I'm slowly updating the webpages on the blog. In the meantime, three Deblois Street Dories are slated to launch in the next several weeks, including two in Maine and one by a woman who teaches college Geology in Indiana. The first Drake19 rowboat will launch midsummer. I will do sea trials with Walter Baron, the builder. An Echo Bay or two should launch. And a Caravelle sailing skiff will also launch this season. Lots of activity!

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The amas are foam filled PVC pipe with shaped and glassed ends.

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Didi Sport 15 rigThe rig combines a reefable square-top mainsail with self-tacking jib, as working sails, with an asymmetrical spinnaker on retracting bowsprit to supercharge it downwind. It also has a light drifter/reacher Genoa for light airs when your wife is aboard and doesn't want the excitement of the asymmetrical.

Didi Sport 15 plywood framework ready for stringers.

It can be built by amateur or professional builders, from plans and offsets, from plans and full-size Mylar patterns or from plans and a CNC plywood kit. Go to our pricelist to order plans or plans and patterns. Go to our USA kits page to order a kit of all plywood components, accurately cut by CNC router.

Please visit our website at  / for more info on this and our other designs.

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Didi 38 "Black Cat" in the Cape To Rio Race 2014. It is not possible to visualise what it is like to be there in that situation, even if you sit inside your boat and try to imagine it turning around you but this video goes a long way to help visualise it. It is not fully realistic because the roof stays at the top as the boat rotates, so the world is rotating around the boat rather than the boat rotating within the world around it. To provide better visualisation the camera needs to stay upright while the boat goes upside-down.

Bear in mind that this test is in flat water and the boat is rotated quite slowly from upright to upside-down, then rights itself quickly. Normally a capsize will happen in seas that are large and confused, so it is a much more violent process than seen in the video, with the boat being thrown in confused directions while it capsizes. Despite that, it is worth watching, to see the way that crew, equipment, etc was moved around the cabin and to see just how much water came in even in that still water.

It is not an experience that I would recommend to anyone, yet it is an experience that I am glad to have had and to have survived.

It also validates the toughness of the methods of construction that I have used for these plywood designs, that "Black Cat" came through with minimal damage.

To see our range of designs to carry you across the dam or around the world, please visit /

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Actually John Slattebo calls it the Tipnol, a Marshallese term for one of their canoe types.  The Tipnol is John's personal canoe made up from Slatts 22 and Raptor 16 parts. 

It looks like it wouldn't take many modifications to sleep two in that roomy cockpit.

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Eric van Hamersveld sanding his Ulua.

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Be part of the Calendar Islands Yawl project this winter

Calendar Islands Yawl daysailer

New design

the brief:

      Hull above will be modified to create more of a daysailer hull form with ample freeboard and some deadrise for choppy water. Narrow flat bottom will be retained for beaching.

·         Capacity will be up to 4 people maybe 5

·         Loa ~18’8” x ~6’6’

·         Weight estimate ~200lbs

·         Plywood stitch and glue bottom and lapstrake topsides 9mm ply

·         Large foredeck with coaming and high bow make it a dry boat

·         Lug-awl rig or gunter-sloop configurations w/ centerboard

·         Auxiliary power by oars or small OB motor

·         Interior layout with side benching and a thwart across to stabilize cb trunk and provide a spot to row from

·         Motor well aft, 2.5-4hp

·         Side benches aft and forward compartment provide positive flotation

      The idea is to find an interested group of people to help fund this work. If you are interested in having a fantastic daysailer that you can have an influence in the design, please email me at boatkits@gmail.com

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Le Lac Saint-Jean se fait beau pour Bororo. from Michel Boissonneault on Vimeo.

Guy Rinfret was one of the very first builders of the T2 proa.  This new and beautifully shot video shows that it doesn't take much sail area to get it moving.

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Sabik, a 16' Wa'apa was recently launched by builder Dave Johansen at Pau Pau beach on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. It will have a traditional shunting rig and I'm looking forward to photos of it under sail.

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I designed the Explorer #59 being chased by Challenger #20.It is good to see a smaller sister, the Sentinel Challenger, racing in the same fleet. The Explorer is only built in GRP from moulds but the Challenger can be built from plywood to our plans.

To see more about these and our other designs, please visit /.

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Yesterday I reworked the digital version of my book "Shaped by Wind & Wave". When I first released it last year it was in ePub format, readable on Nook, Kindle and the host of other Ereaders now competing for the contents of your wallet. The security features sometimes gave problems and eventually the publishing company that I use autocratically dropped the format. They removed my book and the thousands of others in their system from circulation and told us to rework the files as needed then re-issue our books without the security features.

As an interim measure we continued to sell the digital version in the form of html files, to be read on a web browser. Now I have taken the time that was needed to convert my book to the new ePub format and it is ready for purchase in the publications section of our website.

In this format you will be able to read it:-

1) On an Ereader such as Nook, Kindle or similar.

2) On a Computer by downloading the free publications section of our website.

Thank you for your support in the past. Keep watching this blog and our website for new designs and other developments. We have some interesting things coming up in the near future.

Dudley Dix

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I re-designed the foil with a bigger bulb, so that the socket could be 25mm deep. The bulb looks a bit fat, but in theory it should work. I wish I could use CFD to sort this out propperly, but bloody ANSYS are too on top of their licensing.

anyway that can get cut out tomorrow, if anyone has any comments about the shape please let me know before then!

deck goes on tonight hopefully. making pretty good ground, a good 1/3rd of the list is ticked off.

