Boat Plans Bolger | 2014 Calendar of Our Designs

Boat Plans Bolger

Our 2014 calendar is now at the printers and we will have the first stocks ready for shipping in a couple of weeks. Get your orders in and we will ship as soon as they come in, well in time for you to use as Christmas gifts or to hang on your wall come January 1st. Order here.

We have a nice selection of photos again this year. Here are the cover photo and a few months as samples of what it contains.

Cover of our 2014 Calendar

January

May

July

September

Thank you to all who have allowed us to use your photos. For other builders who are not featured, we have already started to collect photos for our 2015 calender. This is a good opportunity to show off what you have achieved, so please send them to me by email.

We have changed suppliers this year, in the interests of keeping the price reasonable. The supplier that we used in the past has hiked their prices way up and would have necessitated a considerable increase. With the new supplier we can hold the price at the same level as the past two years.

To see our range of boat designs, please go to http://dixdesign.com/ .

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Boat Plans Skiff | BOW SPRITS and Yachting PENIS envy

Boat Plans Skiff

 

 Anchored in Antigua this past week has been great to see all the new Yachts and old favorites.

Going to shore in the dinghy I spotted a great big huge blue masking taped penis on the stern of the motor yacht " NERO". Never got the story behind this as yet but I wanted to share it with you all plus some other favorites.

I hope you can see it . Its just under the sheer cove stripe.

A nice phallus sprit 

A new schooner with a modern one

Your basic one

Oh... Its So big.

Modern one

Heres one coming out of the deck.

Id show you a picture of Hogfish Maximuss bow sprit but its so small compared to these I will refrain for now. Too embarrassing.

 Oh  , Ok...here it is. Dont laugh !

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Kayak Boat Plans | Black Cat on the Ocean Blue

Kayak Boat Plans

I am sure that most of my readers are well aware of our adventures on the prototype Didi 38 "Black Cat" in the Cape to Rio Race in January 2014. This is the boat that I built in my back garden in Hout Bay, South Africa and launched nearly 20 years ago. She was the experiment in boat construction that is the basis for all of my radius chine plywood designs, with many hundreds now on the water or in build around the world.

"Black Cat" is once again out on the wide blue South Atlantic Ocean. She is participating in the 1700 mile Governors Cup Race from Simonstown, South Africa, to St Helena, the remote island in the middle of the South Atlantic. Much as I would like to have been there, I was unable to join the crew for this race but they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it without my interference. They have led the monohull fleet both on handicap and on the water from the first position report and remain up there. Only the trimaran "Banjo" leads them.

"Black Cat" at start of Governors Cup 2014. Dave Mabin photo

The crew, led by Dave Immelman, has been having great sailing, with three consecutive days of 200+ mile runs in strong downwind trade conditions. Now they are working their way through the light winds of a high pressure system at lower speed but maintaining their lead. Dave is the resident skipper on "Black Cat" and was my navigator for the Cape to Rio Race 2014.

We wish Dave and his crew continued good sailing and that they can find their way quickly through the high to more good breezes.

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Boat Plans Building | Google and third world Internet

Boat Plans Building

I am currently in Antigua in the leeward islands. They have very slow internet here. All the islands claim to have the best in the world but in reality I believe they just lie like so much of the hype in the world. I am doing all my blog stuff from an IPad. I get up at daybreak and try and post my stuff in the early mornings when no one is online. This last post about the Hogfish was done this way but its summer here and I feel the digicel and other companys just go to 1/4 power. So I can now see that I will have to redo my pictures again. Will do tonight.

I am also with my daughter and friends helps setting up a new blog site on Wordpress that I hope will be better than this site. 

Talk soon....

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Boat Plans Pdf | Stability with Water Ballast

Boat Plans Pdf

A potential builder of the Didi 950 asked me a question about stability with water ballast. He could not find an explanation on the Internet describing the effects of water ballast on a boat when capsized, so here it is.

