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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Boat Plans Uk | Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race 2014

Boat Plans Uk

The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race is held annually, with schooners of all types and sizes racing each other from the Bay Bridge North of Annapolis to the southern end of Chesapeake Bay. Starting at 13h30 on Thursday 16th October, this is the 25th running of the annual race, which was started by the late Capt. Laine Briggs.This is really two parties, one in Baltimore, Maryland, the other in Portsmouth, Virginia, linked by a yacht race.

I have sailed in this race twice before, on steel boats that I had designed. In 2004 it was on the 60ft gaff schooner "Ancilla II", then owned by Renny Barnes. About 5 or 6 years later I did it on the  Hout Bay 40 "Adventure" that was owned by Charley Holmes.

This year I will sail with Dan Hall on his GRP staysail schooner-rigged Shearwater 45 "Apella". She was built in Cape Town by Patrick Fraser. Patrick commissioned the Shearwater 45 design and built two of them, one for himself and the other for his colleague Denis Colclough. The one that we will sail was the boat owned by Denis and was originally named "Wave Maiden".

"Apella", snapped by solo-circumnavigator Ant Steward at a recent
chance meeting when leaving Newport RI.

The Shearwater 45 has a modern underbody below her classic good looks. It allows these boats to show surprising speed under most wind conditions.

The two schooners were both fitted out with very distinctive colours and detailing, styled after the very luxurious private Pullman carriages that were used by wealthy families to travel on the railroads of North America.

Sistership "Moonbeam" out of the water, showing underbody.

Gorgeous interior of "Apella", looking aft

Looking forward.

The cutter-rigged version of this design won two boat of the year awards at the 2000 Annapolis Sailboat Show. Read more about the Shearwater 45 in an earlier blog post.

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

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Boat Plans Catamaran | Sneak Peak at Cape Charles 32

Boat Plans Catamaran

I started to design the Cape Charles 32 a few years ago, commissioned by a client in Maryland. He passed away without having built the boat and it slid to the back shelf, with other designs having higher priority. There it stayed, waiting for a new client to take it on.

Word did get out about this incomplete design and I occasionally received enquiries about when it would be complete or when they could start building. Somehow there was always too much pressure from other designs on my board. Earlier this year the Cape Charles 32 found a spot on my board and is moving forward again and two will start construction when I have the necessary drawings ready.

In the process it has gone through a metamorphosis, prompted by the change of primary client who helps to steer the direction of the design. Eventually the concept of the original client, of a gaff rigged coastal cruiser with simple traditional layout, will be available alongside the version on which I am now working, as shown here.

Preliminary Marconi rig for Cape Charles 32

The square-top mainsail has been described as the modern equivalent of a gaff rig. It behaves differently from a gaff rig but has some of the same advantages and it is prettier than a leg o mutton mainsail. I think that it will work well on this cruiser. As seen here it is preliminary and it may change in some way before completion.

The new client for the Cape Charles 32 likes the interior layout of the Didi 950 and asked if something similar will work for the CC32. When I looked at this possibility I realised that the two boats are almost identical in overall dimensions. The concepts and hull shapes are very different, of course, but in some ways the Cape Charles 32 is the Didi 950 taken back a few steps in time.

Cape Charles 32 Accommodation

The layout will be very comfortable and offers good privacy for two couples or a small family. Full standing headroom extends over all standing areas of this boat because of the horizontal cabin crown. The U-shape galley is very secure at sea, with enough counter area for entertaining in harbour.

Profile and Underbody of the Cape Charles 32

Hull shape and construction is very much as for the smaller sisters in this design range. They are the Cape Cutter 19, the Cape Henry 21 and the Cape May 25. The family is growing.

With a draft of 1.2m (3 11"), the Cape Charles 32 will be a good boat for thin water cruising. If you do run her aground, you can hop over the side to push her off again. That will get you into private anchorages that are out of bounds to deep keel cruisers.

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Boat Trailer Plans Australia | 2014 MIDDLE SEA RACE A LOOK AT THE COMPARATIVE RESULTS AND OTHER STUFF

Boat Trailer Plans Australia

There are still many boats making it for Malta, some in the race, some that had abandoned and taken a short from Sicily not turning around Pantelleria. After a very rough night the winds are still over 30k, some boats registering well over 40K. The ones that know what kind of sea this winds can rise on the Med know what they are passing through.

Here wild Joe, a Reichel Pugh 60 finishing the race.

