Boat Plans Bartender | Capsizing Big Sailboats

Boat Plans Bartender

The article about our January capsize in the Cape to Rio Race is now in print in Professional Boatbuilder magazine. It is also available in digital form to print subscribers. This publication is free but is only available to members of the boating industry. Click to see the contents of the current issue.

Graphic from Professional Boatbuilder magazine of the start of the capsize.

In retrospect, the thing that amazes me most about this event is this. I was upright, walking through the boat at the time, heading for the cockpit. I was unaware that we were being capsized until the cabin roof hit the water at the bottom of the wave, with the boat well rotated toward upside-down. It happened very fast, with the boat moving through an arc that must have applied large centrifugal forces, enough for me to be well past horizontal and still walking on the cabin sole. Everything else in the boat stayed in place through that process as well, only becoming dislodged when we impacted the bottom of the wave.

Those who dont have access to the magazine can read about our capsize in my January posts on this blog.

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Boden Boat Plans Australia | Building skiffs in the Bahamas

Boden Boat Plans Australia

27 years ago my marriage to Lawanda ended. Quite simply we grew apart. She wanted a more stable life and I just wanted to keep on looking to see what was around the next point of land.

We had that year finished building the Hogfish and had sailed to Spanish Wells in the Bahamas to start a boat building company there to build out board powered skiffs to be used in the lobster and scale fish industrys there. Spanish Wells is known for their great fishermen, and farmers but had never had a boatbuilding economy. Boat building in the Bahamas was done in the Abacos mostly in Cherrokee , Man O War Cay, and sporadic one off boats in the out islands by individuals. In Man O War cay the Alburys had been building dinghys, skiffs, power skiffs and large custom yachts for several hundred years. All in wood. In the last century the Alburys in several different familys had moved into fiberglass 

Boat production . Willard Albury had the most sought after hull in fiberglass at this time. His main market was in Spanish Wells for the Crawfish industry. Tourism in rental boats had not been started.

The Alburys had been building for many years one off carvel planked skiffs . The wood crooks and knees they needed had become scarce. Also good planking pine was hard to find. They made the move to fiberglass.

I had been coming to Spainish wells since 1977 . Lawanda and I had bought a piece of land there in 78 . I loved the people and fell in with them easily as I loved spear fishing and building boats. They always had boats to repair and fish to kill. We settled into a routine of sailing over from the Florida keys in June and I would work on skiffs to get them ready for the August Crawfish season. I was able to go away for several August fishing trips that would last for 3 weeks. In doing this I was able to spend lots of sea time in all the Abaco skiffs, from wood hulls to the 3 models that were built in fiberglass.

 The Alburys are excellent builders. Their fiberglass boats will last forever. Just beautiful.

My buddys in Spanish Wells were always after me to come over and build skiffs for them. The Alburys were a year behind in orders. Every year boats were lost and the wood boats were dying off.

The year before Lawanda and I had lost our Morgan 34 at sea .( another story) . We had built the Hogfish so this seemed like the perfect job to get us back on our feet and in the Bahamas full time.

Work permits were not a problem. 

When Willard Albury went from wood to glass he picked what at the time was a big hull at 183" long with a nice vee. These boats had when built in wood a spray rail that ran the length of the boat that was 11/2 " wide the whole length. In going to glass he tapered it as it neared the bow. These skiffs also had very tight radiuses on all edges. The boats have a very distinctive look. They are built in solid glass to massive dimensions.

What the locals asked me to do was come up with a bigger longer skiff. More vee as Willards skiff at certain angles would " spank" . The boats slid in a turn, make a mold for a center console , do each boat as a custom order to fit the client ,make it look the same and could I soften the edges a bit.  

Having been in many skiffs at that point fishing and traveling around in up to8 seas for days on end I had a good vision.

The new boat was194" long , deep vee with lifting strakes, freeboard the same as the smaller skiffs, but the spray rail was wider and ran all the way to the bow.

During the start up of this project my marriage ended with Lawanda. She moved to the states to do her thing. I ended up with the Hogfish and all our dept. 

While building the plugs for this skiff I looked up one day to see Rachel looking over the sheer in the skiff hull I was fitting the stringer plug in. 

