Boden Boat Plans Australia | More Argie 15 Sailing

Boden Boat Plans Australia

John Read in Cape Town built himself an Argie 15  and has been sailing it a year or two. He has made a video of him sailing it in breezy and gusty conditions on Rietvlei, in the suburbs of Cape Town. John has learned much about his boat and is now very comfortable with her characteristics. In this video she shows some of the speed that these boats manage to achieve.

John is obviously enjoying his Argie 15, which is our most popular design.

The beautiful Table Mountain stands guard over Cape Town and is visible in the background of some of the shots.

Please visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ for more on this and out other designs.

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Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum | Georgetown Wooden Boat Show This Weekend

Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum

Saturday 19th October is Georgetown Wooden Boat Show, on the waterfront of Georgetown South Carolina. We will have our prototype Paper Jet on display, among the land exhibits on Front Street.

This year we will enjoy the company of two other Paper Jets, local to that area. Bob Turner of Pawleys Island has just completed his boat and Ted Bullock of Barrier Island Boatbuilders in Charleston will exhibit his one, which is nearing completion.

Paper Jet #007. Numbers are now approaching 80 boats.

The Paper Jet is very different in concept from most other boats that will be on display. The very light but robust construction and thoroughly modern image of these boats provides a sharp contrast with the generally classically styled boats, of mostly traditional construction methods, of other exhibits.

If you are within day-trip range of Georgetown, please come by to talk about the Paper Jet and any other of our wide range of designs that might interest you.

The red boat in the photo above is for sale. It was professionally built with nice detailing. If you are all-thumbs when it comes to woodworking then this boat can provide a painless route to getting afloat in a light and fast performance dinghy. It wont be at the show but we will be able to give details and put you in contact with the seller.

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

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Boat Plans Australia | Wooden Boat Show

Boat Plans Australia

Summer heat is setting in and minds are turning to activities that can keep us cool. Time for us to get out on the water and go boating.

Time also for the Wooden Boat Show, which takes us north on a 500 mile road trip from the rapidly over-heating Virginia to the somewhat cooler climes of New England, more particularly the very beautiful Mystic Seaport. I must admit that in June/July I think that part of Connecticut must be a great place to live. Then I think about how much I dislike the (much milder) cold of a Virginia winter and know that I was built for much more tropical places.

The Wooden Boat Show  will be 26-28 June and we will once again be exhibiting our bright yellow Paper Jet prototype. Close by, in the "I Built It Myself" section, will be the prototype of our new 16ft garvey design. This is "Inlet Runner", exhibited by amateur builder Kevin Agee of Hampton, Virginia. He is working long hours into the night to get it finished in time for the show. It will be showing off its very fresh paint job. Never having built a boat of any size or type before, he has surprised himself with the high standard of work that he has achieved.

Kevin Agees "Inlet Runner" 16ft garvey nearing completion.

We are also using this opportunity to do the official launch of my new book "South Atlantic Capsize - Lessons Taught by a Big Ocean Wave". We will have copies on hand at a special show price and you may be able to pin me down long enough to sign your copy. Special show price only to those who visit us at the show.

To see more about our boat designs, please visit our main website or our new mobile website.

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Boden Boat Plans Australia | The Crew of Black Cat for Cape to Rio

Boden Boat Plans Australia

 Our crew for the 2014 Cape to Rio Race is mostly the same as we had for the 1996 running of this race. Here are bios for two of the crew.

Gavin Muller

Gavin Muller was 21 years old on the 1996 Race. He was the baby of the crew by a long way and received the brunt of the good-natured insults and joking on the voyage from the rest of us. He took it all in very good spirits, was a great crewman to have with us and proved to be very capable in all aspects of sailing our boat at high speed across the Atlantic.

Now, 18 years later, Gavin is a much more respectable age. At least he is now more than half my own age. Gavin cant have had any permanent damage from all of our ribbing on that race because it was he that put the thought in front of me to get the 1996 crew together again for the 2014 race. Wonderful idea, Gavin.

