Plywood Boat Plans Australia | Get your Orders to us Early

Plywood Boat Plans Australia

The end of 2013 is coming fast. We normally have a rush of orders around year-end but this year it is going to be different. Remember, I will be sailing in the Cape to Rio Race and that is going to create considerable disruption in delivery of orders. I will fly out on December 14th, via Istanbul in Turkey to Cape Town, South Africa. After sailing across the South Atlantic, I will return home from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, about the first week of February 2014.

Dehlia is the person who glues this operation together. She is my wife and she receives the orders, processes the payments, prints the drawings and magically sends them all over the world, allowing me to spend my time drawing pretty pictures of boats and backing up you, our builders. Normally Dehlia would continue unflustered while I am away playing boats. This time it will be different, Dehlia is also going to Cape Town, to wave goodbye tearfully from the dock. She will leave our home and office before I do, on 3rd December. She will not be back to resume business until 14th January 2014. For a month there will be nobody here to print drawings.

Please dont leave your order until the last minute, we may not be able to supply. This is even more important if you intend to order a plywood kit to build one of our boats. It takes more time to set up a kit order than only to supply plans.

We hope to set up systems to take orders while away, for items that can be supplied by email. That will be for our 3:1 dinghies, study packs and eBook "Shaped by Wind & Wave". Paper orders will have to wait until after Dehlia returns 14th January.

Please send your orders by 29th November. After Dehlia leaves I will be able to process and supply only limited orders.

Thank you for your support both past and future. I apologise for any convenience that this disruption may cause you, we will be back as soon as possible.

Go to http://dixdesign.com/ to see our full range of designs.

Do you find information about Plywood Boat Plans Australia are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Plywood Boat Plans Australia. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read more

Boat Building Plans And Kits | Anthony Steward Around Alone in an Open Boat

Boat Building Plans And Kits

More than 20 years ago Anthony Steward sailed around the world on a tiny open boat. He took the mould plug from my TLC 19 trailer-sailer and turned it into a boat to circum-navigate the world. Nobody had done it before him and nobody has done it since.

Ant Stewards little boat shipwrecked in the Seychelles

Anthony has always been very modest about his achievement and has done very little to publicise it. Most of the publicity that it has received has been through articles that I have written for magazines, the article on my website and his chapter in my book "Shaped by Wind & Wave".

I am pleased to see that this has now changed. A video that was made 20 years ago, documenting his voyage, is now on YouTube. It is worth the 30 minutes to watch it, to understand just how tough this voyage was.

Anthony modified my little boat extensively to serve the purpose that he needed. We have many designs to take you more comfortably around the world or just to take you across your local pond. Please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

Do you find information about Boat Building Plans And Kits are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Building Plans And Kits. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read more

Boat Plans Bateau | Building Hogfish and Hogfish Maximus

Boat Plans Bateau

Lawanda my ex wife and I were offed free use of a small building , the use of an old house and a very old Volvo station wagon . The stipulation was we had only six months time to use as the property was to be sold. The building shed was built around Sonna tube concrete collums with roll up doors on three sides. The buildings roof was 60 long and the enclosed part was 33 long with a 14 foot door opening. I decided to make the Hogfish 3110" long and 9 wide. I could just get around the boat with the doors shut. This was 28 years ago. The marine grade fir plywood then was still wonderfull. All the dimensional lumber was clear fir. I was able to buy a bunch from Lew Mcgregor and Russel Brown as they were starting to build a big Catamaran for a client but the deal fell through. All these photos were taken by friends as I was busy building this boat. I keep daily work records of what I get done and my hours. These I look back on for reference and to see that iam getting older and not getting as much done today as I once did. The Hogfish took just under 1,300 hours from start to sailing away . Lawanda had a full time job . She helped me with the painting. She did all the cooking and stuff ,so i could just put in the 10-12 hours a day to get her done in time. 

Stringers in place with sheer clamps and Chines

The skin is 3 sheets of 1/2 " plywood on the bottom and just two on the sides.