After looking at the stability curve, he was concerned that the stability curve with water ballast to windward, the normal position for sailing in strong winds, has a very large area of negative stability. He wanted to know how that affects the time that the boat will take to right itself if capsized. This is a natural question following the amount of discussion that has been happening after our recent capsize in the Didi 38 "Black Cat" and the very rapid manner in which she returned to upright.

Shown below is the stability graph of the Didi 950 in fully loaded condition; click on the diagram to enlarge it. This is the condition of lowest stability due to the inclusion of crew, stores, liquids and many other weights that are above the centre of gravity (CG) of the boat. There are three curves shown. When looking at the graph, consider that the area enclosed by each curve above the horizontal 0 line is a measure of the energy that is required to take the boat from upright to the point of vanishing stability (AVS) where the curve crosses the 0 line. Until the AVS is reached, the boat will return to upright if no additional heeling force is applied to it.  Beyond the AVS the boat will continue to full capsize unless there is another force being applied that will return it to the positive side of the AVS.

The green curve is with ballast tanks empty, so akin to sailing a boat that has no water ballast. This curve is very similar in form to that of "Black Cat", with the area enclosed by the curve above the 0 line many times greater than the area enclosed by the curve below the 0 line. She would right herself very quickly with no water ballast. The red curve is with the windward ballast tanks filled, good for powering to windward or power-reaching in strong conditions. The blue curve is with the leeward ballast tanks filled. One would not sail her like this but it is a situation that could result from an accidental gybe in strong winds.

Didi 950 Stability Graph. Click to enlarge.

With no wind or waves and the ballast tanks on one side filled, the boat will not rest upright. It will heel over until it stabilises at a heel angle that places the CG vertically in line with the centre of buoyancy (CB). That will be the nearest crossing of the curve with the 0 line, which is at 5 degrees in this case, seen on the blue curve. Add some wind to bring the boat to 0 degrees heel and the righting moment that is working is the point where the red curve hits the left edge of the graph. Without water ballast the boat must heel to 6 degrees to reach the same righting moment. That is where the power benefit is coming from with water ballast, the boat will sail more upright than with empty tanks, in the same wind strength.

Note that all three curves are closely bunched when the boat is heeled 90 degrees. This is a knock-down situation, probably from losing control when driving hard downwind under spinnaker. The mast is horizontal but not in the water. This bunching of the curves at 90 degrees is because of the position of the ballast tanks in this design, low in the boat fairly close to the vertical CG. There would be a bigger spread if the tanks were located high up under the deck.

The red curve shows the benefit of increased righting moment when the windward tank is filled. There is considerably greater gain in stability shown by the red curve than lost stability, shown by the blue curve, when ballast is on the wrong side.

All three curves show that the wind alone cant capsize the boat. When the mast hits the water there is still considerable righting moment available for all three situations. If the boat is in large waves and hit by a big one while knocked flat, the added energy from the wave can capsize the boat in all three situations. 

It seems counter-intuitive but the condition most likely to invert the boat under wave action after a knock-down is with the water ballast to windward (red), i.e. the condition in which the boat will be sailed in strong winds. This is because after the water ballast passes beyond the point where it is vertically above the overall CG of the boat that extra weight is on the wrong side of the CG and is helping to capsize the boat rather than to bring it back to upright. It pulls the red curve below the green curve and reduces the AVS from 133 degrees to 122 degrees. 

Overall it takes more energy to capsize the boat from upright with water ballast than without, evaluated by comparing the area enclosed by the red curve with the area enclosed by the green curve. When the area enclosed by the blue curve is compared with the green curve, there is very little difference. It will take a similar amount of energy to capsize the boat without water ballast and with water ballast on the wrong side, when going from upright. Ironically, the wrong side has the greatest amount of reserve stability after a knock-down and has the greatest angle of AVS, so it is the condition least likely to capsize after a knock-down.

Back to our capsizing boat. Once past 122 degrees it is into a big range of negative stability that shows as the area enclosed by the red curve below the 0 line, taking it all the way to 180 degrees, i.e. totally upside-down. But see that the curve does not return to 0 at 180 degrees, which means that it is unstable at that angle. Same as happens when the boat is upright, the water ballast off to one side prevents the boat from resting at the 180 degree position. It has to rotate to where the CG is vertically aligned with the inverted CB. That is at the point where the curve crosses the 0 line. If the red curve is extended to the zero line it will be to the same angle that the blue curve crosses,  i.e. 160 degrees.
 