He obviously has a good sense of the ridiculous. The bio that he sent me begins with "I started sailing quite late in life at the age of 14". Heck, most sailors wish that they could have started sailing at that age instead of 30, 40 or even 60 years old. When you are 21 then 14 must be relatively late in life. After his late start in sailing, Gavin hasnt wasted his time and has accomplished much. His achievements include:-

Sank an Optimist on the start line of his first Interschools Regatta.
Rose to captain of his Bishops High School Sailing Club
Was part of the youngest crew to sail the Cape to Rio Race, in 1993
Crewed on "Black Cat" in Cape to Rio Race 1996
Member of line-honours crew in St Helena Race 1996 and sailed return to Cape Town.
Achieved Yachtmaster Offshore in 1997, with better grades than he managed in school.
Sailed his 2nd St Helena Race in 1998 and return voyage to Cape Town.
Moved to England Feb 1999, where he still lives.
Sailed 4 Fastnet Races and all qualifying races.
Sailed 7 Cowes Week Regattas.
Sailed 8 Round the Island Races (Isle of Wight).

Gavin is married to Nicole and they have two young children, Alice and George. He is Head of Operations at one of the most prestigious catering companies in London, so I guess that qualifies him to serve us some imaginative high-class meals in the middle of the South Atlantic.

Gavin with wife Nicole and children, Alice and George.

Gavin in Solent sailing garb.

Sean Collins

In my 60 years of sailing, Sean is the one who has sailed more miles with me than anyone else. We always clicked together on boats and have confidence in each other doing the right thing when needed, including to extricate us from some silly situation into which I have put us.

Sean first sailed at about 7 years old, with an uncle who owned an Enterprise dinghy. The bug bit and he broadened his sailing experiences with the Sea Scouts. Seans first offshore experience came in 1976 with his uncle, sailing from Durban to Cape Town on a newly-launched 45ft ferro-cement cruiser. Continuing further on the long-term cruise was thwarted by the need to finish schooling.

Sean is a surfer and spent a few years sailing Hobie cats before buying his own first offshore boat. This was a 28ft plywood double-ended ketch named "Elise". After breaking the mizzen mast she had lee-helm problems and that was what brought Sean and me together for our long association. He commissioned me to redesign the rig as a cutter. He sold "Elise" after he started crewing for me on my CW975 "Concept Won" sometime later.

Sean estimates that he has sailed roughly 10,000 sea miles with me on "Concept Won" and "Black Cat". He was my chosen partner whenever available for the double-handed races and regattas at Royal Cape Yacht Club and Hout Bay Yacht Club. He sailed with me on numerous Double Cape Races, Telkom Regattas, Old Brown Table Bay Regattas, Hout Bay Admirals Regattas, Hout Bay Double Regattas and the weekend and Wednesday night racing at RCYC, as well as the 1996 Cape to Rio Race.

Sean was in the crew of "Black Cat" right from the start, long before she even hit the water. He spent many weekends helping with building her, much of it doing a sterling and nasty job of epoxy coating and fibreglassing the joints of the drinking water tanks, to ensure that they would not fail us in mid-ocean.

Sean moved to England in 1998, with wife Lanesse (now ex-wife) and three daughters. There they spent time sailing the estuaries of the Thames and acquiring the new skills of safely navigating large tides and strong currents. Eventually they bought "Vortex", a Nicholson 35, which Sean refurbished for family cruising. In 2004 they headed South to find sunshine and spent 16 months cruising to the Canaries via France, Spain and Portugal. From there they all flew back to settle back in Cape Town. A year later Sean and his nephew double-handed "Vortex" to Cape Town via Cape Verde, Brazil and Tristan da Cunha.

Bad economic times in RSA resulted in Sean working for a few years in Bahrain, where he joined the Bahrain Yacht Club to keep in sailing. Back in RSA again, work commitments keep him away from home but he gets back to Cape Town regularly. Most of his sailing is currently  on inland waters, where he is an instructor with the youth sail training programme at Mountain Yacht Club on Ebenezer Dam.

Sean with Lanesse and daughters Abbey, Kelsey & Megan

Sean on "Vortex" at Hout Bay Yacht Club.

Gavin and Sean, I look forward to sailing with both of you again.



  








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Plywood Boat Plans | Cape to Rio Race 2014

Plywood Boat Plans

I have done it 3 times before and I am soon going to do it again. Sail in the Cape to Rio Race, that is. I have crossed the South Atlantic 4 times, so this will be my 5th crossing.

