Boden Boat Plans Australia | Wickedly Accurate Didi 29 Retro Project in North Carolina

Boden Boat Plans Australia

I designed the Didi 29 Retro for Mike Kopman, a professional charter skipper who lives in my hometown of Hout Bay, South Africa. Mikes concept was to adapt the Didi 26 cruiser/racer design to a more traditional concept, with counter stern, bulwarks, boxy trunk cabin and a big gaff rig, for participation in the Caribbean classic racing circuit. Mike received the first CNC kit to this design, supplied by CKD Boats in South Africa. The second kit went to Bruce Mierke of Murphy, North Carolina, which he ordered from our list of plywood kits.

Mike Kopman has been building his workshop ahead of the boatbuilding project, so that hasnt started yet. Bruce Mierke started his boat a few months ago and is moving along very well. These photos are of Bruces build. He began with some smaller items ahead of starting the hull, so I am showing those first.

Rudder

Foil of lifting keel

Beaver-tail ballast bulb

Carbon spars for gaff rig.

Bulkheads and framework set up on building stocks.

This design has a spade rudder that is installed in a cassette so that it can be lifted out through the cockpit for trailing or shallow moorings. Bruce has added a motor well also, in which he will run a Torqueedo electric outboard. The casings that contain the outboard well and rudder cassette can be seen on the photo above and others in this series.

Bottom panels installed, rudder cassette and Torqueedo test-fitted

Radiused section of skin completed.

Aft view, with hardwood-veneered transom

Plug of engine well and rudder cassette in place.

Bruce has modified my rudder cassette design to allow some steerage with the rudder partially raised to assist when approaching shallow moorings with the keel raised.

He is very happy with the quality and accuracy of the kit that we supplied, describing it as "wicked accurate".

For info on our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/

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Boat Plans Bolger | Search for Missing Yacht in North Atlantic

Boat Plans Bolger

Last week a 12m yacht, the "Cheeki Rafiki",  sailing from Caribbean to UK, started taking on water in mid-Atlantic. They were obviously in a serious situation and contact with the yacht was lost early hours of Friday when about 600 miles off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A search was started by the United States Coast Guard and the upturned hull of a sailboat was spotted by a tanker crew that reported it but did not investigate further. The search was called off by USCG on Sunday, about 48 hours after the search started.

The USCG press release said "We appreciate the assistance of the U.S. Air Force, Canadian and the three merchant vessels helping us to conduct a thorough search so far from shore," said Capt. Anthony Popiel, 1st Coast Guard District chief of response. "We are extremely disappointed that we were not able to locate the sailors during the course of this extensive search. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families during this difficult time."

There followed a huge outcry against calling off the search so soon and it has been resumed today. This was after many thousands of people signed petitions calling on the USCG to resume the search and many private yacht owners vowed to go out there in their own boats to search if the USCG would not do it.

I have some questions.

1)  Isnt it a primary function of the USCG to go out there and search for whoever is missing or in trouble? This is a department of US government, paid for by the people. Is it that strapped for cash that it cant search longer than 48 hours for four people who are in dire straits, when they have a pretty good idea of where they are?

2) We have watched with fascination how carefully the Southern Indian Ocean has been searched for a missing aircraft. I accept that searching for a missing yacht or liferaft with four people aboard cant be compared with a search for a plane with hundreds. But they know where this boat is, it was even seen from a ship. They are not guessing or relying on foggy evidence to locate a start point for the search. The boat is there and it is/was afloat. If the crew abandoned ship into the liferaft, as seems the most likely scenario, the raft is likely to be downwind or downcurrent, or a combination of the two, of the position of the abandoned yacht. Why would the USCG assume that the crew were in the water and unable to survive when they had a liferaft available for just such an emergency? People have survived for many months in liferafts, surviving tumultuous storms and everything else that nature has thrown at them before eventually being found.

3) Isnt it maritime law that seamen are required to assist each other when in distress? A report in Metro News says that "the overturned hull of the boat was spotted by a passing tanker shortly after they disappeared but it was not inspected as there was no sign of the crew". People have survived in capsized or even sunken boats for considerable time, about two weeks in the most recent case. Why would the captain of the ship not stop his vessel and investigate. He saw the capsized boat. Unless it was storm conditions he should have been able to launch a boat to cross to the yacht. Banging on the hull and listening for a response would have told them if anyone was alive inside. Seeing it, reporting it and moving on did nothing to assist the crew aside from recording a start point for the search. Is commercial profit so important to the ships owners that they would not do everything in their power to ascertain that there was nobody there to rescue?

Thanks for reading my rant.