There is no windward or leeward when the boat is upside-down, the sails are under water. The boat is stable in the 160 degree position, so leaning 20 degrees to one side of upside-down. It needs to get past the nearest zero crossing to come back to upright. The boat doesnt care which way it goes. It needs a lot of energy to go back the way that it came along the red curve but very little energy to get to the 140 degree AVS crossing of the blue curve. With the motion from just a small wave it will continue past that 140 degree point. Once that point is passed, the righting moment of the blue curve takes control and will return her to upright. If the rig is still standing then the sails will fill and she will be back into the stability situation shown by the red curve. She has capsized along the red curve and righted herself along the blue curve.

In essence, it will take a lot less energy for the boat to right itself with water ballast than without, so she should right herself more quickly with the water ballast. The difference is that without water ballast she can go either way from inverted to upright but with water ballast she has to go full circle.

To visit our website, go to http://dixdesign.com/

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Wooden Boat Plans And Kits | Ships log

Wooden Boat Plans And Kits

Boat position: N38* 57 46.03"  W84* 14 45.13"

Nautical miles traveled: .0006583

Engine hours: 0

Captains state of mind: Hmm?

Whats this all about you ask? The reason there is a small percentage of nautical miles traveled is because the boat moved. The reason the boat moved is because its sitting on the axles that will move her to THE LAUNCH SITE. The reason I moved the boat is because I could.

The move of the boat represented about two feet forward, then two feet back. It was a pretty easy thing to with a little nudge from my skid loader providing the power.

Getting the boat on the axles was a pretty straight forward job that consumed some hours. The first thing I did was reinforce the bow section of the building cradle. Since the aft section of the boat was getting lifted the highest, I decided to jack up this end first, and then do the bow. I was afraid the lifting cradle on the bow would not handle the shifting, forward push of the load, so I added some bracing to the cradle. The next step was to build cribbing using concrete blocks on the port and starboard side of the boat to catch it if something bad happened. I knew it would not twist off of the jack since it was supported by the bow cradle, but if the bow cradle failed, and it dropped down on to the cribbing I had under the bow, it could roll off of the jack, hence the cribbing on the sides.  I used a 30 ton bottle jack under the keel and a frame member to jack the boat up. I also placed cribbing along side the jack in case the jack failed.

The boat  went up off of the jack stands smoothly, and without any hiccups.  I was pretty pumped to see it separate from the building cradle, and slow was the speed I chose to operate at. I would lift if a couple inches, then stop and take a walk around to see how it was behaving on the bow building cradle. Once it was high enough, I would add some wood blocks to the temporary side cribbing to keep the distance to the hull close, then lift it some more. I guess it took about an hour and a half to lift it the 14" I needed to get the axle under the keel. Most of the time was me checking things out and going outside the barn to chain saw more wood blocking as she got higher.

Being able to jack this boat up from one point gives some testament to how stout shes built.  

I had the axle under the boat before I started to lift her, so once she was high enough, I rolled the axle to the final position the squared the axle to the hull. Since I still had the cradle strong back in place, and since the hull was built square to the strong back, I just measured off of the strong back and positioned the axle off of that. Because the rear axle is so wide, the cradle strong back prevented me from  putting two of the four wheels on the axle while the strong back was in place. Once the axle was in position, I torch cut some of the strong back away, and put the two outer wheels on the axles. With all four wheels on the axle, I lowered the hull on to axle. I was amazed at how much the axle started to deflect, but due to me reinforcing the tube, the deflection was minimal. Once the load was fully on the axle, I lightened the load a bit and fabricated the stanchions that will prevent the boat from tipping off the axle. To pad the hull from the stanchions, I cut up pieces of rubber mud flaps and put them between the hull and the stanchion pads. Once the stanchions were in place, I lowered the hull on the axle and moved my operation forward.