In 1993 I raced on the Shearwater 39 "Ukelele Lady" (yes, I know that ukulele is spelt incorrectly but the guy who carved the name board was a bad speller) as sailing master and navigator. The boat was owned by my friend Nick Taylor, entertainer and TV personality.

In 1996 I sailed on the Didi 38 "Black Cat", as skipper and co-owner. Between the 1993 and 1996 races I had designed and built the new boat for the race. After Rio, we cruised her to the beautiful Bay of Islands SW of Rio before I raced her back to Cape Town, double-handed with Jay Barnes, in the South Atlantic Challenge.

Built in my garden in Hout Bay, here we are turning the hull.

 In 2000 I sailed on "Black Cat" again, as skipper. By then my co-owner, Adrian Pearson, had bought my share and was sole owner. Clive Dick and Adrian sailed her back to Cape Town.

Now "Black Cat" is 18 years old and has many thousands of ocean and coastal miles under her keel. We are about to head out onto the South Atlantic Ocean again, in the 2014 Cape to Rio Race. We have assembled the same crew as in 1996 with the exception of the navigator. My good friend Brian Cole was navigator in 1996 but is now getting on in years, so we have a younger man in his place.

Launch day in 1995.

  I am skipper and you all know me. No more info needed.

Adrian Pearson is owner and has sailed about as many miles  on "Black Cat" as I have. He does not skipper, preferring to be one of the crew.

Sean Collins sailed many miles with me on my CW975 "Concept Won", racing in Cape of Good Hope waters. He was with me for many double-handed events as well.

Gavin Muller was the "baby" of our 1996 crew, having graduated from high school the month before the start of the race. Now, 18 years later, his age has doubled but he will still be the youngest on the 2014 crew.

Dave Immelman is the new member, sailing as navigator. Dave has done extensive international offshore and ocean racing and is in charge of the major refit of "Black Cat", which is currently in progress.

Flying out of Table Bay after the start of the 1996 race.

 "Black Cat" has gone through big changes since I last saw her. She has been prettied up on the inside with hardwood trims and teak/holly cabin soles. Some comfort items added, like hot and cold pressure water system, separate fridge and freezer and inside shower. She also has a lot more in electronics, like radar, chart plotter and sailing computer, with instrument repeaters and dual compasses in the cockpit. Rig and deck hardware are also seeing upgrades to carry the increased shock loadings of a new suit of tougher hi-tech sails. I am looking forward to sailing on her with all the new toys and go-fast goodies.

She will go back into the water when this work has been completed, then Dave Immelman will do extensive sea trials to test her thoroughly before I arrive in December to give her my own check-over.

Relaxing in the Bay of Islands, Brazil.

For anyone interested, you will be able to track our progress on the Cape to Rio Race website and we will have a blog for "Black Cat" to pass on stories from onboard.

And, if anyone has an interest in sponsoring "Black Cat" in this event, please contact me to discuss what we can do for each other.

To view my boat designs, please go to http://dixdesign.com



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Boat Plans Wooden | Inlet Runner at the Wooden Boat Show

Boat Plans Wooden

This time last week we were in Connecticut,  participating in the 24th annual Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport. We drove there with two boats in tow, the Paper Jet prototype that we have exhibited the past few years, and the prototype of our new Inlet Runner 16 garvey powerboat design. Sorry, no hyperlink for that one yet, I am still working on the design package.

Paper Jet and Inlet Runner 16 nested for long-distance travels.

The Inlet Runner was built by Kevin Agee and exhibited by him in the "I Built it Myself" section of the show. As a first-time amateur boatbuilder with little woodworking experience, he made such a great job of his project that he took 2nd place in the amateur-built powerboat division, winning the Honourable Mention Award. Congratulations to Kevin for a job well done. I helped out at the end of the project with a bit of sanding but Kevin did everything else himself.

Inlet Runner in the "I Built it Myself" section of the Wooden Boat Show.

The Inlet Runner has my interpretation of a classic garvey hull.

 The Inlet Runner received a lot of interest and we have a few builders waiting for completion of the plans. Also a few requests for both bigger and smaller versions of the same concept. Watch for those on this blog in the next year or two but they must wait in line behind other projects that are currently in progress.