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Wooden Boat Plans And Kits | Dont Underload Your Diesel Engine

Wooden Boat Plans And Kits

I have been around boats with diesel engines for more than 40 years. In that time I have heard many times that we should not run a diesel engine under light loads for long periods because "it can glaze the cylinders". Another statement has been "diesel engines like to be loaded". Maybe you have also been told or read this but do you really understand what is going on with your diesel, why it is so important to run it with healthy loads and why you should not over-power your boat?

A turbo charger turbine wheel fouled with soot and fuel, the result of chronic underloading. This gunge also fouls your upper cylinders, exhaust valves and exhaust system. From there it is washed out with the cooling water into the water on which you enjoy your boating. Photo courtesy of Steve DAntonio.

I am a proponent of reasonable size motors in sailboats but often deal with owners who want to put much bigger motors in their boats than I recommend. My 36ft boat had 20hp, my 34 had 12hp and my 38 footer had 18hp. That 12hp could push my boat against a 40 knot wind on flat water. Sure, it was slow progress and the motor was working very hard but it could do it. In less extreme conditions the motor wasnt just ticking over to move her at reasonable speed. A 20hp motor would still be acceptable on that boat but anything bigger would be over-powering it.

Professional Boatbuilder magazine has an enlightening article on this subject on their website, written by their technical editor Steve DAntonio. Steve also works with owners and builders through his own business, Steve DAntonio Marine Consulting, Inc.

The grooves that retain oil in a cylinder wall, known as crosshatch, can be seen here. Frequent light load operation can wear away this pattern; known as cylinder glazing, it exacerbates blow-by and the issues that accompany it. Photo courtesy of Steve DAntonio.

I dont want to repeat here what Steve writes about so clearly in his article, just to point out again that you do harm to your motor, to your bank account and to the environment by over-powering your boat, which inevitably results in you running your motor at speeds that will cause problems. Those problems wont only materialise "in the long run", they can start to appear when the motor has run for no more than a few thousand hours. You will be inviting self-inflicted pain and heartache on yourself and future owners of the boat.

Please read Steves article. And for info on my designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com.

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Boat Plans Bruce Roberts | A Didi Mini Goes Cruising

Boat Plans Bruce Roberts

The first boat to our Didi Mini design, drawn to the Mini 650 Rule, was built by CKD Boats of Cape Town for owner Mike ONeill. She was named "Warlock" and never raced in anger. Mike is a superyacht captain and seldom in the same location as his little boat. Eventually he sold her and the new owner commissioned Fluid Yachts, based in the gorgeous town of Knysna, to transform her into a little fast cruiser. The photos below show "Warlock" in her original form and the transformed "iCandy".

Changes include a reworked interior with as many comforts as could be fitted into such a small hull, extension of the deck to the transom, swept-spreader rig for easier handling and a retro-fitted lifting keel to replace the 2m deep fixed keel.

"Warlock" with 2m fixed keel

"Warlock" had the old style Mk1 aft deck.

"iCandy" with lifting keel to access shallower anchorages.

"iCandy" with extended aft deck for a bigger cockpit.

"iCandy" with tall swept-spreader rig for easier control.

"iCandy" now has a retro-fitted aluminium lifting keel.

Keel-lifting tackle of "iCandy".

Looking aft from the massive forward double berth into the saloon.

The new lifting keel of "iCandy" is to our design and can be retro-fitted to any of the Didi Mini or Didi Cruise-Mini series designs. Keel-down draft is 2m, the same as the fixed keel, but it can lift to reduce draft to 1m, for access to shallow moorings or anchorages.

For more about our Didi Mini design series or our other designs, please visit our main website at http://dixdesign.com/ .

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Boat Plans Skiff | modern sail materials North Cloth Industrial Fibers

Boat Plans Skiff

by Peter Mahr and Brian Doyle
http://na.northsails.com/North_Cloth/industrial_fibers.html

Almost every piece of modern sailcloth begins life as an industrial fiber. While the brand names of many of these fibers are well known to sailors, their basic properties are less well understood. The characteristics of these fibers are an important factor to consider when choosing sails for your boat. Over the past few years there have been some significant developments in high performance fibers that have applications in sailcloth. The result is a greater variety of options for performance sailcloth makers and their customers, allowing them to select the blend of performance, durability and cost that best suits their needs.

Polyester
Polyester is todays "classic" sailcloth fiber. It is often called by the Dupont trade name DACRON® although there are other suppliers of polyester yarn used in sailcloth. Polyester is widely used for its combination of reasonably low stretch, good strength, low cost and durability. Because it can be heated and shrunk during weaving to form a tight, stable woven cloth, polyester woven sailcloth remains a good choice for cruising sails and certain racing sails. Polyester is available in many types. Dupont’s Type 52 is a "high-tenacity" premium fiber offering a balance of higher strength, lower stretch and maximum shrinkage. Other premium polyesters, with comparably excellent properties at more attractive prices, are now available from Asian and European suppliers. Their use in sailcloth has increased over the last few years at the expense of Dacron.