Placing the hull down on the forward axle was much easier and went pretty quick. I just had to jack the hull off of the forward cradle, cut the cradle and strong back away, then roll the steering axle in place. I took a few measurements, and made sure the steering axle was parallel to the rear axle, placed some two inch blocks on the I beam cross members I had made for the steering axle, and lowered the hull on to the steering axle. The only hiccup I had doing this was when I was putting the hull on blocks so I could move the jack, two of the concrete blocks broke, and I had to replace them. The loud popping of the block made me jump a bit, but it worked out OK. As I placed the full load of the hull on to the steering axle, I quickly realized the tires are not beefy enough. If I tried to haul the boat with those tires and as much as the tires have bulged, the tires would quickly heat up and blow out. A blow out would be sure to happen even at the slow speed Im going to be traveling at. I kept more of the load on the keel blocks, and a call to my tire guy assured me I could replace the 10 ply tire with some larger 24 ply tires that would make the trip. Ill deal with replacing the tires in a week or so.

The hull is now about 18" out of level so very little work will be done up there until she gets to THE LAUNCH SITE. There are a few little jobs I need to get finished before I haul her out of her nice cozy barn, but my main focus will be  getting the super structure ready to install. Now that shes on the axles, I measured her down the road height at 14 5". This height is lower than I had originally thought it would be, and thats a good thing as wires should be of little issue. I will clear the highway overpass by more than a foot and a half, so for right now all is good.

Now that the hull is on the axles, and I have the cradle removed from the shop, I am moving on with getting the super structure put together. The panels are already built, and now that I have the cradle steel available to me, Ill put together a gantry and get on with some more building. The building part of this type of project is fun, with all the devil in the details. Im not going to make any promises, but this next part of the build should go pretty fast.

Cheers,

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Boat Plans And Kits | Crap !!!!

Boat Plans And Kits

They did not post clear here at all. Cannot figure this out as it seemed very clear... so if you want to see this stuff it is very clear on my facebook photo page under ISO photos. This account is open to the public so you should have no trouble.

  Sorry

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Dinghy Boat Plans | More on Stability with Water Ballast

Dinghy Boat Plans

John Gilbert asked a question in response to my recent post, Stability with Water Ballast.

I do not get why the red and blue curves do not meet up at 180 degrees. Inverted the boat has no windward side as you point out, so you have water ballast on one side and none on the other side. As you have drawn the curves you have powerful stability in the  inverted position with the water on one side (red), but actually a righting moment if you have water on the other side(blue). What is the difference?

To help with understanding this I thought it better to write a new post that expands on the dynamics of stability than to try to answer it in the comments section after that post.

This will be more easily understood by seeing a diagram showing the stability graph expanded through a full 360 degrees rather than all conditions overlaid on top of each other in a 0-180 degree range. This is exactly the same stability info for the Didi 950 as shown in the graph of my earlier post but shown in a different manner.

Diagram of Stability through 360 Degrees

I will start with the green curve. This shows the stability without water ballast. The centre of gravity (CG) is on centreline. The stability curve intersects with the horizontal grid line at 0 degrees heel and increases identically both to left and right of the 0 degree line, so the boat will float without any heel to either side when right way up. The boat will stay that way in the absence of any wind, wave action or crew movement on the boat.

Follow the green curve until it comes down past 130 degrees to again intersect with the horizontal line at the Angle of Vanishing Stability (AVS). Then it enters a range of negative stability where it will proceed toward upside-down. At 170 degrees it crosses to above the horizontal line again. This indicates that the superstructure volume is trying to turn it back upright and doesnt want the boat to lie totally inverted. It will easily flop back and forth between the 170 and 190 degree points. The boat can return to upright along either green curve.

This all depends on a totally waterproof superstructure, of course. In practice water is likely to enter the boat at a rate that depends on what is open at the time, which will affect the inverted stability. 

Moving on to the stability with water ballast, in my earlier post I said that the boat will capsize along the red curve and recover along the blue curve. I explained the relationship between the two curves but that relationship is not easy to visualise if only seen across the 180 degree range.

