Boat Plans Arch Davis | Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival Reminder

Boat Plans Arch Davis

I wrote recently about the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Tonsend, WA. That happens next weekend, from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September. This is the biggest wooden boat event in the world and is in its 38th year. It comprises 300 boats on display on land or in the water, 120 presentations on a wide range of subjects related to building, owning and looking after wooden boats, as well as dozens of exhibitors showing the products that you need for your boat.

My own presentation will be on the subject of "Plywood Boatbuilding Methods" and will be in the Discovery Room of the NorthWest Maritime Center building. It will be the first session of the day, from 10h45 to 11h45.

A few owners or builders of my boats have said that they will be there to attend my talk, which I will illustrate with PowerPoint. I will discuss the various methods for building plywood boats with which I am experienced, as well as plywood sheet jointing methods and plywood kits. If there is time I will also answer whatever questions about plywood boatbuilding that you may care to ask.

If you cant make it to my session but will be at the Festival later, I will be there for the duration and available to meet when I am not involved with something or someone else. David Blessing will have his Didi Mini "Segue" on display and will be able to contact me so that we can arrange a meeting.

I look forward to this great event as a wonderful opportunity to meet with other lovers of wooden boats.

To see our range of wooden and other boat designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Wooden Boat Plans Australia | Howdy Bailey Boatbuilder with a Difference

Wooden Boat Plans Australia

Howdy Bailey is a long-time friend, from long before we moved to USA. Howdy had bought plans from me for the Pratique 35 and we visited him in Norfolk, Virginia, on our first trip to USA in 1983. I was a young designer, not yet through with my studies at Westlawn School of Yacht Design (now named Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology) and was totally unknown. Yet, based solely on the design that he had bought from me and a few hours chatting over dinner, Howdy Bailey had the confidence in me to commission the design of a 64ft charter yacht that was to be built for a consortium in Norfolk. That design is the Dix 64 and the boat was launched and went into the St Thomas charter trade as "Rising Sun".

Dix 64 "Rising Sun" shows off her exquisite finish.Howdy Bailey in the red shirt.

"Rising Sun" was beautifully built in steel, finished in flag blue Awlgrip that displayed her blemish-free surfaces to perfection. Rigged as a staysail schooner for ease of handling by a small crew, she surprised all who sailed on her with her speed under sail and characteristics.

Over the years and on opposite sides of the Atlantic, Howdy Bailey and I maintained a lasting friendship and worked together on many projects. They included the Echo 38 cruising tug "Echo" and the Little Creek 47 "Flutterby", now owned by Howdys son Dylan Bailey.

"Echo" at home on a backwater of Chesapeake Bay.

Little Creek 47 "Flutterby" waiting to start a Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

Howdy was instrumental also in me receiving the commission to design "Sabbatical II" as a custom design for a local businessman and friend. Howdy and his very capable crew turned her into a work of art, with beautiful detailing of a complicated boat.

The ketch-rigged "Sabbatical II" sailing in sloop configuration.

I have always thought of "Howdy" as a nickname, maybe short for Howard or some other name. Not so long ago I asked him what his real name is and he replied "Howdy". He was named Howdy at birth. Howdys interesting name carries through to him being one of the most interesting people that I have had the pleasure of knowing in the boating industry. He no longer builds boats and instead works in the marine service industry. He and his small crew take on service work of all types, from rebuilding joinery to rerigging and new plumbing or mechanicals. Whatever you need done to bring your boat back to pristine condition, Howdy and his guys can do it. Custom metalwork is their specialty, able to produce aluminium and stainless items to a very high standard. They are currently completing the keel/engine support structure in steel for the Didi 950 being built in Ohio.

Howdy also has great community spirit. He introduced me to some surfing friends a year or two after we arrived in Virginia Beach and I joined their very informal Iguana Surf Club. Every year this club hosts a fun day on the beach as a fundraiser for the Norfolk-based Childrens Hospital of the Kings Daughters, with surf contest, fun events and a big party afterwards. The past few years Howdy Bailey has really come through with large amounts of cash that has been donated by his customers and local businesses toward the fundraiser. Howdy has a big heart.

