Boat Plans And Kits | New rig for Didi 29 Retro

Boat Plans And Kits

The Didi 29 Retro was commissioned by a client in Cape Town, to build for himself for competition in the classic yacht races in the Caribbean. He wanted a boat with modern underbody and appendages but with a large gaff rig of classic configuration, to race in the modern classic division.

Underbody of Didi 29 Retro

Last year I was asked to draw a more conservative cruising gaff rig for the design, to better suit those who have no aspirations to race with a big crew or simply want to cruise. That resulted in the cruising gaff rig with about 20% less sail area on the same foretriangle height.

Didi 29 Retro racing gaff rig at left, cruising rig at right

This year I was asked to draw a more modern rig for it, which developed into the squaretop Marconi rig. This one will better suit most sailors, being easier to handle and easier to understand for those who dont know gaff rigs. On sail area, it fits between the two gaff rigs and it will be interesting to see how the three compare on the water.

Didi 29 Retro with squaretop Marconi rig

The squaretop Marconi rig suits the aesthetics of this hull rather well. It would be my choice if I were building this boat for myself. Should be an exciting boat to sail too, able to take advantage of the power of modern stable sail fabrics.

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

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Wooden Boat Plans Australia | MALANGO 888 NEW TEST AND NEW VIDEOS WITH THE MOJITO 888

Wooden Boat Plans Australia

I had posted recently about the Mojito 888:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/10/mojito-888-voile-magazine-boat-of-year.html
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/10/on-water-rm-890-versus-mojitomalango.html

After having won the Voile magazine boat of the year contest the interest in the Mojito went up sharply and the boat has been tested by the other main French sailing magazines (Voile and Voiliers and Bateaux) and looking how the boat sailed on both occasions I bet we will continue to hear nice things about the boat. First a video with the boat being tested by Bateaux (very light wind) and then 3 others from the Voile and Voiliers test showing the boat sailing in medium wind in several points of sail:

The interest on the Mojito seems to make revive the interest on the Malango 888, basically the same boat with a different cabin and we have a new test, surprisingly by a British Magazine. It seems that on the last years finally the British, that have a more conservative approach regarding cruising boats, seem to be interested on the light fast and seaworthy cruising boats derived from the Ocean solo racers hull concept.

The test is from Sailing Today. I did not like other test made by the magazine but this one is made by a new tester and what they say about the boat corresponds to the information I got about it, reading other test sails. It seems a good test to me. They say about the boat:

"The boats are drawn by Breton naval architect Pierre Rolland, who favours a purposeful plumb bow, hard chines and a wide stern. The racing pedigree is immediately obvious, and in fact, the design is derived from a singlehanded mini Transat racer. And yet, the boat’s raison d’etre is to provide a sporty sail for cruising sailors...It’s all about the pleasure of sailing,..

The techniques used to build the Malango are decidedly modern. Vacuum infusion spreads the resin evenly through the layers of fibreglass and honecomb-cell felt for the minimum weight.

..it’s worth noting a key feature of the boat, and one of its chief concessions to cruising: the transom includes a deep 2.1m recess which perfectly accommodates a 2.4m dinghy. Being low to the water, the cut out for this dinghy garage doesn’t intrude on the stern cabin, but forms part of the structure of the stern berth.

.. we scoot upwind at an easy 7 knots, heading some 40° off a true wind of 13 knots. Reaching up and down off the beach at nearby Port-la-Forêt, dodging waterskiers, we settle into a 7.8 knot lope and we hit 9 knots surfing back downwind flying the 75m2 symmetrical spinnaker. Although this is a sporty boat, she’s very well behaved, reluctant to broach (you can really feel the chine digging in aft) and therefore easily handled by one."

The genoa is on a furler and the sheeting point is controlled not by a traveller (keeping the side decks clear), but by the increasingly fashionable light eye on a Dyneema strop – a barber-hauler which can be pulled closer to the centreline or slacked off.

Verdict: At a touch under 30ft, the Malango 8.88 ..she has the heart, soul and the capabilities of a larger cruiser.... Her lithe, sporty lines and muscular performance mark her out from the many gaffer-likes produced in Britain – we simply don’t have an equivalent to the Malango that I’m aware of. She’s fast, but stable and easy to handle, making her good for family cruising or outings with friends. She’s been designed to a firm cruising brief, with the ability to dry out easily on sand – perfect for her native Brittany and with a few modifications – renewables, watermaker, extra electronics – she’d make a capable, but cosy, bluewater cruiser. That’s why she’s able to make a European Category A rating and indeed one of the 11 boats built so far has crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean".

http://www.sailingtoday.co.uk/boats/big-boat-review/melango-88-8-review-test/

They also have made a video of the test:

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Boat Plans Skiff | Our New Office Up and Running

Boat Plans Skiff

We have moved to our new home, still in Virginia Beach. With more office space than we had before, we have been able to set up a separate print room to house our two large format HP inkjet roll plotters. The plotters and computers are all up and running, once again talking to each other.