In the diagram above you can see that the red and blue curves only meet in two places and both are on the horizontal line. These are the two points at which the boat will rest when there are no outside influences from wind, waves or crew movement.

The boat cannot rest totally upright nor totally upside-down because the weight of the water to one side is heeling it toward that side. It will rest at approximately -5 degrees heel instead of upright and at 200 degrees instead of upside-down when inverted.

Bearing in mind that the areas of the curves below the horizontal line indicate how much energy it needs for the boat to get past the AVS points so that it can right itself when in that 200 degree situation, it is now easy to see that it will take a large amount of wave energy to get past the AVS of the red curve but a very small amount of wave action to get past the AVS of the blue curve.

This graphic shows that if a water ballasted boat capsizes it will do so along the red curve but it is very unlikely to return along that same path, nor is it likely to stay capsized for long. Once past the AVS of the red curve the negative stability will push it to 20 degrees past upside-down. After that the blue curve will take over and almost guarantee that the boat returns to right-way-up pronto.

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | Update on Didi Sport 15 and Didi 950

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

I have recently added two new radius chine plywood designs to our range and wrote about them on this blog. Here are updates on both boats.

Yesterday I visited the prototype of the Didi Sport 15 (DS15) that is being built by Hunter Gall in Virginia Beach. I hadnt seen it in the flesh for a few weeks and wanted to see how the deck is looking as it comes together. Hunter is doing a really nice job of his project, working slowly but meticulously.

His boat, "Scallywag", is looking very pretty. He stained the hull surfaces blue and the deck surfaces red before doing the epoxy coatings and these colours will be highlighted by areas of clear-finished timber. It all entailed a tremendous amount of extra work to get it right than if he had painted it in the normal way. The final result is very attractive and she will be an eye-catcher when complete. Hunter can be pleased with the overall results.

The deck configuration that I designed is unusual, with a raised mast deck and wave-breaker above a flat foredeck and the open self-draining cockpit. It gives a decidedly retro image to the deck, over the thoroughly modern hull. It reminds me somewhat of the Lightweight Australian Sharpies that my Dad sailed in South Africa when I was a child. That makes it  somehow fitting that Hunter Gall is Australian, I am South African and we have ended up working together on this project in USA.

Hunter Galls DS15 project nearing completion

Other news on the DS15 is that work will start in the next few weeks on moulds to build a composite version in Europe. I will release more information about it after I return from the Cape to Rio Race, by which time the builder may be ready to start receiving enquiries.

The other boat was the Didi 950, for which the prototype kit has been cut and will be delivered to the builder in the next week or two. It appears that this is going to be a popular design because we have sold plan packages for another three boats since announcing the design.

Didi 950, bigger sister to the DS15

 One of those boats will result in a variation on the design, with a lifting keel. A lifting keel was part of the original concept for the builder of the prototype but he decided in the end on the simplicity of a fixed keel. The lifting keel proved to be a very viable option, using the same basic keel support arrangement as the fixed keel with no structural redesign. The major difference will be moving the motor aft to a position under the companionway, driving a saildrive rather than a shaft. This is to make room for the lifting keel to rise through the galley central locker unit.

The prototype of this design is to be built in Ohio, USA. The others that have been ordered will be built in Australia, Latvia and Greece. There is interest from other countries as well.

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

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Boat Plans Bartender | The Governor the Saint the Cat the Cup

Boat Plans Bartender

The 2014 Governors Cup Race from Simonstown, South Africa, to the South Atlantic island of St Helena, is all done and wrapped up. The results have all been sorted and the crew of the Didi 38 "Black Cat" have been presented with the magnificent glass floating trophy.

Sophie Pages, owner Adrian Pearson, Cathleen Hughes, skipper David Immelman & Shaun Cooper

The race started out in strong conditions that stayed with the fleet for much of the race, then disappeared. In battling through the extensive calms, most of the racing division boats chose to use their motors and defaulted into the cruising division, inflating the cruising fleet and decimating the racing fleet. Those who stuck to the ideals of yacht racing under wind power alone are to be congratulated for staying there to the end. In doing this, "Black Cat" and her crew won both line honours and on handicap.