Many boats retired due to the weather but also many due to breakage and the situation is not clear because that "invitation" from the Coat Guard to suspend the race (that I talked about on the last post) in what regards the boats that were near Pantelleria it was not an invitation but an order from the Port Captain to suspend racing and enter the port (the race rounded Pantelleria Island). There are boats that could have just stop racing not because they have abandoned but because they thought the race was suspended. Not a word about this on the official site but some here as well as photos:

http://www.farevela.net/2014/10/22/rolex-middle-sea-race-durissima-burrasca-flotta-nel-canale-sicilia-i-ritirati-barche-rifugiate-pantelleria-nessun-incidente-foto/

That A13 that was making a fantastic race had really bad luck: they lost the mast at 20nm from the finish line.

Regarding the sea conditions these words by a very experienced racer (crew on the winning J122) are meaningful: “The sea was big, it was very windy, we dont know exactly how windy because the windex at the top of the rig blew off! – yes this race is up there with the toughest Hobarts I have done. In fact we were saying on board when was the last time we saw a sea like this? and I had to say it was during a windy Sydney Hobart but to have those conditions for over 24 hours is very rare, almost exceptional. You are always learning in this game and the experience showed me that it is good to go with a bloody good crew! Truly, it is the only way you can sail the boat like we did. If you dont have a good crew, you just wont get through it or you will break things and when it comes down to it – a good crew is what you need and we have done a lot of miles together on Artie, they are my nephews, my friends and we have been together for thousands of miles at sea.”

And this leads us to the winner on compensated (IRC ans ORC), a J122, a local boat (Malta) that had made just an incredible race. They did not manage to beat the first racing Class40 (a Pogo S2) that was about 2h 45m faster but they managed to be faster than a very fast XP44  (second on compensated). Regarding boats of the same size and type (performance cruisers) they were only beaten by this beauty:

That proved the Neo 400 is not only a beauty but a hell of a sailboat even on nasty seas. I had posted about it on the old thread but it will deserve a new post here...soon. The Neo 400 did not only beat that J122 (Artie) by 4 hours as it was faster than any 40class boat, beating that racing Pogo by more than an hour and the second (that was also beaten by the first J122) by more than 6 hous!!!!

What a boat, Ceccareli got this one right: it is not only able to win on compensated ( 3rd in ORC ) as it is incredibly fast in real time, that in the end is what it matters, at least for me.

A M34, the small racing boat that was used for the "Tour the France", showed once more that it is a very seaworthy boat, not only finishing, but making a great time. Also great races from a brand new Azuree 46 and a Grand Soleil 46, two comfortable cruisers that show that you can have comfort speed and seaworthiness at a reasonable price.

Kuka-light is a very fast 42ft but it seems that this year they did not manage to finish. Here they are on the water, on the stormy seas:

and Jolokia is an old Vor 60. They finished this race but the result was not good, They were beaten in real time by the small Neo 400.


Some selected results by real time order.

Coockson 50 d4 h2 m14 s;20 Carkeek 47 d4 h4 m12 s25 ; Swan 60 d4 h6 m7 s39; Swan 82 d4 h6 m11 s3; Farr 52 OD d4 h6 m26 s40; Cookson 50 d4 h6 m31 s55;  Neo 400 d4 h9 m30 s0; Pogo S2Class40 d4 h10 m49 s0;  DK46 d4 h13 m7 s0; Sydney GTS 43 d4 h13 m57 s51; J 122 d4 h13 m35 s5; XP44 d4 h14 m1 s11; BM Class40 d4 h15 m59 s55 Swan 45 d4 h16 m3 s54; Azuree 46 d4  h17 m9  s5; Grand Soleil 46 d4 h19 m55 s52 ; M34 d4 h20 m45 s19 20; j122 d4 h21 m40 s35 ; Swan 48 d5 h0 m9 s18; 

A word for the winner in compensated in ORC and IRC, Artie, a J122 (their words):
“It was a very very tough race. The crew have worked around the clock from day one and the race didnt start well for us but during day two we started to get our the shifts right and co-skippers Sebastian and Christian Ripard did a great job on the tactics and the end result was a series of correct decision that put us in a good position before the storm arrived. As always, having a good crew on board allows you to give the effort an extra push, with a good boat and an excellent crew are intention at the start was to win ...But now having had the opportunity to reflect on the race, even more important than winning was the achievement of actually finishing the race in the conditions that we had out there. Even near the end my worry was not finishing, right up until the end, we knew boats were in difficulties, which was very unfortunate and that was playing on my mind until we crossed the finish line. I would like to emphasize that one thing we really promote on Artie, throughout the year, is that we have young dinghy sailors on board and a main objective is to get these youngsters out sailing, combining them with our regular crew to create the future sailors that will be representing Malta.”

