beam. The resulting boat is very sleek and gracious to look at and it gained a surprising boost of speed that allows it to outsail most boats of equal size and many that are up to 25% longer. In gaining that speed it has lost nothing of the seaworthy characteristics of the smaller sister. What it did gain is greater responsiveness and fingertip steering due to the change from a semi-balanced transom-hung rudder to a balanced spade rudder.

Shearwater 45 sailing on Chesapeake Bay.

We have good examples of both of these designs available on our brokerage pages. The most recent to come available is the gorgeous 45 "Maggy May". She is lying in the Caribbean and is fully equipped, maintained in top condition and ready to cruise to anywhere that you care to go. She is only being sold due to serious illness of the owner. To view "Maggy May" and the other Shearwaters that we have listed, go to http://dixdesign.com/brokerdd.htm.

Please visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/.

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Wood Boat Plans And Kits | Cape Cutter 19 Launch in Cape Town

Wood Boat Plans And Kits

Nick Kulenkampff, of Cape Town, bought plans from us in November 2013 for the Cape Cutter 19, to be built in lapstrake plywood. I only received one question from him and that was on choice of plywood for the build. A few days ago I received another email from him, with launch photos attached. He launched his boat, named "Mimi", at Royal Cape Yacht Club, in February.

In his email, Nick said "thank you for a beautiful design and also for a set of plans that were spot on. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process." From the photos it appears that he made a pretty good job of the build, which was also quicker than most at about 15 months.

This boat is available in GRP from Cape Cutter Yachts in UK. It is the smaller sister to our popular Cape Henry 21 design.

Here are some of Nicks build photos, with explanations

Making bulkheads. These are cut from full-size Mylar patterns, included in the plans.

Transom, laminated from multiple layers of plywood.

Bulkheads and transom set up on building stocks.

Bottom skin going on. Plenty of clamps needed.

Bilge panel gong on. Keel deadwood and wood bilge keels fitted. This bilge keel is to protect the hull when aground, serving purely as a support to keep the hull skin clear of pebbles.

Forward bottom panel. Fitting this panel is the most difficult part of the build, due to the amount of twist in the panel. The twist is what forms the fine bow for good performance.

Hull epoxy-coated, primed and ready for paint.

Building the cockpit. Nicks work is very neat.

Interior, looking forward, built  before fitting the deck.

Interior, looking aft. Painting in progress.

Deck stringers glued into pre-cut slots

Painted and brightwork being done. Almost ready to get wet.

This view shows why these little boats are so quick. That fine bow works vvery well.

Launch day. The yellow boat below the bow is "Black Cat", the Didi 38 that I built.

Afloat and waiting for her rig to be set up.

Thank you, Nick, for the set of photos. She looks good and I am sure you will have many good times sailing her.

To see more of this and out other designs, visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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