For those who wonder where this place is, St Helena is the island to which Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled in 1815 after being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. He was interred there in a tiny home until his death in 1821. The island is home to a small population of "Saints" under a governor who answers to the government in Great Britain.

The Governors Cup Race occurs each year in the Southern summer, except for years when there is a Cape to Rio Race. It starts in late December and finishes early January, after crossing 1720 miles of open ocean. In past years boats have been able to ship back to South Africa on the RMS St Helena, a combined cargo and passenger vessel that has been the major physical connection between the island and the outside world in the past. Now the island has an airport that is nearing completion and which will soon be operational.

RMS St Helena offloading cargo.

The RMS St Helena service will be cut back considerably now and shipping of boats back to Cape Town may not be possible. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on entries for the Governors Cup Race in the future.

This is a worthy race to enter if cruising around the world and passing through Cape Town. Also for kicking off a long distance or world cruise with South Africa as departure. From St Helena, the next stop of the trans-Atlantic leg would likely be the island of Ascension, another weeks sailing NW of St Helena, then on to Fernando de Noronha and mainland Brazil.

I have not yet visited St Helena but it is high on my bucket list.

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Boat Plans Bruce Roberts | Americas Cup Value to Sailing

Boat Plans Bruce Roberts

I have recently been quite active on the LinkedIn forums about Americas Cup. It is not in my nature to participate in forums because I have found that it is all too easy to get drawn in and become embroiled, fending off attacks by Internet trolls whose great ambition in life is to be destructive to others. LinkedIn is a more closed community and less apt to show this nastiness and aggression. If I feel strongly enough about an issue then I will have my say and keep up with the rest of the discussion.

Just such a discussion came out of my last blog entry, about Race 13 exceeding the time limit. You can read that entry by scrolling down the page or go to the blog archive on the left of this blog. The response was that races should not have time limits and should just continue until there is a winner. It referenced baseball as a comparison. Discussion then progressed to the format that is being used for this current edition of Americas Cup, AC34. Some of my posts have been well received and it was suggested that one post in particular should be read by a wider audience.

I responded to the following question. I dont want to name the poster, I dont have his permission.

"So I am going to go back to my question on the cup. Forty minutes time limit for an Americas Cup race? I would like to see the last race ground out for say 2 hours of excitement vs. just 40 minutes. Are we an ADHD society that if it goes longer that 40 minutes we loose our audiance (sic). I dont care. Its the Americas Cup. It should be raced with sweat and tears to the end. It should go as long as a football game or basketball game(including time outs and media breaks). Shouldnt it?"

Here is my response.

"We all have our own ideas on what should be and what shouldnt be. Whos to say which is right? I agree that 40 minutes does seem too short a time limit but I understand the aim of the organisers to popularise sailing competition with the non-sailors and the parameters within which they were working.

Sailing is its own sport and it is evolving rapidly with technology. Do you really want to watch these two boats sailing back and forth upwind and downwind for 3 hours or more each race and potentially for 17 days (19 days including the 2-race penalty) in a row? That will drive the TV viewers back to whatever they were watching before AC34 came along.

I grow thoroughly bored watching football and baseball. They are stop-start games and they hold the attention of the audience for very short periods of action. The players get to rest for much of the duration and only work in short bursts. They can go on all night if needed, without burning themselves out. The crews on these boats are working hard the whole time, every race.

I think that it will work to compare AC racing with cricket. Test cricket takes 5 days of play, broken into 4 sessions each day. With no limits aside from the 5-day time limit, it often ends with no winner. It bores most people to tears. Then one-day international cricket was introduced, featuring 50 overs (300 balls) bowled by each team against the other batsmen. Suddenly cricket became interesting to a much wider audience. Now they play international 20-over games and the games are very exciting to watch, with massive viewership.