We are still surrounded by many boxes that have to be emptied but we are progressing with the reorganisation. We are once again ready to fill orders, whether for printed plans or those that can be supplied by email.

Thanks for your patience though this inconvenience, we are back online.

Our main website ~ http:dixdesign.com/
Mobile website ~ http://dixdesign.com/mobile
Pricelist and orders - http://dixdesign.com/priceabr.htm

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Boat Plans Nz | Thomass Hayes new Flats skiff build

Boat Plans Nz

Thomas Hayes is a fourth generation boat builder from Florida. He has been working in the Fiberglass production boat building business for 18 years working in all phases of the fiberglass production of boats as a hands on builder to supervisor. He knows his trade very well. 

I have had the pleasure of corresponding with him over this past year answering questions and giving my opinions and some advice on his personal project. 

He started out just wanting to design and build his own skiff for himself and then two more for family. This project has grown from just a hull mold to now a finished complete skiff with all molds ready for production of many more.

Following are some pictures Thomas has been sending me of his skiff in progress.

He has not launched his skiff as I write this blog but it will soon be in the water.

Lots of new ideas being used here in his skiff. Look closely... As I feel lots of these ideas will be finding their way to Others new designs.

Heres his unnamed new skiff just pulled from the mold. For the underbody pictures go back and look at my old blogs about new skiffs. This looks to be the driest running skiff out there. Cant wait to see her running.

Huge bow spray rail and lots of underwater spray defectors.

Look at that bow over hang. This skiff will weigh around 600-700 lbs when finished. Its a nice big skiff.

Heres the deck with all the hatches installed. No hinges on deck!!! All his hinges are hidden with his unique hinge system. Its very simple when seen.

 Bow hatch finished.

Bow hatch details revealed. How cool is this?

His moldings are as good as they get.

His deck mold has no hatches molded into it. This means that he can move his separate hatch molds where ever he or the clients want them. Look next to see how this works.

Because of his perfect moldings he just puts the finished part on the deck mold. He then gelcoats the deck around this part and when it cures this part is then glassed in as part of the deck. When its all pulled out of the mold all he has to do is just trim and slightly buff in the transition edge of these two parts. To me this is brilliant. Saves having to make so many deck molds. Now you can have more shop space.

All hatch tooling parts in place here ready for the deck gelcoat and then glass work.

Now the deck is attached. The clear glass in the bulkhead is the side of the fish live well or bait well depending on what youre up to. This detail he saw in an old Cabo Boat and has carried it into his skiff.

Wont that be fun to look at when its full of bait night fishing? The black ring is the drain.

The not so fun side if youre the bait or the fish caught looking out into the cockpit. Look at the details and finish throughout. Top of the line. 

Skiff going together.

Console being finished. Now look.

Console details. Look at what goes here.

Removable cooler box. 

Thomas says he has been influenced by early Hells Bay and Gordon Skiffs having owned an 18 Waterman and a Glades skiff. 

He has put lots of effort and money into this project that has taken him a year of part time work. At present he says he has almost the same amount of $ in his first finished skiff here and all molds as a new store bought skiff bare hull. 

But he now has the molds to build the next two that his family members want and then he will have to see if he wants to get in the market to build more for others.

Wait and see how this skiff performs. It might be the next " ONE" for you.

Thomas will always be able to say " Yes its my own design and build" with pride.

Theres nothing like being in a boat you built yourself.

Well done Thomas and good building to you a master craftsman.

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Kayak Boat Plans | New Didi 26 in Germany

Kayak Boat Plans

Ole Ehlert bought plans from us in 2006 to build a Didi 26 for himself in Kiel, Germany. It took Ole 6 years to build his boat because he lived 40 miles from the cow-shed building site, belonging to his in-laws. Two new kids and a house got in the way also but Ole kept going and launched his new boat last year.

Ole has sent me some photos of "Mary Jo", named after his daughters. It looks like he has made a beautiful job of building her. She looks very pretty on the water.

Oles new Didi 26 "Mary Jo".

 Ole says "I enjoyed building the boat from keel to mast top as well as sailing it now. It´s very fast and enters the waves as soft as cutting through butter with a hot knife!"

The Didi 26 is one of our most popular designs, a great option for those who want to compete round the buoys in a big sportboat that can also be used for weekending or short holidays. Added to that, it is of plywood construction that is within the abilities of most amateur builders, yet it looks like a round bilge GRP boat. With those benefits it is easy to understand its popularity with our builders.

Bow view of Didi 26 "Mary Jo".

 Congratulations to Ole on the beautiful conclusion to his project.