Ever since we met, he has done business from various buildings near to Cobbs Marina at Little Creek, an inlet off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. It was always an interesting place to visit, with all kinds of fascinating bits and pieces hung on the walls or suspended from the roof. Howdy is a collector, not of "stuff" but of "interesting stuff". His workshop just wasnt big enough to display all of his eclectic collection.

City codes have now forced a relocation and Howdy Bailey Yacht Services has moved into a larger shop at 7527 Avenue J, Norfolk. This has much more open space and it has been put to good use to show off Howdys collection of toys, bicycles, boats, signs, classic cars, old tools and a host of other things. The heavy items are on the floor and lighter items are hanging from the roof or along the walls. Even if you have no interest in boats or quality metalwork, Howdy Bailey Yacht Services is an interesting place to visit.

Main entrance to Howdy Bailey Yacht Services

Howdy in red shirt and Larry Foster, long-time colleague.

View of the shop from the front entrance.

Lots to look at, in every direction.

Howdy and I go back a long way and I look forward to continuing that way for many years to come. If you have some boat work that needs doing by competent people, visit Howdys shop or call him on 757-480-0058.

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

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Boat Building Plans And Kits | Paper Jet Designed for Junior Sailors

Boat Building Plans And Kits

I designed the Paper Jet primarily to be a training boat for teenagers. The thought to design such a boat started when I was on sailing committees in South Africa. One of the subjects most often discussed was how to keep the juniors in sailing. They are the future of sailing, which is experiencing a gradual ageing of the participants. If we cant keep the youth interested in boats and sailing then they will wander off into more exciting/interesting activities, to the detriment of sailing as a whole.

The problem as I see it is a combination of factors, some inter-connected. There are no-doubt other factors but these are the ones that are apparent to me.

1. Boats that are pushed by clubs and national bodies but are uninspiring to young sailors, in terms of performance and aesthetics. Most of these boats were advanced designs when first developed but are now very dated and unexciting by modern standards.
2. The high cost of acquiring and maintaining competitive boats in the Olympic program. These boats are one-design to reduce costs and maintain level competition. However, they are built to very close tolerances and with top grade hardware, sails, rigs, foils etc, all of which cost a bundle of money when new. Much of that cost is repetitive as well, due to regular replacement to stay competitive. Most families cannot make this level of financial commitment, so the boats become progressively less competitive and the sailors lose interest.
3. The high cost of upgrading performance/excitement/challenge to move into the next class up the ladder of the Olympic track. The need to sell the older boat, probably at a loss, then buy a competitive new boat that would be faster but not necessarily much more exciting, makes this an expensive process.
4. Too much emphasis on winning and too little on getting enjoyment out of boats. This has resulted in very structured sailing activities for the juniors. They do not have enough freedom to use their boats for fun instead of being shepherded by adults in sail-training programs that are designed only to improve racing skills, not to engender a love of boats and boating. Fifty years ago we had much more freedom to sail in the manner that we wanted. In doing that we raced informally (two boats near to each other are always racing), learned how to get the most speed from our boats, how to capsize them, how to right them, how to sail them on the limits of the boats ability and beyond our own limits, which served to push our own limits to the next level. We went onto the lake with only the need to be home for dinner and to take total responsibility for ourselves and our boats until we returned. In the process we developed instinctive sailing abilities that can come only from doing, not from being taught theory or chased around a race course by instructors. There were no rescue boats on duty on weekdays, so we had to learn how to rescue ourselves and our buddies. We became totally self-sufficient, self-reliant and confident in our own abilities. We learned to take responsibility for our own actions in a way that is missing from much of modern society. We also learned to love our boats and sailing so intensely that most of the guys in my group moved on to careers in the boating industry.
5. Too much emphasis on windward-leeward racing. This may be good for emphasising the need for improving technique in slow boats but it produces the most boring type of sailing imaginable, either to participate or to watch. The most fun and exciting experience of sailing happens on reaching courses and the sailing establishment seems to have colluded to remove this from the racing.

What has all this to do with the Paper Jet? The concept of this boat developed in my mind and then in my computer, with these factors in my mind. I was developing a boat to solve some of those problems. No boat can fix everything that is wrong in junior sailing but I wanted to draw a boat that would have the ability to at least help with the problems. It produced a boat with the following characteristics.