Rugby was always an exciting running game but it has also gone the same route of short, very fast and exciting games with the Rugby Sevens. This is what is needed to hold the attention of the modern world, where there is always something else trying to grab attention. Why should sailing not be right there in the fray also grabbing attention with short, fast and very exciting races.

Sailing is a sport of ageing players and needs new and young blood to survive. This event is likely to attract new people to sailing in one form or another. We can watch yacht racing as we knew it 20 years ago until it goes the way of the dinosaurs or we can embrace the new world and regenerate sailboat racing as a viable sport.

There is still a place for 5-day test cricket, for a much smaller audience than the other forms. Likewise, there is also still a place for the longer duration sailing races. I will be skippering a 38ft sailboat across the South Atlantic in January. We will be racing flat-out for 3 weeks from Africa to South America. There will be exciting times for me and my crew far away from the eyes of any TV audience. I enjoy that racing immensely, as a participant but I dont expect our slow progress across the ocean chart to keep anyone rivetted to the edge of their seat the way that AC34 is doing to us right now.

I think that with AC34 they have hit a winning formula and I am enjoying every short minute of it."

Thank you for taking the time to read my viewpoint. It is often a bit off the beaten track but I think that it is valid.

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Boat Designs And Plans | Closing in on completing the salon

Boat Designs And Plans

Im making steady time in the salon, and its close to getting finished. All the sheathing is finished, all the windows and doors are cased, and the half bath framing is finished. All the cabinets, including the settee drawer unit are finished and waiting in the shop. The settee benchs are going to be site built, so that job has to be completed but I think Im going to get some urethane on the walls and trim before I bring in the drawer unit and the rest of the cabinets.

Once the day head was built, I looked at the space created between the day head and the aft salon wall. Theres a boatload of plumbing and fuel tank related parts in the starboard aft corner of the salon, so building an access panel for future access to these parts was necessary. Since I was looking at that corner, I decided I wanted to house the stereo in that same access panel. Once I had the stereo in my mind, I started looking at a book shelf, and once I got the book shelf was stuck in my head, I realized we  had no place to stash garbage. Designing by need, or seat of ones pants, is my MO, so now the small planned access panel morphed into a multi-use, built in cabinet with doors, shelves, and wiring . Going with a larger inside dimension of a built in book case, I decided to make the interior 13" deep, which gives an overall depth including the face frame of 13 3/4". The built in is 41" tall.

With the now 13 3/4" built in planned, I looked at the remaining space  between the built in and the day head and was happy to find I still  had 67" of space.... plenty of room for two comfy reclining chairs.... I think. Measuring some  chairs at  home had me feeling good about the space, but a field trip to the furniture store was in need, and once that was completed, we settled on a reclining love seat with a console between the chairs ( chairs recline independently). The recliner can be as close to one inch off of the back wall vs 8" for reclining chairs, and measures 6 wide. Ive been on too many boats that dont really pay much attention to comfortable seating, and I dont want this boat to be one of those.

The built in lays out with the garbage closet, with a door, on the end,  and the stereo above it. There will be two or three DC receptacles next to the stereo for charging phones or other devices. The cabinet top, which is 14 1/4" deep, is large enough for a lamp, along with being able to lay IPods or IPads can on the cabinet top so they can plug in to the stereo. The book case is is in the center, and will probably  have three shelves, possibly four. Next to the book case is the plumbing access panel on the bottom and another cabinet with door above that. The holding tank vent exits through the roof of the boat in this corner along with sharing space with the water feeds for the day head, and washer/dryer. The garbage bin should be closer to the galley, but it is what it is, and its not that far of a walk to reach it.

Because the aft wall is only 2 1/2" thick, Ill be fabricating a trim piece to apply for these two windows, so no sill. The other six windows in the salon received a sill, jambs, and casing. The casings are 1/2" thick, but the head casing is 3/4" thick. I did this so I could butt the side casings in to the head casing and have a 1/4" reveal. The joint looks good as I rounded over the head casing on the side casing edge. On the top of the head casing, I cut a 45 degree bevel to give the trim thats going to hide the access chases some place to sit. This detail works nice as the chase cover has a firm place to land and only will require a few screws through the board in to the ceiling to  hold it fast. Because the board lays in the 45 degree bevel, it also gives a nice tight fitting joint with no fussy fitting. Holding the head casing down 1/2" gives a nice place to hide the rail that the window curtain will slide in.  This detail worked out nice and the best part was how easy it was to fabricate and how tight fitting it is going to look.