See our full range of designs at http://dixdesign.com/

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Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise | Short cutting the Boatbuilding Process

Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise

Many people want to build a boat for themselves. Some are like me and just dive into a project, believing that we can learn how to do it properly during the process. Others are more cautious and will investigate everything about the process before taking the step of cutting the first piece of wood. Some of them will never even make that first cut, unconvinced that they will be able to complete the project.

Most boatbuilding projects that are started do get completed but there are others that the original builder is not able to complete for one reason or another. This may be for any of a number of reasons, from financial problems to illness in the family or even death of the builder.

These partially completed boats are an opportunity for those potential builders who dont have the confidence to take a project from that first cut through to launching the completed boat. If bought by someone else, such an incomplete project can knock the major part off the timescale needed for completion.

Didi 34 waiting for a new owner to complete her

 We recently sold a semi-completed project for a Dix 43 Pilot that was available in South Africa. The new owner is now completing the project to take him and his family cruising distant waters.

We have other semi-completed projects listed on our brokerage pages that wait for new owners to complete them. Listings that we have at present are for plywood Didi 26 and Didi 34 and an aluminium Dix 38 Pilot.

The Didi 34 project is particularly worthy of consideration. It became available after the builder succumbed to cancer. His wife needs to sell it and has reduced the price to a level that makes it a very viable project to get a speedy cruiser/racer afloat in a fairly short time and at low cost.

So, if you are interested in building a boat for yourself but want a head-start on the project, have a look at the semi-completed projects on our brokerage pages.

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Boat Plans Building | Americas Cup Race 13 1st Edition

Boat Plans Building

I want to take issue with what has been widely reported on the web about the Americas Cup racing on Friday afternoon last week. That was when Race 13 was run, abandoned then run for a second time.

A syndicated report written by Scott Neuman has appeared on thousands of websites and tells an entirely inaccurate story. It says:-

"They were helped along somewhat by the vagaries of the wind off San Francisco — its been alternately too light or too strong. On Friday in a light-air race, New Zealand crossed the line ahead of USA, but it took them just over 40 minutes, which the race rules said was too long. So the result was thrown out and the defenders lived to sail again."

Either the author was not watching the race himself and published incorrect information supplied by someone else or he didnt understand what he was watching.

I might rile up people who are rooting for Emirates Team NZ but I like to read the truth, whichever side I am supporting. It behoves journalists to publish the truth, not what they want or someone else wants them to say, for whatever reason. Inaccuracies in journalistic reporting become truth in the future unless they are corrected at the time or soon after. This is especially true in the Internet era because what goes onto the Internet will stay on the Internet until there is no longer an Internet (forever? until the end of the world? Who knows?)

In this case the report says that NZ won the race and then the result was thrown out because the race took too long. Absolute nonsense.

Emirates NZ was well ahead at the time that the race was abandoned but they were nowhere near to the finish line. I cant be sure of their exact position when time ran out but I think that they were into the green circle and about to round the last mark when the abandon call came from the race officer. They still had the last leg to sail. There was no result, so how can the result have been thrown out?

You may say that this is pure semantics and it makes no difference. But it does, it makes a very big difference. Emirates Team NZ only needed to win one more race to take the cup back to New Zealand and that was the race that they needed. The report says that they won that race then it was taken away due to the time limit. That is equivalent to saying that they won the cup then it was taken away from them. If the time limit had been 45 minutes instead of 40 minutes then they would have won the race and the cup, no dispute. The fact is that they didnt finish or win that race and didnt win the cup on that day.

Most yacht races have time limits, as do most other sporting events in the world. The 40 minute time limit is one of the many rules of the event. The race committee cannot increase or decrease this limit at whim. You can be sure that the crews of both boats knew long before they even reached the weather mark that there was a good chance that the race would be abandoned for exceeding the allotted 40 minutes, unless the wind increased considerably. The commentators were already talking about it half-way up leg 3 and I am sure that the crews of both boats were watching their very accurate timepieces all the way through. All racing sailors know that in very light breezes there is a chance of missing the time limit so we keep it in mind, we watch the clock and estimate or calculate the speed needed due to the time and distance to go to the finish. We didnt see any looks of astonishment among the crew when the race was abandoned, they knew that they would not finish in time to get a result.

The fact is that the non-completion of that race has forever changed the Americas Cup history from what would have been if the race had been completed. AC34 has dramatically changed from what was a hiding being handed out to Oracle Team USA by Emirates Team New Zealand to what is now an extremely thrilling spectacle, with one of the biggest comebacks ever seen in any sport in the world. With 5 straight wins in races 13 to 17 instead of the final loss that appeared inevitable for race 13, we now have some seriously competitive racing taking place.

By this evening Emirates Team New Zealand may have won that last race that they need and the cup may be in the hands of the New Zealanders. On the other hand, Oracle Team USA may have defied the odds even further and taken it to 6 wins in a row. Whichever way it goes, it has been thrilling to watch and I will watch for as long as it keeps going until one or the other does win that elusive 9th race.

