guide to make boat

Our 2015 calendar is ready and our first stocks arrived today. If you are a lover of our designs then this calendar will be a great piece of art to fill that empty space on the wall of your office, home or workshop.

The cover photo (also November) is a beautiful sunset photo sent by Phil Semenov of his self-built Didi 34, sailing in Ukraine.
Here are a few other sample pages.

June is a collage of photos showing the Cape Henry 21 built by Roeboats of Co Cork in Ireland. They used some interesting and very pretty detailing in this boat, built for a customer from France.
August is the Didi Sport 15 project of Hunter Gall in Virginia Beach, USA. She is named "Scallywag", which is what Hunter's grandfather called him as a child. The main photo is an interesting view during construction and has a somewhat spiritual feel.
December is Petr Muzik's Shearwater 39 "Shoestring III" sailing in St Helena Bay, South Africa. Petr circumnavigated on this boat when well into his seventies.
Order your calendar from our website via the link on our homepage at http://dixdesign.com/ and we will mail it to you.

Alternatively, click here to order from our  publisher, Lulu. They will print and ship one copy, or as many as you want, from their closest affiliate to your delivery address.

Either way, get yours now to be ready for January 2015.

If you have one of our boats and would like to see it featured in one of our calendars, please send me some nice high resolution photos of her. The pics need to show her in pretty surroundings or to be interesting in some other way. Now is a good time to start with the 2016 calendar.

And if you want to see more about our designs, please visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/.

Tiernan Roe is a professional boatbuilder in County Cork, Ireland. His company, Roeboats, specialises in building quality wooden boats. Mostly of classic styling, they build for sail, power or rowing. Roeboats recently launched a Cape Henry 21 that they built for a customer from France.Tiernan sent me these photos, which show some interesting details brought into one of our most popular small cruisers.

Cape Henry 21 ready to get wet.

Launched in a pretty setting.

First sail of the new boat.

The mainsail has still to be fully set up in these photos.

Compact sink & cooker unit, neatly executed.

Other side of the galley. Nice detailing.

Looking aft from the double forward berth.

You can follow the construction of this boat on the Roeboats news blog, from start through to launch.

After launch, Tiernan Roe sent me these comments. "She sails very nicely and I found her easy to single hand from the get go. The interior is pretty snazzy with frame and panel oak fronted drawers and a gas stove with tank fed sink.  Also the centreboard was a lot easier to operate than I thought. It's an awkward shape out of the boat to try and move alone."

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

Until now I have only shown the DS15 prototype, being built in Virginia Beach, USA, by Aussie Hunter Gall. Hunter's project is currently stalled due to circumstances but one of the the other builds is steaming ahead apace. This one is being built by Jim Foot in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This weekend Jim applied the last coat of epoxy to the outside of his hull and is preparing to paint it.

This series of photos shows the basics of Jim's project up to this stage. This is a radius chine plywood design, with hard chine along the topsides. It is the same family of designs as the Didi Mini Mk3 and Didi 950.

Frames set up on building stocks, with stringers going on.

Stringers all done and bottom panels fitted.

Same stage, showing stringers running into forefoot.

Side panels fitted and first layer of radius progressing.

Stitch-&-glue detail of topside chine.

Second layer of radius going over first layer.

Completed radius chine, running smoothly into flat panels.

Glass taping centreline seam. Jigsaw joints of bottom panel can be seen.

Epoxy coatings started.

Nice finish starting to show.

Clean stern and nice finish.

Final coat of epoxy, ready for sanding and painting.

I will show more of Jim Foot's project as it progresses toward launch date. I tend to show the projects for which I receive the best photos, so please send me your best pics if you want to see your project on this blog or the Dudley Dix Yacht Design main website.

"Black Cat" is the prototype of my Didi 38 design, built in my back garden in Hout Bay, South Africa. She was also the experiment that developed into my radius chine plywood range of designs, all under the Didi name. Today is her birthday, it is 19 years since we launched "Black Cat" at Royal Cape Yacht Club in Cape Town.

Didi 38 "Black Cat" at the start of the 1996 Cape to Rio Race.

Much has happened since then. She has 70 sisters in the water or in build around the world, in the Didi 38/40/40cr design series. She also has hundreds of smaller radius chine plywood monohull sisters being built or in the water, from the Didi Sport 15 through to the Didi 34. She has also spawned catamaran designs in the Dix 470 and DH550.

When I designed her, I did not imagine how popular this construction method would become. The Didi 38 design was for my own use. After that I drew the Didi 34 for a design competition that was run by South African Yachting magazine, now part of Richard Crockett's Sailing for Southern Africa magazine. Since then I have always had at least one other concept waiting in line for me to draw it for this method of construction. Now is no different, I have a commission for a 38ft big sister to the Didi 950 and have many people asking for smaller sisters to the two catamarans, in various sizes. All that I need is the time to draw them.

"Black Cat" in Brazil's Bay of Islands.

Happy Birthday "Black Cat", you have been very good to us.

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

We had a good Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race earlier this month on the Shearwater 45 "Apella" and even won our class. I wrote about it in an earlier post, with some of my photos from the race. What was missing was race photos of the boat that we were sailing. The chairman of the race committee sent me two nice ones today, taken from the start boat while boats were preparing to start. Thanks to Bill Mellen for these photos.

Dan Hall's schooner-rigged Shearwater 45 "Apella".

This year "Apella" gained an asymmetrical spinnaker to help her in the reaching conditions. Next year she will have a fisherman staysail added, to fill in the gap between the masts and add power for beating and reaching.

Our main website is at http://dixdesign.com, where you can see details of all of our designs.

I have shown the Didi 950 project of Fred Grimminck in Queensland, Australia, in previous posts. Since then he has progressed nicely and is now well into the fitting-out phase. This, of course, had to start with turning the hull right-way up. Fred used a similar method to the hull turning that I showed recently in Ohio, except that he replaced one of the engine hoists with a tractor-mounted forklift, to lift the hull and pull it out of the building shed, then push it back in. Here is Fred's video of the operation.


The fitting out is moving along, as can be seen in these photos.

Starboard water ballast tanks

Port water ballast tanks and double quarter berth.

Building the saloon settees.

Same area, from above. The open area where the vacuum cleaner is standing is where the engine is located in the fixed keel version. This boat has a lifting keel, which will pass through this area.

Looking forward at the foredeck, with deck beam flange being laminated.

This is the second boat of our design that Fred has built. Five years ago he built a Didi Cruise-Mini that he sailed for a few years, then sold recently. Watch this space for more photos of the progress of Fred's project.

See more of this design and others in our portfolio, at http://dixdesign.com/.

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

Underbody of Didi 29 Retro

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

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

This year I was asked to draw a more modern rig for it, which developed into the squaretop Marconi rig. This one will better suit most sailors, being easier to handle and easier to understand for those who don't know gaff rigs. On sail area, it fits between the two gaff rigs and it will be interesting to see how the three compare on the water.

Didi 29 Retro with squaretop Marconi rig

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

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