Long story short it was love at first sight. 26 years later and lots of adventures we are now getting ready for our next cruise. If you do things well in life you get to live many different lives.

After launching hull number one it went off to sea the next day for 23 days. When they came back the word was this was it. The next day we had orders for 29 boats with deposits.

Willard Albury switched to building rental skiffs .

153 skiffs were made from the molds I built. Today half the skiffs in Spanish Wells are these boats and the other half are the modern Panga boats which are better suited to the industry now.

Rachel and I stayed there for 2 years, had our daughter Kalessin and when she was 6 months gave notice and sailed away for ten years. 

We eventually came back and built our home here. I like it here because every one has at one time or another been to sea in my skiff. If you sail into the harbor here just ask anyone for Chris the boat builder. Theyll tell you whats up with my life .

Putty on the plug.

Spraying primer on for final fairing.

Plugg mover around for more space. Waxed.

New shop built. I built all the plugs and molds on a sloping shop space at the water front as they took forever to build the shop. Was a pain to level every thing up.

Mold ready to pull. I like to core my molds. Nobody would belive that it would come loose.

Made my day!

 

My young workers 15&16 years old. Spanish Wells is a white community of Bahamaians that have lived on this island for 350 years. The young boys at the time would finish school at 15 . By 16 or so they would find a fishing boat to go away on. 

Moving into new shop

Laying up hull # 1

# 1 going in 

Production going on. The young Black Bahamians that worked for me were 16 years old when they started. After I left they went on to build 143 more boats with my training over a 14 year period.

Rachel Married me on the beach here. Her only request was that I wear a belt. We were bare foot when married. In cutting the first piece of cake her mom had brought this small wedding cake knife for me to use, I pulled out this cutlass and  did the job the proper way.

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Boat Plans Bateau | 23rd Wooden Boat Show Mystic Seaport

Boat Plans Bateau

Every year Wooden Boat Publications in Brooklin, Maine, hosts the Wooden Boat Show. This year is the 23rd edition of this annual show, one of my favourites. After moving around to various locations over the years, it has settled into Mystic Seaport as a pretty much permanent home.

We have exhibited our Paper Jet at this show for the past 7 years and will be there again this year. In 2007 she won the "Outstanding Innovation Award" for introducing many different concepts to wooden boatbuilding. Every year she attracts much attention, standing out as something very different among the mostly traditional craft on display by amateur and professional builders alike.

Dudley sailing Paper Jet on the beautiful Mystic River.

Paper Jet at the Wooden Boat Show 2013

Our booth at the Wooden Boat Show 2013

We will be there again this year. The show runs from 27th to 29th June and your ticket includes full access to the whole of the living museum that is Mystic Seaport. It is well worth the visit. Dehlia and I will both be at the show each day, to show Paper Jet, what other designs we have and to just chat about boats and boating adventures. We hope to meet you there.

Chesapeake Light Craft, the company that cuts and ships our USA kits, will also be there. This is your opportunity to talk to both them and us about a kit that you might like to build. More info on our plywood USA kits.

For more info about us and our boats, please visit our main website at http://dixdesign.com/.

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Plywood Boat Plans Australia | Todays motor home on the water

Plywood Boat Plans Australia

I like to sail on boats that I can see and feel the wind. By seeing the wind I can see the ripples on the water, by feeling the winds I can tell when running down wind at night how far the wind has veered by the feel of it against my ears and neck. I also sail to see and enjoy the pure energy of how a vessel moves along by the force of the wind. When entering a Harbour under sail all my senses are on alert to avoid shoals ,other boats and to see a possible wind shift.

So my sailboats are very clean of gear on deck and around the cockpit. At sea I can rig in a second a nice sun awning from the boom gallows to the aft railing supports that were made for this. When its blowing hard I take this awning down and now have a clear view. When going to weather in rough going the wind vane steers the boat and I can just sit in the doghouse and watch the world go by. 

Coming into port in nasty weather I done foul weather gear and just deal with it. At anchor we have a very nice awning setup.

Todays group of sailors think in a different way. These people were raised on tv , computers , video games and commuting by car long distances while talking on the phone and listening to talk show hosts that are bitching about something. These people are used to being in enclosed areas on the way to work, at work and when they get back home. One day they decide to become a sailor - cruiser and start on the computer looking up what they need to live on a boat that will make them feel at home.

