Plywood Boat Plans | Didi 950 Projects

Plywood Boat Plans

There appears to be considerable interest in my posts about the boats being built to our Didi 950 design. This is a radius chine plywood design with hard chine in the topsides, designed to fit into the Classe 950 box rule. In the past few days I have received a bunch of new photos that show the build process clearly, as well as some updated progress photos.

Before going into the new photos, you might like to read the article that I posted today on my Boatbuilder Tips for Amateurs blog about how to construct building stocks or beds, the foundation off which the skeleton of a wooden boat is built. It is illustrated with photos of the Didi 950 that is being built by Fred Grimminck in Australia. The photos below are mostly of that same project, being built from scratch without a kit.

The photo below shows the various backbone components, all of which slot eggcrate-fashion into the bulkheads. The slots help to locate the bulkheads and backbones correctly relative to each other. The bow and stern have single backbone on centreline and the mid-part of the hull as two backbones that run down each side of the keel support box. The two shorter pieces on the right are the paired double-backbone parts. Next toward the left is the aft backbone, which turns up at the far end to support the transom. Extreme left is the bow backbone, which turns up at the far end to form the stem and supports a bow bulkhead into which the forward ends of the stringers are located.

Didi 950 backbone components. Click on all photos to enlarge.

The photos below show a few of the forward bulkheads with the bow backbone dry-fitted in place. The backbone has doublers just below deck level for through-bolting the bow chainplate. The doublers can be seen at the forward lower end of the backbone.

Didi 950 bow backbone and forward bulkheads

Didi 950 bulkheads and backbones

In this next photo, the transom doubler has been set up as a doubler and the stringers etc run through, then are trimmed flush. When the transom is glued over the doubler the end-grain of the longitudinals will be covered and protected. Look through the 4th cutout from left through the doubler to see how the aft end of the aft backbone turns up against the inside face of the doubler. The backbone has locating tabs that slot through the doubler, seen as light-coloured marks on centreline of the doubler. In the lower photo the transom is being glued over the outside of the doubler.

Didi 950 transom doubler

Didi 950 transom being glued over doubler.

The sheer clamps on this design sit diagonally across the corner at the intersection between hull sides and decks. They are screwed and glued to cleats on the faces of all bulkheads. In this photo the sheer clamp is clamped to those cleats. You can also see how the stringers are slotted through the bulkheads. Once the hull skin has been glued on, these junctions become very strong and rigid

Didi 950 sheer clamp

Looking forward along the hull just prior to fitting the bottom skin. The wide stringers on both sides are the tangent stringers, with doublers to back up the joint between flat bottom panels and radius skin panels at the turn of the bilge.  The single aft backbone can be seen running through to the 3rd bulkhead from the bottom of the photo. The double backbone runs forward from the 2nd bulkhead from the bottom of the photo, then changes back to a single backbone further forward, also visible.

Didi 950 bottom stringers and backbones

Stringers in the forward part of the hull, mainly showing the radius area. The two broad stringers are at the tangents, joining the flat and radiused skins together. Between them are three radius stringers, over which the double-skin radius will be formed. Below the lower of the two tangent stringers are the stringers for the side skin panels.

Didi 950 stringers

This last photo shows Mike Vermeeschs boat, being built from a kit in Ohio. Mike has the side panels all dry-fitted to check for fit ahead of gluing in place. Looks like a nice fit. The bow will be capped with solid wood, which will cover and protect the end-grain of the stringers.

Didi 950 hull side panels

Thank you to both Fred Grimminck and Mike Vermeersch for taking the trouble to send me these photos and allowing their use.

To see our other designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/ .

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

Continue

Plywood Boat Plans Australia | Cape Henry 21 Launched in Croatia

Plywood Boat Plans Australia

Dean Ivancic lives in Porec, Croatia. He bought plans from us a few years ago for the Cape Henry 21. He has been working steadily on his boat and reported to me today that he launched her in April. He has sent me some rather nice photos of her under sail. She is still incomplete down below but has all that is needed to sail.

She is named "Scintilla", Italian for "spark", also the meaning of "Iskra", the Croatian name of Deans youngest daughter.