1. Very modern and exciting to look at, it looks fast even when standing still. Wherever I take it, people come to admire it and talk about it. Juniors love the aesthetics of this very sexy-looking boat.
2. It can morph from a very basic free-standing una rig for single-handing with minimal strings to pull and understand, through a conventional sloop rig for double-handed sailing with a few more strings, to a powered-up double-handed skiff with fathead mainsail, asymmetrical spinnaker and trapeze, simply by adding or removing components from the modular rig.
3. This happens without changing boats and at moderate cost. One family can sail the same boat in different formats to suit the people who are sailing it. Or the same crew can vary the power of the rig and speed of the boat to suit wind, water and personal mood, from relaxed unpressured cruising through to very challenging maxed-out adrenaline-producing low-flying. It can morph from one rig to another in minutes, then back again.
4. Planing high-performance hull with low drag at all speeds. It accelerates smoothly, with no bow-wave hump to overcome in order to plane at high speed. This means that it can plane in moderate breezes even with the smallest rig.
5. Proportioned for teenagers rather than adults, so that juniors can potentially get more performance from the boat than their larger and heavier parents.
6. Hull and deck weight of under 45kg (100lb), easily manhandled by young crew.
7. Able to be built by amateurs with basic woodworking skills to reduce the cost of getting afloat.
8. Traditional rig details to reduce expensive purchased hardware.

Paper Jet rigs, deck plan & cockpit section. Click to enlarge.

The drawing above shows the overall concept of the Paper Jet. In the plan view, you can see that it has two mast positions, linked by a plywood X-structure that spreads the rig loads into the hull and holds the jib sheet fairleads. The una rig at right has the mast free-standing in the forward mast position, which rakes it aft for good helm balance. The sloop rig at centre has the same mast moved to the upright aft mast position, with only the standing rigging and jib added. The skiff rig at left keeps all of the components of the sloop rig except for the removable topmast (there is a socket with locating bolt at the hounds) and mainsail, which are replaced by a taller topmast, fathead mainsail and spinnaker gear. The retracting bowsprit is linked to the spinnaker halliard so that one line hoists the asymmetrical and pushes out the bowsprit. The other end of the same line retrieves the spinnaker and pulls in the bowsprit.

The cockpit section shows that this boat has a narrow waterline relative to overall beam. That produces a boat that is very responsive and needs fast reactions and agility. It is not a boat for beginners, who should first learn to sail on a Sunfish or other less challenging boat. After that they will have the skills needed to sail this boat with the una rig then progress to the other versions.

Dudley single-handing with skiff rig. Billy Black photo.

The wooden mast that I designed for it is sealed and buoyant. If capsized it lies on its side instead of turning turtle. Most dinghies that lie on their side will blow away from the crew in strong winds if they lose contact with the boat. They cant catch up with the boat when swimming in a lifejacket. Not so with the Paper Jet, which stays right where it capsizes, with the immersed wing serving as a sea-anchor.

Andre Siebert and daughter with sloop rig, saluting the club commodore during the opening cruise.

Dan Siegal sailing with the una rig at Mystic Seaport. Billy Black photo.

Righting from a capsize is not difficult, using the righting lines under the wings. Hanging from the righting line and pushing with feet against the immersed bottom of the hull pulls it upright, generally without a need to get onto the daggerboard.

Two Paper Jets capsized. It lies and waits to be rerighted. Billy Black photo.

The  Paper Jet is well-suited to club use, with boats able to be built by amateur or professional builders, working from plans (supplied with full-size patterns of all plywood components) or from pre-cut plywood kits available from suppliers in various countries (Click for suppliers). That makes it suitable also for club, school and community woodworking projects to build up local fleets.

Two Paper Jets are a compact load on a shared trailer.

I have no aspirations for the  Paper Jet to become an Olympic class. What it can be is an affordable, exciting and versatile part of the training route toward much more costly skiffs like the 49er. For those who dont have aspirations to Olympic skiff sailing, the Paper Jet can be all that they need.

Dudley single-handing with asymmetrical. Dave Baxter photo.

Although intended for junior sailors, this boat has attracted a different type of sailor. It has earned a following of men in their 30s and 40s, sailing both crewed and single-handed. At time of writing, we have sold plans and/or kits for this design to builders in 18 countries, with numbers rising in North America and Europe.

To see our full range of designs, please visit our main website at http://dixdesign.com/.

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