And from the Neo 400 (translated from Italian with some liberty):
"With us was a veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race and he said he never would thought that in the Mediterranean the sea could be like that with eight meters with a breaking and a a that has increased quickly from 20K to 25K and then up to 35K and 40 knots, so constant, relentless. At the end we saw 48 knots, without a break for 200 miles. We sailed between Lampedusa and Malta, for us the worst part, with storm jib and the mainsail with two reefs. We were consistently between 16 and 18 knots, with peaks around 22 and beyond. At 22 knots the log was out of water and did not work anymore, so we do not know how much speed we made, but it was really tough. The unusual thing was that the wind never fell, normally happen to take a blow at the Middle Sea, has happened to me often in the past, but this time the wind was violent, has been increasing steadily and there were never moments to rest as usually occurs. 40-45 knots for at least 12 consecutive hours, it was really hard.

Between Pantelleria and Lampedusa the sea was already very difficult and for us the wind was still about 25 knots. On the leeward of Lampedusa we sailed at 18 knots with flat water A3, two reefs on the main and J3, beautiful, then once out of the shelter of Lampedusa, well, the sea clearly advised us imediate prudence. An extreme situation. Waves as ever Ive ever seen in Mediterranean and we manage of the boat in safety without giving up performance. Going to the bow was not easy, so we did it all without risking; the boat has behaved very well and we have not broken anything, I noticed a excellent behavior under storm jib. The arrival in the channel between Malta and Comino was surreal, at night, in continuous glide at 16 knots, with rocks on the right and left....

Then along the coast of Malta till the finish a continuous glide at 16 knots,...the race committee could not believe that we had taken so little time doing that Utrecht. Very tiring the last 200 miles, following the first three days of light winds,....It was a race where you, besides the result (that leaved us very satisfied) you realize how important was to bring the boat home with all the crew safely. We have outsailed 50 fters and beaten boats like the B2 and a Cookson 50..."

http://www.farevela.net/2014/10/23/rolex-middle-sea-race-durissima-j122-maltese-artie-vince-in-overall-racconto-delle-condizioni-limite-parte-paolo-semeraro-overall-neo400-carbon-foto-burrasca/



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Boat Designs And Plans | Paper Jet flies at Cape Hatteras

Boat Designs And Plans

Two weeks ago I towed my Paper Jet to Cape Hatteras for a few days, for my annual Iguana Surf Club Fathers Day Weekend of surfing/camping/sailing and general soul revival after a very hectic year. We camp next to the water at Frisco Woods Campground, on the shores of Pamlico Sound. When there is surf I spend much time at the beach. When the surf is not good I spend more time sailing.

This year the surf conditions werent great and I only spent half a day surfing when the wind swung into the right direction and there was a good combination of offshore breeze and swell for a few hours. That gave me time to take my Paper Jet on a few outings on the Sound. There were thunder storms in the area part of the weekend, giving some spectacular light shows and heavy downpours, with accompanying gales that arrived very swiftly and dramatically.

The storms gave some dramatic backdrops when I was sailing one evening and Dave Keegan took full advantage to take some interesting photos.

Rigging my Paper Jet on the shore of Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.

Beam-reaching away from the camera in a patch of sunlight.

Very threatening clouds but they were miles away.

Sailing on chocolate wrapper silver paper.

About an hour after these photos were taken a violent storm arrived. I anticipated it and felt it likely to be strong enough to pick up my 50kg boat and cause serious damage. I put her onto her trailer and hitched that to my car both for anchorage and shelter from the expected storm. When it came it had 40-50 knots of wind in it and later in the night there were gusts of 60+ knots recorded. Being anchored to the trailer likely saved her from being cart-wheeled along the shore.

The next evening was much more pleasant and Curtis Watson took these beautiful photos of her in the very pretty sunset.

This is a very photogenic boat.

Relaxed end to a strenuous day.

Please visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ to see more about this and our other designs.