This trend has brought us the Island Packet crowd, the huge Room-Ma-Ran catamaran crowd and all the other group of sailors that want to stay under cover till the last instant when one of them has to go forward and lower the anchor. Otherwise they want to stay in what is the equivalent of a sailing motor home. In the typical cockpit of one of these vessels you will have a steering wheel that is over shadowed by a huge GPS system flanked by the VHF and loud hailer . To see around this getup one must stand up on tip toes to see over. Now the compass is in there somewhere but this crowd has the GPS full map system so who needs to look at that , all i need is my waypoint book .

Sailing under a fully enclosed Florida Room like you see on the intra costal where they enclose half the property and pool area under a huge screen cage . Side flaps down , the little window to maybe look up at the set of the mainsail but who does that and the sun might find me so its closed.

What the whole sailing experience comes down to is seeing the goose neck of the main boon and maybe the genoa tack at the bow.

Sensory deprivation at its best. But hey the sun cant find you under  all this crap.

At night with the GPS TV show going on all night vision is gone . But the good this is theyre in the safety compound of the FLORIDA ROOM.

Id rather experience the sea that I sail on. 

Todays floating CARAVAN-MOTORHOME at rest . They have missed the channel completely . The wind is in the east coming from their stern . They have set the anchor to leeward in the channel they should have been in. Three more of their tribe are consoling and trying to figure out what to do. 

In passing by in our dinghy going home I suggested to put a kedge out to windward and put a strain on it so when the tide floats them they will be heading into the wind and not drifting into the channel and onto the leeward rocks. They got off fine.

But iam sure they missed the channel because they were not looking at it but at their GPS TV show

Enclosed in the saftey of the FLORIDA  ROOM.

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Boat Trailer Plans Australia | Bahamian boats I love them

Boat Trailer Plans Australia

Some sketches from the past from my love of the Bahamian sailboats.

 The big boats are really amazing in the outlandishly huge sail area they carry

They can have very curvaceous hulls  

Starting some design thoughts for a commission years ago.

Work boat lines. They no longer exist 

My vision for a modern day cruiser

Carved wooden sloops that I sell to get money to go cruising on.

The Abaco Rage at anchor in Hope Town Harbor. The hull is 29 long, the boom is 45 long and the mast is 69 tall.

No you go out on the boom and put the sail cover on ! 

Sailing with my Ex wife Lawnada I our 13 Bahama Catboat that I had built. We are setting out lobster habitats to get lobsters to supplement our food costs. We ate lots of Lobster when we lived in the Florida keys.  

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Pontoon Boat Plans | The skiffs of Dominica and the Boat Boy Mafia

Pontoon Boat Plans

Through out the islands of the West Indies you will encounter many types of characters coming up along side your vessel trying to engage you in hiring them in some form of capacity to sell you something. These are know as Boat Boys. In days gone by they would meet you way offshore paddling an old windsurfer or on a make shift raft. Today they zoom up in nice little fast wooden skiffs with big outboards at breakneck speeds to be the first on the scene to hopefully claim you as theirs.

Years ago we had many very unpleasant experiences with these guys trying to politely tell them to stay away from our top sides and no we did not want for a thing and did not want to rent a mooring. 

They , but not all of them would try and intimidate you with their skiffs as you would be sailing in after you declined their offers. Lots of charterers and other sailors would just give in and follow them to the appointed mooring buoy which the Boat Boy would be holding up from his skiff asking for the nights payment as the charterers would be grabbing the buoy line. The Boat Boy and his skiff banging along side till the cash was in hand, then taking off to the next victim. The unsuspecting boater would be so glad to have this skiff gone from the side of his boat that they paid him as quick as possible to get him off and away.

Now safely on their mooring they would settle back into the cockpit to relax and then start to realize that the boat next to them was dragging onto them. Sheesh ! But how can this be that the boat astern is dragging its bow into our stern !