Nylon
Nylon is used for most downwind sails because it is strong and light. Nylon is relatively stretchy, allowing it to absorb shock loads and making it easier to fly and more stable in wavy seas than a polyester material would be. Dying this fiber is easier than any other and it is often available in a variety of colors.

Aramids
A popular class of high performance fiber in laminated sailcloth is the Aramids. The most well known aramids are Kevlar™ (a Dupont trademark) and Twaron™ (made by Teijin/Twaron of Japan). Sails made with aramid fiber are lighter than woven Dacron or Polyester laminates, and have greater effective wind ranges. The tradeoff is higher cost and shorter sail life. The stiffer Aramid fiber is more susceptible to sunlight (UV) damage and breakdown due to folding and flogging.

Aramids are produced in a number of different styles, with different balances of stretch, flex strength, weight and cost. High modulus (low stretch) types such as Kevlar 49 and Twaron 2200 are the most appropriate choice for racing sails. A variation of Kevlar called “Edge” was promoted a couple of years ago because it had slightly higher initial modulus. North’s testing revealed that this effect disappeared almost immediately with use. This type has since been discontinued.

Another aramid fiber is Technora, which is similar to medium modulus Kevlar in chemistry and performance. Initially it has a bit higher strength but loses strength more rapidly in UV making it similar in durability in most applications. It is commonly seen with a black coating, which is intended to provide some UV screening.

Vectran
Vectran is a LCP (liquid crystal polymer) fiber sold by Hoechst. Vectran’s stretch resistance is nearly as high as a standard modulus aramid, and it is somewhat stronger when new. It differs from aramids in its chemistry and has somewhat better flex resistance as long as it is shielded well from UV. Under UV exposure, it degrades more rapidly than aramids and far faster than Spectra/Dyneema.

Carbon Fiber
First used successfully in the 1992 Americas Cup, carbon fiber laminates provide exceptionally low stretch and light weight at the expense of higher cost and somewhat shorter life span compared to an aramid sail. Careful R+D and on the water testing is critical with this fiber. Carbon is available in a wide variety of types, only a few of which can tolerate the flexing seen in normal sail use. Laminating techniques are also very critical to get the available high performance as well as to achieve the best possible durability. Experience over that last few years on top boats with 3DL carbon and carbon/aramid sails has been very positive and the fiber is seeing increasing use by more types of boats.

Spectra/Dyneema*
Spectra, and its European counterpart Dyneema, offer even lower stretch, higher strength, better UV resistance and much less strength loss in flex than Kevlar. However, Spectra/Dyneema sails stretch (creep) under long-term load, which makes them unacceptable for racing sails. After considerable development, this fiber is now used with excellent results in sails for large performance cruising boats.

* Note: We use the somewhat awkward ‘Spectra/Dyneema’ reference since we employ the two fibers almost interchangeably and sometimes in the same piece of cloth

PBO
At the top of the theoretical performance list is PBO, a fiber made by Japanese company Toyobo. This fiber has been used for a number of years in both 3DL and paneled sails. It has proven to be somewhat better than an aramid sail in performance when new but degrades rapidly under the combination of UV and flex. Because it is a very expensive fiber, its use in sails has all but disappeared in favor of the even higher performance and more durable carbon option.

PEN
PEN is a fiber with stretch between polyester and aramid and with slightly higher strength than polyester but far less than aramid. That combination and a cost approaching aramid have meant that this fiber has limited application in sails. It has been ruled to be polyester and as such can be used in one-design classes that limit their sails to polyester.

Summary
New fibers continue to come out of the labs. Some will become standards while others will disappear. Despite the promise of these exciting new fibers, design still plays a vital part in their successful application in your sails. Simply inserting a spicy new fiber in a poorly engineered fabric or sail design is a formula for failure. Similarly, enough of the fiber must be used to handle the sailing loads and the abuse it will take in tacking, flogging and handling. Low stretch has always been desirable in selecting fibers for sailcloth but this is only one element in a sails performance. It is ultimately the combination of fiber, fabric and sail design that makes for a winning sail.

Fortunately for North our 3DL molded sailmaking process allows us to produce a test sail from a new fiber within a few days of its arrival at our factory in Nevada. This has allowed us to quickly evaluate new offerings and to remain the industry’s technological leader.

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