 PS. Whatever time limit is applied to a race, there may be times that it is exceeded. For Race 13 the 40 minutes was too short and 45 minutes would have given a result. But 45 minutes could easily have also been too short, so where does one place a limit? The 40 minute limit was written into the rules and all crews knew that it was there.They are not bitching about it, they are getting on with the job at hand, which is to win "The Cup".

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Boat Plans Uk | Rachel Platt Morejohn my other half

Boat Plans Uk

I have been around for awhile. I talk a lot here on this blog about what I have been up to in designs, boat work and our sailing life. I want to share some pictures of my wife Rachel from this past year of adventuring. I would never have accomplished what I have to date if not for her being by my side literally or backing me up back home when Iam off single handing. We have been together for over 26 years now. I wake up every day looking forward to what she has to say. 

Rachel trying the paddle board out in front of our place in the Bahamas

Rachel posing in front of our yacht in Antigua. The Hogfish is anchored behind all these other yachts.

Rachel with her first cup of tea in the morning

Now Iam ready to hear about what she dreamed about last night or whats on her mind. Its breakfast time on Hogfish.

The two of us after running a 5 mile Hash in Antigua.

Me stalking Rachel in Martinique 

Having lunch in Tyrell bay in Carriacou 

St. Barts 

Looking for beach treasures a few days ago

Racing Wild Bird off of Nevis

Passing by a Smurff boat in Grenada yesterday.

Trying on a huge piece of sea glass a few days ago.

The two of us on Hogfish celebrating Rachels 50 again birthday back in March.

The truth is I dont know what I would do without her. 

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Pontoon Boat Plans | The Garcia Exploration 45 Jimmy Cornells New Boat

Pontoon Boat Plans

Aluminum Boat Building Is Alive And Well (in France)

Allures and Garcia Yachts http://www.garcia-yachting.com/ were well represented at this years Annapolis Sailboat Show. With the Allures 39.9 and the Garcia Exploration 45. In this review I will be discussing the Exploration 45 built by Garcia Yachts. Also known as Jimmy Cornells New Boat.

The Exploration 45 was designed with the input of veteran sailor, voyager, and cruiser Jimmy Cornell. The design comes from the board of Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design.

Even though this is a new design, and something I have not seen before, it does have something in common with other Garcias and the Allures Yachts a centerboard with twin rudders. This design makes for a very efficient sailing design because one rudder is alway vertical under sail. At slow motoring speeds having the twin rudders without the benefit of prop wash can make this type of design difficult to maneuver. The Expedition 45 solves this problem with the installation of a bow thruster. I was impressed with how well the boat maneuvered in the tight confines of the marina. With a draft of 3.44 with the board up and 9.14 board down shallow water cruising opens up a new world not usually visited by monohulls. With the board down windward performance is better than you would think of a centerboard yacht. As with all boats this design is a compromise of shallow draft and windward preference. It is a compromise I can live with! In our sail off of Annapolis, Maryland in 15-20 knots of wind we obtained speeds of 7-9 knots. The Exploration 45 handled well, which was to be expected of the design. In the afternoon the wind continued to increase and we decided to put a reef in the main. The process went with out a hitch. Over all, sailing this boat should be very easy for a couple.

One of the most impressive features of the Exploration 45 is the navigation station. The navigation station is located in the forward saloon. This allows great visibility out of the house windows. I was impressed in the fact I was able to see over the bow from this position. The interior was easy to navigate underway and comfortable. My only complaint is the limited access of the engine which is below the sole at the companion way which could make servicing the engine underway difficult. I found the filters and strainers were easy to access. The cockpit felt safe and comfortable. For the watch there is a safe place to sit behind the house with the chartplotter/radar within easy reach.

Down Below Underway

What about the construction? I took a very close look at the construction of this yacht. I am thankful that the Builder and Swiftsure yachts allowed me access to the bilge and systems areas of the boat.

I was very impressed with what I could see. The metal work stands out on Exploration 45. The hull is fair, the welds are well executed, and the hull to deck edge is beautifully done. The cabin top is made from fiberglass composite. The aluminum decks are covered with cork decking to give the appearance of a teak deck. The footing of this deck is very good and it feels good on the knees.

Hull Framing

I would very much enjoy finding myself hundreds of miles offshore, watching the miles tick by on an Exploration 45.

With Allures and Garcia Yachts being marketed in the USA by Swiftsure Yachts http://swiftsureyachts.com/garcia-exploration-45-2/ 

I hope to see more aluminum boats on the water here in the states. I look forward to when these yachts are on the used boat market and I find myself surveying one.

To view a video of the of the Exploration 45 underway go here:  Exploration 45 from Swiftsure Yachts

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