Theres still a days work left before Im ready to put some finish on salon, but like the post title says, Im close. Once theres three coats on the walls, Im going to glue down some floor underlay and bring in the remaining cabinets. With the rest of the cabinets installed, the the six inch air conditioning duct can be finalized along with  installing the already built settee parts.

Wrapping up the bulk of the wood work by Aprils end is within reach, but things could creep into May. Whats important is that the table saw is moving out of the salon, and Im getting ready to start eyeballing some mechanical work, which I"m ready to dive in to.

Cheers

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Boat Plans Aluminium | Star 45 Mainwaring keel and bulb on an old S45

Boat Plans Aluminium

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Boat Plans Wood | Didi 38 Prototype Birthday

Boat Plans Wood

"Black Cat" is the prototype of my Didi 38 design, built in my back garden in Hout Bay, South Africa. She was also the experiment that developed into my radius chine plywood range of designs, all under the Didi name. Today is her birthday, it is 19 years since we launched "Black Cat" at Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town.

Didi 38 "Black Cat" at the start of the 1996 Cape to Rio Race.

Much has happened since then. She has 70 sisters in the water or in build around the world, in the Didi 38/40/40cr design series. She also has hundreds of smaller radius chine plywood monohull sisters being built or in the water, from the Didi Sport 15 through to the Didi 34. She has also spawned catamaran designs in the Dix 470 and DH550.

When I designed her, I did not imagine how popular this construction method would become. The Didi 38 design was for my own use. After that I drew the Didi 34 for a design competition that was run by South African Yachting magazine, now part of Richard Crocketts Sailing for Southern Africa magazine. Since then I have always had at least one other concept waiting in line for me to draw it for this method of construction. Now is no different, I have a commission for a 38ft big sister to the Didi 950 and have many people asking for smaller sisters to the two catamarans, in various sizes. All that I need is the time to draw them.

"Black Cat" in Brazils Bay of Islands.

Happy Birthday "Black Cat", you have been very good to us.

To see more of our designs, go to http://dixdesign.com.

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Boat Plans And Kits | Update on DS15 Bateleur

Boat Plans And Kits

Jim Foot launched his Didi Sport 15 (DS15) a few months ago. After initial photos and reports Jim went quiet. I suspect that he busied himself with regular sailing to learn the characteristics of his new boat, to understand how she likes to be handled in a range of conditions.

Today Jim has sent another report, detailing his sailing this past weekend. He sailed on Algoa Bay, off Port Elizabeth, sailing in sportboat mode with the lead bulb on the keel. Starting with light breezes, it rapidly changed to 35-40 knots, as happens pretty regularly in this part of the world. Unperturbed by the gale force conditions, Jim and his crew Thomas Ochabski put in a reef, left the big asymmetrical stowed in its bag and carried on sailing. Jim says that there was a keelboat in attendance in case of mishap, which gave him the bravado to carry on sailing.

DS15 "Bateleur" about to get wet for the first time.

 Here are extracts from Jims own words about his experience with "Bateleur" in these conditions.

Beat back to harbour (from about 2 nm offshore) and then had a blast reaching around for about an hour or more.   Great fun.   Naah, understatement, awesome, awesome fun!

For the first time really felt that things were a step up on the speed stakes.   When I was building the boat I imagined a mini Volvo 60 with associated responsiveness and upwind speed. And this is what I felt the boat was achieving.

He promises some GoPro video by the end of the week.

And what about light wind speed? More words from Jim.

The other thing, the boat is incredibly fast in very light winds with weight forward. Everyone who has sailed her in light conditions (<6 kts) has remarked about this characteristic.  Thanks Dudley for a great design.

To see more of this and our other designs, visit our main website or  mobile website


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