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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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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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Wood Boat Plans And Kits | That Puzzling Paper Jet

Wood Boat Plans And Kits

The Paper Jet was a plywood kit boat right from the start, from the first thoughts of the concept that started to take form in my mind. Later we added a build-from-plans option to allow more people to build it, those who prefer or need to build from scratch. This could be that they need to reduce cost, they prefer the challenge of doing the complete build themselves or for other reason. Until now, whether building from plans or a kit, jointing of the long panels of the 4mm plywood hull and deck has been done by means of butt joints that are reinforced both sides with glass tape.

Glass-taped butt joints on Paper Jet hull panels

 Now we are up to Paper Jet #87, which is to be built in Weston, Missouri. The builder asked if it would be possible to supply his kit with jigsaw jointing of the long panels instead of the butt joints. This would ease the construction process for most builders, so I have reworked the panel files to add jigsaw joints.

Preparing jigsaw joints for assembly.

To read more about jigsaw joints, see an article that I wrote on my Boatbuilder Tips blog.

For now the jigsaw jointed Paper Jet kits are only available in USA but the files will be available to all of our kit suppliers worldwide. If you want to build this design from a kit and want it to have jigsaw joints, email me or contact your choice from out kit supplier list. I will send the jigsaw-jointed kit files to the supplier.

Jigsaw joints are impractical for building from scratch, so those building from plans must continue to use the glass-taped butt joints.

Paper Jet #14, built by Mauro Bertaccini of Ravenna, Italy.

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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 Building Plans And Kits | Paper Jet Designed for Junior Sailors

Boat Building Plans And Kits

I designed the Paper Jet primarily to be a training boat for teenagers. The thought to design such a boat started when I was on sailing committees in South Africa. One of the subjects most often discussed was how to keep the juniors in sailing. They are the future of sailing, which is experiencing a gradual ageing of the participants. If we cant keep the youth interested in boats and sailing then they will wander off into more exciting/interesting activities, to the detriment of sailing as a whole.

The problem as I see it is a combination of factors, some inter-connected. There are no-doubt other factors but these are the ones that are apparent to me.

1. Boats that are pushed by clubs and national bodies but are uninspiring to young sailors, in terms of performance and aesthetics. Most of these boats were advanced designs when first developed but are now very dated and unexciting by modern standards.
2. The high cost of acquiring and maintaining competitive boats in the Olympic program. These boats are one-design to reduce costs and maintain level competition. However, they are built to very close tolerances and with top grade hardware, sails, rigs, foils etc, all of which cost a bundle of money when new. Much of that cost is repetitive as well, due to regular replacement to stay competitive. Most families cannot make this level of financial commitment, so the boats become progressively less competitive and the sailors lose interest.
3. The high cost of upgrading performance/excitement/challenge to move into the next class up the ladder of the Olympic track. The need to sell the older boat, probably at a loss, then buy a competitive new boat that would be faster but not necessarily much more exciting, makes this an expensive process.
4. Too much emphasis on winning and too little on getting enjoyment out of boats. This has resulted in very structured sailing activities for the juniors. They do not have enough freedom to use their boats for fun instead of being shepherded by adults in sail-training programs that are designed only to improve racing skills, not to engender a love of boats and boating. Fifty years ago we had much more freedom to sail in the manner that we wanted. In doing that we raced informally (two boats near to each other are always racing), learned how to get the most speed from our boats, how to capsize them, how to right them, how to sail them on the limits of the boats ability and beyond our own limits, which served to push our own limits to the next level. We went onto the lake with only the need to be home for dinner and to take total responsibility for ourselves and our boats until we returned. In the process we developed instinctive sailing abilities that can come only from doing, not from being taught theory or chased around a race course by instructors. There were no rescue boats on duty on weekdays, so we had to learn how to rescue ourselves and our buddies. We became totally self-sufficient, self-reliant and confident in our own abilities. We learned to take responsibility for our own actions in a way that is missing from much of modern society. We also learned to love our boats and sailing so intensely that most of the guys in my group moved on to careers in the boating industry.
5. Too much emphasis on windward-leeward racing. This may be good for emphasising the need for improving technique in slow boats but it produces the most boring type of sailing imaginable, either to participate or to watch. The most fun and exciting experience of sailing happens on reaching courses and the sailing establishment seems to have colluded to remove this from the racing.

What has all this to do with the Paper Jet? The concept of this boat developed in my mind and then in my computer, with these factors in my mind. I was developing a boat to solve some of those problems. No boat can fix everything that is wrong in junior sailing but I wanted to draw a boat that would have the ability to at least help with the problems. It produced a boat with the following characteristics.