Thats our benefactor Ron McCartney looking through the glass bottom opening. Glass bottoms are great fun when sailing in clear water but you have to be in 10 or deeper as when in shallow water your speed is too quick . Our kids would lay down looking at the bottom for hours when going over the banks.

Overkill stem detail

Iam actually upside down here showing how the companionway will look and the cabin floor size.

Centerboard pin is just above the waterline

Starting to roll the boat over.

The problem with the shop was this small doorway in the back. We could only roll her so far and then would have to slide her over a bit. 

On her side and being slide over. This took a long day to do with Ron as my helper.

When the Hogfish was almost finished my father came to visit. He designed buildings for a living and had taught me a lot. Dad walks in the side bay door looks at the boat and out the front door of the shop where we were planning on sliding her out of. Dad says" your boat is too wide to fit out the front door". I grab a tape measure and measure the side door which was12 wide , the back door was 12 wide the front door looked exactly the same. But it was just under 9 ! Ron had built the building and was flabbergasted ! We had to slide her out the back door and around the building over sugar sand to get near hard ground for a crane to be able to lift. A bit more work. Since then I very carefully measure all exits .

Launch day. Hogfish was a very good boat for us. Now she has had many owners redesigning and adding on stuff so ugly that I will not post a photo for how buggered up she looks . Sorry Hogfish but we just outgrew you.

Hogfish Maximus ....same thing but lots bigger.

The inside first skin sheet of plywood is marine grade MDO ply which is very smooth and paints well. The rest is AB marine grade ply. 

The deck is two layers1/2" ply with a1/2" Corecell core on top for insulation.

I use a simple pallet jack to lift up a bit to slide this frame under and then use these pipes to roll out. Very easy .

Big box boat.

At the time I was building the HFM I was running Hells Bay Boatworks with a dozen employees building about 10 custom skiffs a month. To save time I hired 2 cranes to roll her over with.  

Cost $450.00 and took 2 hours .

The hull at this stage weighed10,000 lbs.

Only a shape a mother could love.

Getting ready to put on a trailer and launch. The color scheme is made up of two primer colors . I new I would be hauling out later to finish paint so to be silly I did this .

Building the HFM while I was building all the other skiffs took a huge chunk out of my life and my familys. I would start my day at 6:00 . The boat shop crew would start at 7:30 . Our working ours were to 3:30. By around 2:00 I would try and start working on the HFM. This I would do till10:30 or later. Come home eat dinner and sleep. Start over. Sell boats , train crew, order supplies, fire crew, work on HFM. Took me 10 months of this routine to get a bare but livable HFM launched and in the water. We moved aboard within days. Had her sailing a few months later. Total hours 1,980. Cost $34,800.00

I was 40 then and it would take me twice as long today.

My sharpie boat designs are built using the " Northe System"

      NO

      OTHER

      ROUTE

     THOUGHT

     HEAVY 

     ENOUGH

Do you find information about Boat Plans Bateau are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Plans Bateau. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read more

Boat Designs And Plans | Radius Chine Plywood Class 950

Boat Designs And Plans

The Didi 950 is our newest design and the plans are now nearing completion. They show a very modern boat that is designed to comply with the Class 950 Rules and which can be built by any reasonably competent amateur woodworker.

Sail plan of Didi 950

The Class 950 Rule produces a fast boat that is great for level boat-for-boat racing. The rule results in reasonable proportions and features, for a safe and strong boat with comfortable accommodation that is also good for a performance cruiser.

Class 950 accommodation

Construction is radius chine plywood with a hard chine aft in the topsides. This format produces a very modern hull that is built mostly from a very low-tech sheet material, yet looks as good as any moulded composite boat that can only be built with skills that most amateurs dont have. Most men are comfortable working with wood and this construction method allows them to use those skills to build a competitive boat.