This boat has side seats aft and foredeck with lockers under for stowage, icebox, bait well etc. It also has a self-draining wet deck that can be left clear for fishing space or fitted with a swivel seat for flat-water fishing. We will also offer a Jonboat format with transverse seats and a centre console format on the wet deck.

Deck layout of Inlet Runner, set up for flat water fishing.

Overall, a successful show for us. Thank you Wooden Boat Publications, for organising this show for the benefit of lovers of wooden boats of all types. I look forward to being there again in 2016.

To see our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com or, for the mobile viewers, http://dixdesign.com/mobile

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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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Boat Plans Wood | Moving Disruptions

Boat Plans Wood

In December we moved to a temporary address for home and office. The time has come to move to a permanent spot again. That will happen the last week of August when we move both home and office into a home that we are buying.

There are inevitably disruptions to life and business at such times, so we must expect a few days to maybe a week or two of disruption to our services. It is impossible to forecast how long this will be because it depends on various factors, including how long the cable company takes to set up the connections at the new home.

If you are planning to order plans from us in the next few weeks, please do so sooner rather than later. The sooner that you order, the smaller the chance of being caught in the delay and then waiting for us to catch up with the backlog.

To see our full range of designs go to http://dixdesign.com/. For our mobile site go to http://dixdesign.com/mobile.



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Boat Plans Aluminum | 2013 Wooden Boat Show at Mystic

Boat Plans Aluminum

The Wooden Boat Show is to be held at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut again this year. This is the 22nd running of this annual show, which has settled comfortably into this beautiful location as an apparent permanent venue. Mystic Seaport is a wonderful place for a family day filled with a mixture of boats and maritime history. If you have not been there before, this is your opportunity to experience boats of today as well as how they were built and operated hundreds of years ago. Mystic Seaport is a living museum of the sea, so much of the shoreside support infrastructure and industry that went along with boatbuilding, trading, fishing etc. is represented there for visitors to experience.

Our inside exhibit at the 2012 Wooden Boat Show

 We will be there again this year. We have exhibited out Paper Jet prototype (Sail #001) on this show every year since 2007. We have booth 4B in Tent A on the Village Green, where you can see a display of a selection of our designs and buy plans or a copy of my book "Shaped by Wind & Wave". We can also take your order for a pre-cut plywood kit for many of our plywood designs. The first time that we exhibited the Paper Jet it received the "Outstanding Innovation Award" on the Concourse Delegance. Paper Jet will be on the lawn outside Tent A and will occasionally be out sailing.
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Outstanding Innovation Award 2007

Come to Mystic Seaport to see a wide range of wooden boats, ranging from my modern little skiff to beautifully built modern classics or even to take a ride on an old steam-driven ferry. You wont be sorry that you took the time out to visit this place of yesteryear.

P.S. I hoped that we would have the prototype of the DS15  at the show as well but it will not happen this year. The builder is not yet ready to show his boat.

Visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ .

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Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum | New Dinghy Launches in Russia

Pontoon Boat Plans Aluminum

Similar to my previous post, a new boat has also been launched in the Eastern Europe (actually two new launches). That is where the similarity ends.

This one is a thoroughly modern high-performance dinghy, rather than the small classic cruising Cape Henry 21. It is Paper Jet #65 and was launched in Moscow, Russia. Built by Konstantin Denison and Den Vakar, she is striking in her red and white colour scheme.

Ready for launch. Looks fast even when standing still.

Raising sail for the first time, with a 420 rig for training.

Paper Jet looks interesting upright or capsized.

They are using a 420 rig as a training rig for the first season before moving up to a permanent Paper Jet rig. These boats are a lot of fun to sail and can challenge the sailors to push their limits.

The other launching is an Argie 15, also in Moscow, Russia. She was built by Andrey Borodihin, who built her as a family fun boat. He reports that they have enjoyed sailing their boat, with fun and exciting sailing.

Andreys Argie 15 in a quiet moment.

Argie 15 being chased by a smiley balloon.

Not only for calm weather, here the Argie shows her strong wind ability.

Andrey is very happy with his Argie 15 and her performance.