We wish Dean and his family lots of fun and adventures in their Cape Henry 21.

"Scintilla" on one of her first outings.

Pretty from any angle.

Dean has done a nice job of building "Scintilla".

The Cape Henry 21 is surprisingly quick and has delightful manners. These boats prove that a boat doesnt have to be ugly to be fast.

For more on this design and others in our range, go to http://dixdesign.com/.

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

Continue

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.

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

Continue

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.

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

Continue

Yacht Boat Plans | Didi 950 Build Bottom Skin Panels

Yacht Boat Plans

Mike Vermeerschs amateur boatbuilding project of a Didi 950 is moving on to the next stage, with bottom panels fitted and work starting on the side panels. Mike is building from a plywood kit that we supplied to him and reports that the fit is good. The kit has jigsaw joints on all large panels, making them easy to assemble either on the floor or on the boat.

Didi 950 with all stringers installed.

Two of the stringers each side, at the junctions between flat and radiused skin areas, have plywood doublers attached to serve as backing pads to the joint. I call these the tangent stringers. The doubler on the upper tangent stringer is in process of being fitted and can be seen running forward from the transom through to the third bulkhead from aft.

In the photo below, the transom has been fitted, followed by the bottom panels. These panels each have two transverse jigsaw joints and join each other at a centreline butt joint over the plywood backbone. In the photo the jigsaw joints have temporary battens over them to secure them while the glue is setting.

Bottom panels fitted.

Mike has also started to dry-fit the side panels ahead of gluing in place. At the right of the photo the forward lower panel can be seen and which will continue through to the transom. The lower edge, as seen upside-down like this, forms one half of the chine. The other half of the chine will be formed by the upper side panel.

Today Mikes 300lb brother decided to test the hull stiffness of this partially-built Didi 950 . He climbed onto the bottom of the boat and jumped on the bottom panels. They passed his improvised test but I think that I would have recommended that he wait until the whole hull was skinned before doing such a test.

Mikes 300lb brother tests the Didi 950 hull stiffness.

The broad stringer that shows on this photo is the upper tangent that will join the lower side panel to the radius.

To see our other designs, visit http://dixdesign.com/ .

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

Continue

Canoe Boat Plans | Didi 950 Radius Clean Workshops

Canoe Boat Plans

Mike Vermeersch has completed the first layer of the radius panel on one side of his Didi 950 hull. Although the surface is not up to final level, the hull shape is now much clearer.

The skin will be trimmed back to centreline when the other side is fitted.

The front face of the forward bulkhead will have a wood capping.

In theses photos the radius skin has still to be trimmed back to hull centreline. When that is done, the shape of the forefoot as it fairs into the bow will become clear.

Nice overall view of the hull shape.

Clean and powerful stern sections.

Thanks to Mike for these great photos. A few people have commented about the cleanliness of Mikes project and also of his workshop. I like to work clean on my boatbuilding projects but Mike takes it to a whole new level. That might be due to his engineering background.

The benefits of working this way are many. A very important one is that it is much easier to clean up runs and drips of excess glue etc before it cures than to do it later. If a lump or run of epoxy or resorcinol is allowed to cure, it will be stronger than the surface of the wood and will rip out pieces of wood while you remove it with a chisel. You also need to thump the head of the chisel with a mallet or at least your hand, to move it along. Expect occasional bruising of the palm of your hand in the process. You can grind or sand it off mechanically but that is always with a risk of damaging the surface and the equipment cannot generally get into tight corners. You can more easily remove it with a slightly blunt chisel or a scraper soon after it reaches initial cure, without risk of surface damage. Resorcinol is really nice in this way because it becomes rubbery and can be easily and very cleanly sliced off. Epoxy will drag on the tool and not trim off as cleanly, so the natural tendency is to leave it for later when it is hard.

The other major benefits of a clean workshop are that it is just so much nicer to work in a clean environment and you are less likely to hurt yourself by standing on odd-shaped bits of wood, slipping on wood shavings or gluing your shoes to the floor. I generally sweep the work area about every 2nd day or more often if I am doing something that produces lots of dust or waste.

Please visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/ to see our very broad range of boat designs for both amateur and professional boatbuilders.

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

Continue