3D Profile of Didi 950

The more that I look at this boat the more that I would like to be on it for offshore or ocean racing. This would be a great boat for sailing trans-Atlantic in the Cape to Rio Race or going across the Pacific in the Trans-Pac Race. Close-reaching to broad-reaching under asymmetrical and powered up by water ballast tanks, she will be a thrilling boat, reeling off the miles like few others in this size range can do.

3D View with contours to highlight hull shape.

Someone close by, please build one of these boats. I need to sail on this one.

For more info go to http://dixdesign.com/didi950.htm and visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ to see our other designs.

Do you find information about Boat Designs And Plans are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Designs And Plans. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read more

Boat Plans Butler | My flats boat early history re posted again!

Boat Plans Butler

I have no idea how it disappeared from my blog but my early history posting- story just dissapeared from this blog. Several followers emailed me to ask to share it with their friends so I emailed my daughter to assist me in reposting it. So its back in its old time slot in June. Here are some photos to go with this story and time frame. 

This is the Sea Witch ketch that I grew up on sailing from California to Florida via the Panama Canal.

We are sailing in the San Blas Islands here. The cost to transit the canal in 1976 was $14.00 !

This boat did not have a winch on her. Every thing was a block and tackle. She really loved the wind in the Carribean sea. Otherwise she was a haystack to sail.

Back then with a wood hull you were always looking to paint your bottom because of ship worms.

The tides in Panama on the Pacific were from 8-24 so this was easy. Iam mixing the paint in the dinghy.

When we were cruising the San Blas islands I talked my dad into letting me sail the islands for 10 days with only a 5 gallon water jug , my spears and some fishing line. I wanted to try and live off the land and sea. I ate a lot of coconuts, lobster, sea urchins, and fish. This little flat bottom Garvey dinghy at 9 long with a loose footed lug sail and a leeboard sailed right along and was very seaworthy with the flair that it had. It rained every night and I would just sleep on the two oars with the sail over me. Iam 17 years old here. The Cuna Indians loved seeing what I was doing.

When we arrived in Florida in 1976 I got a job at Stamas Boats. I worked there for six months and saved enough to buy a nice bycycle and go on a 3,800 mike bike trek through the Pacific Northwest for a summer. This is near the Columbia Ice Fields in Alberta Canada.

On my bike tour I got this Big horn to eat my dried apples out of my hand. I asked him if he would like to have his head on my future house wall and he said not today! Iam 18 years old here. The white things around my ankles are plastic bags that I would wear over my socks to stay warm. It snowed that night. I did this trip averaging 75 miles a day for the trip and living off a $3.00 a day budget. Oh for the good old days!

While working at Stamas boats I bought this French designed and built Corsair sloop for $750.00.

This boat which was built out of plywood I then sailed through out the Exumas and as far south as Long Island in the Bahamas and then out to Conception ,Cat island, Eleuthera,the bight of Abaco, and the east side too coming back to Florida in West palm. My next trip over she hit something at 8:00 at night 18 miles out of Key largo in the Gulf Stream and sank in 10 minutes . Because I had no dinghy I ended up swimming for 20 hours making it back to Biscayne Bay. 

All my boats have been very strong since this episode.

Shes sailing in George Town harbor in the Exumas in 1977 with only 12 boats at anchor in the peak of the season. At the time I was 19 years old and was having the time of my life. I have spent the my time since then trying to recapture the simplicity of that era.

After my little sloop sank I got a job at Glander Boat Works in Key Largo and built myself one of his Prudence hulls from the mold he had. Lawanda and I did most of the building in the water at Lews Marina in Islamorada.

This little sloop was a nice sailor. We did several trips to the Bahamas in her before I got into building flats skiffs. We lived aboard in what is called Little Basin in Islamorada right out front of what is now Bass Pro world Extravaganza whatever. Only 4 other sailboats then and maybe 6 guides.

Sailing in the Bahamas with my dad on his Alben Vega catching up to us.

This is a little bit of what was going on before I met Hal Chittum and got into the flats boat world.

Do you find information about Boat Plans Butler are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the Boat Plans Butler. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Read more