Well the Boat Boys realize that to foreigners all their brightly painted skiffs kinda look alike so handing them a mooring buoy that is tied to an old 15 hp outboard is a good way to make a living. Said boat pays them, off they go to another mooring that is fake or not. While the latest victim is dragging down wind the next one is coming in the harbor and can see this going on so wants a good mooring so on goes the process.

The best place to see this Racket is in Admiralty Bay in Bequia. I anchored there for a month a few years ago watching this scam go on. I dove the entire harbor and would say that over half the moorings there can just about hold a dinghy, not an 18 ton Catamaran.

When sailing into Mindelo bay in the Cape Verde islands in 2004 we knew in advance of the potential crime and dinghy theft. The deal that was waiting for us was there would be at least 5-6 Boat Boys in small rowing craft that would be waiting for you at the harbors entrance to offer their services of guarding your dinghy from the others so it would not get stolen. They would ask for 5-6 euros a day for this service. So basically the deal was pay us or your skiff is a goner.

Knowing this in advance we sailed into the bay after a 7 day passage from the Canaries in the early morning. The Hogfish Maximus at that time sailed engine less so we were under full sail for the tack up the bay. Sure enough after rounding the breakwater 5 Boat boys awaited us in their 12" rowboats . They all started after the Hogfish but we were under sail and not power so this was to be a new challenge to them . They understood sailing so could see where our first tack would end up. Off they rowed racing each other to our possible tacking spot. Watching this go on as I threaded my way through all the anchored ships and yachts, I tacked 100 short of where they were waiting to grab ahold of our rail . Bam, off they all go chasing us onto the next tack. After playing with them for 3 more evasive tacks I was left with one Boat Boy following us up the anchorage till we anchored. Breathless, he came alongside and very politely offed his services. We struck our deal at 2 euros a day.

Later that day as we came alongside the dinghy dock he was there along with his competition. He could not belive I was still chaining my skiff up with 3/8" chain. I explained I did not trust anyone watching my skiff including the other yachties.

Today in Portsmouth Dominica the Boat Boys have formed an association and take their business very seriously. They are very polite , have fenders for the skiffs and understand that not all of us sailors have deep pockets. This so far was the safest place Ive felt in leaving our skiff while out hiking. Still locked up of course.

Typical old school Dominican skiff buit on the beach in wood.

New skiff being built in plywood with a heavy glass skin.

Underside of this skiff. All the supports will be remove when flipping over.

Todays Boat Boy all round skiff used for fishing and working the Yachties during the season.

Very nice running sea boats.

Skiff building on the beach.

The builder of most of the current skiffs in Portsouth Dominica, Alfonso. Very quiet guy but loved talking skiffs and building. I gave him a jack plane that was my fathers to replace his broken one and a bunch of hand saws. The chunk of curved wood laying on the keelson will be the inside of the stem in the foreground. Hes cutting it out with a chainsaw.

Met this guy in town and he said my Government might let me sail to his country someday. Can this be true ?!!!! If so thats where Ill be for the next bunch of years. My dad was born in Cuba.

Us with Sea Cat Boat Boy and hiking Guide  extrodainair . Here we are putting on volcanic mud on our hike to the boiling lake. We have done all our hikes unguided but he came so highly recommended for the way he explained the world about you we hired him and had a great time.

Sea Cat boiling eggs for us in the thermal vents.

Gayle , Tim , me and Rachel in the hot thermal sulfur water run off from the volcanic vents upstream.

This was a good rest as its quite a hike to get there and back.

Tree squashing de bus in hurricane Hugo

Fisherman netting Bahlou in Roseau 

 Roseau Boat Boy Desmound. The water is 160 deep up next to the shore but he had moorings placed there that had a good reputation. In the old days you would back your stern up to the beach dropping your anchor in maybe 60 and then tying your stern ashore with a line to someones house sea wall. Todays moorings are every where so hard to be on your own anymore. $ 10.00 US a night.

Yes he is , and the beer was very cold.

Sara another sailor on hike with us on the north coast. 

Roots

Lots of water falls

East coast.

North coast anchorage with skiffs.

And last , this is a typical fish haul from a huge gill net drawn in along the beach. Thses are all juvenile fish . But thats whats left. They are killing and eating every last thing . Sad.

Dominica has been a wonderful place to sail to and hike about.

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