1. Very modern and exciting to look at, it looks fast even when standing still. Wherever I take it, people come to admire it and talk about it. Juniors love the aesthetics of this very sexy-looking boat.
2. It can morph from a very basic free-standing una rig for single-handing with minimal strings to pull and understand, through a conventional sloop rig for double-handed sailing with a few more strings, to a powered-up double-handed skiff with fathead mainsail, asymmetrical spinnaker and trapeze, simply by adding or removing components from the modular rig.
3. This happens without changing boats and at moderate cost. One family can sail the same boat in different formats to suit the people who are sailing it. Or the same crew can vary the power of the rig and speed of the boat to suit wind, water and personal mood, from relaxed unpressured cruising through to very challenging maxed-out adrenaline-producing low-flying. It can morph from one rig to another in minutes, then back again.
4. Planing high-performance hull with low drag at all speeds. It accelerates smoothly, with no bow-wave hump to overcome in order to plane at high speed. This means that it can plane in moderate breezes even with the smallest rig.
5. Proportioned for teenagers rather than adults, so that juniors can potentially get more performance from the boat than their larger and heavier parents.
6. Hull and deck weight of under 45kg (100lb), easily manhandled by young crew.
7. Able to be built by amateurs with basic woodworking skills to reduce the cost of getting afloat.
8. Traditional rig details to reduce expensive purchased hardware.

Paper Jet rigs, deck plan & cockpit section. Click to enlarge.

The drawing above shows the overall concept of the Paper Jet. In the plan view, you can see that it has two mast positions, linked by a plywood X-structure that spreads the rig loads into the hull and holds the jib sheet fairleads. The una rig at right has the mast free-standing in the forward mast position, which rakes it aft for good helm balance. The sloop rig at centre has the same mast moved to the upright aft mast position, with only the standing rigging and jib added. The skiff rig at left keeps all of the components of the sloop rig except for the removable topmast (there is a socket with locating bolt at the hounds) and mainsail, which are replaced by a taller topmast, fathead mainsail and spinnaker gear. The retracting bowsprit is linked to the spinnaker halliard so that one line hoists the asymmetrical and pushes out the bowsprit. The other end of the same line retrieves the spinnaker and pulls in the bowsprit.

The cockpit section shows that this boat has a narrow waterline relative to overall beam. That produces a boat that is very responsive and needs fast reactions and agility. It is not a boat for beginners, who should first learn to sail on a Sunfish or other less challenging boat. After that they will have the skills needed to sail this boat with the una rig then progress to the other versions.

Dudley single-handing with skiff rig. Billy Black photo.

The wooden mast that I designed for it is sealed and buoyant. If capsized it lies on its side instead of turning turtle. Most dinghies that lie on their side will blow away from the crew in strong winds if they lose contact with the boat. They cant catch up with the boat when swimming in a lifejacket. Not so with the Paper Jet, which stays right where it capsizes, with the immersed wing serving as a sea-anchor.

Andre Siebert and daughter with sloop rig, saluting the club commodore during the opening cruise.

Dan Siegal sailing with the una rig at Mystic Seaport. Billy Black photo.

Righting from a capsize is not difficult, using the righting lines under the wings. Hanging from the righting line and pushing with feet against the immersed bottom of the hull pulls it upright, generally without a need to get onto the daggerboard.

Two Paper Jets capsized. It lies and waits to be rerighted. Billy Black photo.

The  Paper Jet is well-suited to club use, with boats able to be built by amateur or professional builders, working from plans (supplied with full-size patterns of all plywood components) or from pre-cut plywood kits available from suppliers in various countries (Click for suppliers). That makes it suitable also for club, school and community woodworking projects to build up local fleets.

Two Paper Jets are a compact load on a shared trailer.

I have no aspirations for the  Paper Jet to become an Olympic class. What it can be is an affordable, exciting and versatile part of the training route toward much more costly skiffs like the 49er. For those who dont have aspirations to Olympic skiff sailing, the Paper Jet can be all that they need.

Dudley single-handing with asymmetrical. Dave Baxter photo.

Although intended for junior sailors, this boat has attracted a different type of sailor. It has earned a following of men in their 30s and 40s, sailing both crewed and single-handed. At time of writing, we have sold plans and/or kits for this design to builders in 18 countries, with numbers rising in North America and Europe.

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

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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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