To read more about these designs and others, go to our main website at 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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Yacht Boat Plans | Hacker Update

Yacht Boat Plans

Today I moved our website and all associated systems to a new server. All is up and running except that we have lost our mobile website due to the change. When I have the time to do so, I will build a new mobile site. In the meantime can you please use our main website at dixdesign.com for mobile access as well.

To make this easier, I have simplified our homepage and removed outdated or redundant info and links. It is cleaner, loads faster, is easier to read and is better for zooming to access links. It will be a big benefit if our Turkish supporters will also be able to view it.

When I do build a new mobile site I will announce it on this blog.

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Boat Plans Bateau | Georgetown Wooden Boat Show

Boat Plans Bateau

Georgetown Wooden Boat Show takes place on Front Street, in the waterside tourist area of the very quaint Georgetown, South Carolina. We exhibited the Paper Jet there in 2009 and won the Special Award because of the innovative features of the new design that hadnt been seen in those parts before. Our very modern little yellow boat stood out in the midst of traditional wooden craft.

Paper Jet set up and waiting for the 2009 show to open.

We are going to be there again this year and we will have company. Two local Paper Jet builders will have their boats on the show also. This is a great opportunity for those who are interested in building this design to see the boats in the flesh, look at the details and discuss the building process. Or just to come along and look at what has proven to be a very eye-catching and interesting design. It never fails to draw crowds wherever we show it. The PJ is very different from any other boats that are normally seen on wooden boat shows.

At the time of our last appearance in Georgetown the Paper Jet sail numbers had just reached 35. Now we are at more than twice that number, with numbers 77 & 78 supplied in the past few weeks. We now have 13 PJs on the water or being built on the US East Coast and those numbers will continue to grow.

Kits are now available through our office, cut for us by Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) in Annapolis MD. Dont try to order from them, they will not sell it to you. You must order from us, via our USA plywood kits page . CLC have cut 6 kits for this design in the past year and delivered very high quality along with excellent service. You can order just the plans to build with your own materials or you can order a plywood kit that has all plywood components accurately cut on a CNC machine, packaged and shipped to your door ready for you to start building. You can also order a kit of epoxy, fibreglass and consumables needed to build the PJ.

Our East Coast PJ numbers are now growing to where we can start arranging regattas. We have a tentative arrangement in place to hold the first Paper Jet East Coast Championships in 2014, as part of the WOOD Regatta on Charleston Harbor. With enough support, that can become an annual event.

To see more about this and our other designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/ and please also come visit us at the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show if you are in that area.

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Wooden Boat Plans And Kits | Wrap up of Georgetown Wooden Boat Show

Wooden Boat Plans And Kits

Last weekend we exhibited our Paper Jet on the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show in South Carolina. This was our 2nd time at this show, having been there in 2009 and won a special award for our Paper Jet. This time she wasnt lonely and was in the company of two sisters from the area. The show was on Saturday 19th October, on the Georgetown waterfront.

Three Paper Jets at Georgetown Wooden Boat Show

In the photo above, the yellow boat in the middle is my prototype, which you have probably seen many times before. The turquoise boat on the right belongs to Ted Bullock of Barrier Island Boatbuilders in Charleston. His boat is not yet complete and was displayed with the mast free-standing and no sails. The white boat in the background belongs to Bob Turner of Pawleys Island and was completed the week before the show, with the mainsail being set for the first time at the show.

Bobs Mylar sails were supplied by i-Sails . My sails are Dacron and supplied by Baxter Sails but they also offer them in Mylar. For those who are interested, you can compare the two sails in the photos. Mine is a fathead sail shaped to my original design. Bobs Mylar sail is a more modern squaretop sail to the i-Sails design that is being used in Europe. It has a marginally wider head and considerably less roach.

It will be interesting to compare the efficiency of the two sails when we can sail against each other. We intended to do that the evening before the show but heavy rain washed that plan away.

As always, my good wife, Dehlia, was at the show with me. Over the years she has become very competent and knowledgeable of our designs. She is a big help to me for talking to existing and potential builders of our boats and only has to refer the more technical questions to me.

Dehlia chatting to a visitor at the show.

We had a good flow of visitors all day. We were pleased to be visited by a few people who are already building our boats, including one who is building the Didi 29 Retro with cruising rig in North Carolina. Thanks to all who came to chat, we will be back again in a few years.

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

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