The Goat Island Skiff Project Begins

Michael Storers Goat Island Skiff is a GREAT boat. We decided to build one for ourselves and use the boat as a test for producing high-quality, perfectly fitting kits to sell to amateurs and other professionals with little time on their hands. The goal for these kits is that they produce a hull with perfect lines that have been adjusted by a professional so new boatbuilders can get a fair hull that goes together easily. Every boat needs refinement. With our patterns, a CNC file will be made, and CNC kits will be produced. With Storers thorough manual, a new boatbuilder can build a great boat for themselves and enjoy doing it because things fit and much of the tricky work has been done for them. Time will be saved and boatbuilders can get on the water sooner.

Clint modified the boat by adding a mizzen, making the boat more along the lines of a sail-and-oar boat and more easily singlehanded.

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a project you might want to check out during 2016

Some exciting stuff, regarding those dire predictions, and something well worth the read...

Someones been busy.

I expect youll be able to find out more as it develop over at Boat & Koad.

Listening to a plethora of good covers

So it goes...

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The conception of our project

In February 2008, while we were walking along the north shore of Flathead Lake, my husband Richard commented that he wanted to build a wooden sailboat and sail away into retirement. How else do travel junkies afford their habit, but take their house with them?

As the winters tend to get rather gloomy here in the Flathead, a long term project sounded great. We toyed with buying and refurbishing an older boat. A 30 year old hull, however, is still a 30 year old hull with its inherent weaknesses and problems after almost as much financial outlay to repair and update it. Besides the challenge of the building process, and the intimate knowledge of every aspect of our boat was something that appealed to us. The next hurdle was deciding what and where to build.

As Richard owns a custom cabinet shop, and has been working with wood for over 30 years, he really wanted to build a modern wooden sailboat, but with traditional appeal. After a lot of research he decided on the strip plank-cold mold method of construction. He wanted to build a vessel large enough to live on, but small enough to be a realistic goal financially and in terms build time. We also wanted a boat that could be easily handled by a couple, with shallow enough draft for poking around remote areas, but designed for bluewater and passagemaking.

The lengthy process of picking plans began....

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Heres a project of interest

John Scalzi making some needful points, a sky pilot getting it right, and Badtux pointing out the obvious...

A long time ago I read the book "Sailing the Farm" by Ken Neumeyer and while there is a lot of good ideas, some excellent information on seaweed and other content of a useful sort, it suffered greatly from the fact that a lot of the projects/ideas were just not practical aboard a boat or, in their current form of evolution, simply did not work. Which is not to say he was not on the right track or his theories were wrong but it was simply not quite ready for prime time.

Tragically, as fate would have it, Ken Neumeyer was never able to write a sequel to "Sailing the Farm" but Im sure that if he had it would have contained a boat sized, scaled down, and demountable version of something like this solar dehydrator from Mother Earth News.

Actually, maybe its time to look at "Sailing the Farm" again and see how we can apply current tech and materials...

Listening to The Platters (2015 version)

So it goes...

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The Jewell Project Virtual Reality becomes Physical Reality

These days I spend more time building boats in the computer than in real life. So, it is highly satisfying when I see a boat becoming the real thing.

A Mainer from Norway, Maine has commissioned his own Jewell. It is being built from my kit by French & Webb in Belfast, Maine for a summer launch.

After years of planning and design, we have gone from this virtual set up:

To this set up "in the flesh":

All bulkheads are CNC cut plywood. Their shapes come directly from the model you see in the screenshot. When designs are made in 3D CAD, the objects are actually lofted in full-size. In other words, the model is not a "scale-model" but rather a full-size model in 1:1. Once modeled, each bulkhead is simply flattened onto a virtual 2D surface and the outlines are duplicated and nested on 4x8 virtual sheets of plywood. The CNC cutter than programs the machine to follow theses lines and voila! a bulkhead is directly cut.No lofting by hand, no tracing lines onto wood, cutting with a jigsaw (but not too close to the line!), and high accuracy and repeat ability. The downside, I suppose, is that some feel satisfaction cutting their own parts. But even pro builders know their is more satisfaction in getting a boat launched in good time and greater accuracy. This Jewell will be a 3-month build. Lofting and cutting your own parts would result in another month of work.

Keep track of the Jewell project here, on my facebook page, or on my website.

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More about Jims DS15 Project

In a November post I wrote about the Didi Sport 15 that is being built in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, by Jim Foot. Jim has continued to build at a good pace and his boat is moving into the final stages of construction.

Jim has provided a steady stream of photos that document his project through all of its stages. He appears to be doing a very capable build and his boat should be sailing within months.

Jim bought a plywood kit from CKD Boats in Cape Town. It was cut by CNC router using cutting files that we prepared and supplied. Similar kits can also be cut by our other kit suppliers in other countries.

Beautiful standard of hull finish shows off the hull shape.

Internal framing of Jims DS15 hull, CNC-cut by CKD Boats in Cape Town.

Spinnaker pole launch tube

Internal surfaces sealed with 3 coats epoxy

Adding doublers for mainsheet track and epoxy-coating underside of deck.

Jigsaw-jointed cockpit sole installed and cockpit sides being fitted.

Framing of foredeck and cambered mastdeck.

Mastdeck being fitted.

Cockpit and decks nearing completion.

Mound for rudder pintles.

Casting lead keel bulb.

Thanks Jim for your photos and for your enthusiasm. I look forward to the launch and sailing photos of your new boat.

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

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Wickedly Accurate Didi 29 Retro Project in North Carolina

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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