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The release went well from the mould, by my standards. (lucky i didnt spend too much time on the mould.) The vacuum finish is impressive, the part is actually lighter than my previous gantry and 200mm longer. and intact. yay. at this point i declare the design to be good, and the construction to be good. lets see how we feel after a couple of sails...

The ball joints on the other hand were a complete failure, i tested them with a good solid yank and they came off. will swage copper ones tomorrow. also got the rudder gudgeons on. 6 jobs to go.

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Heres a quick clip feeding the sewing machine a 12 foot seam. This is joining the top two pannels of the sail to the bottom. These are Chinese Junk sails. I have decided to make them 'flat' rather than 'cambered' as some people are doing these days - flat sails are a bit quicker to make and as these are the first sails i have ever made I thought i should keep it simple. Below is the sail plan for Hestur as drawn by J Benford.I am using a Sailrite zig zag sewing machine which has been fantastic. Its a very solid portable (its heavy) machine with a walking foot that seems to be able to sew any thickness of canvass - if it fits under the foot it will sew it!!  My sail loft at the moment is a conservatory of around 100 square foot and the sail is 320 square foot!  I bought the Dacron sail cloth off ebay for 150pounds. good value -   I have finished the main sail and am close to finishing the fore sail so we should be test sailing towards the end of the week....

I have also been making the battens and yards from some nice Ash. getting close.....

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Here is some teaser information.

One of our popular plywood designs that has been around for a few years is about to be elevated in status. Tooling is soon to start in Australia for it to become a production boat. I will tell more about it in the next few weeks. For the moment, suffice to say that it is one of our most popular plywood designs and it will be available both as complete boats and as hull/deck/bulkhead kits for owner completion.

It is to be produced by a boatbuilder who has a depth of experience and knowledge spanning many years that will ensure quality products, strong and well-finished.

Watch this blog for more information in coming weeks. The design is being built in plywood by many amateur boatbuilders around the world, so I am sure that it will be popular as a GRP boat as well. Two boats are on order before the mould construction starts.

See our full range of designs for professional and amateur boatbuilders at /.

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to The Compass Project in Portland, Me is building a DSD with a group of kids and they are doing a great job.

The boat is built like dories have always been built, using the bottom to erect stem, frames, and transom, then turning over the boat upside down on a strongback. Everything is plumbed and braced then planking begins.

Here the garboard has been installed and the sheer clamp is being fit. This is the only departure from traditional dory construction, the incorporating of the clamp helps tie together the frames into plumb and lock in the ends of the boat. It is a bit of a 3D puzzle!

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My last post was about people going long distance in small boats and most of my readers know that I am soon to go long distance in a slightly bigger boat. This will be on the New Cat logo on port side. Starboard has the butt end.
 This is a boys' adventure on which we are embarking. As in 1996 and 2000, "Black Cat" will be the only lady enjoying it with us. That said, we would not be doing it without the support of the other ladies in the lives of all of the crew, namely wives, mothers, daughters and others. They tolerate our passion for boats, adventures and ocean crossings. Maybe some of them look forward to our departure to get us out of their hair, I don't know. I do know that they will be happy to see us again when we return and we will be equally happy to be greeted by them when our adventure is over. We will return home with another big drawer full of images in our memory banks, memories that cannot be equalled by any travel documentary or computer game, no-matter how good the filming or graphics may be.

For those who have never experienced this, it is a big one to add to your bucket list. Having done it 3 times before, I can say that it will take a big bucket if it is to hold other items that are bigger than this one. But you have to have a strong sense of adventure and not be easily scared. If you don't have those qualities you will be petrified at times, incapacitated by sheer terror while your shipmates are enjoying a great roller coaster ride that goes on for 2-4 weeks (depending on the speed of your chosen boat), with no chance of getting off the ride.

We have sailed this boat very hard in the past and the new go-fast goodies on her will help us to do so again. We sail her safely but we do so sometimes at very high speed, with lots of spray flying by and mixed in with flying fish, squid, albatross  and even the occasional sword fish. "The Cat" enjoys it and allows us to enjoy it with her.

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This time last week we were in Connecticut,  participating in the 24th annual 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 or, for the mobile viewers, /mobile

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Here is a design for the Ulua crossbeams that extends out

enough to strap on a safety ama.  It also curves up to keep

the safety ama above the wave tops.  Having the crossbeams

extending out on the non-ama side also allows you to have

a hiking seat on that side which improves performance when

the ama is to leeward.  Download the PDF here.

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Heres a few pics of progress around the deck and inside. My Very kind Dad has made us the most beautiful deck hatch along the lines of one that J Benford had drawn. We have gone for double glazing (total 16mm) to stop that condensation dripping. It really changes the feel of the fore peak and its now tempting to move in . I have also got around to cutting the two portholes in the side of the hull up forward - these are great - you can lie in the bunk looking out to sea - anchor dragging ??!!! Also just laid a nice oak floor throughout the cabin, you can just see the heads of the keel bolts pokin through - its just getting the varnish treatment now...

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The 2015 edition of theSome of the boats at the 2014 Festival, Didi Cruise-Mini in right foreground.

I will be taking part in three sessions, one on each day of the Festival.

Friday 11th - 2:45pm - Yacht Designers Panel Q&A - six designers to field your questions about boats and designing them. A session like this highlights the variety of opinions held by different designers on boating issues.

Saturday 12th - 2:30pm - Plywood Boatbuilding Methods - PowerPoint presentation showing information and details of the methods for which I design, illustrated with drawings and photos of my own projects and those of amateurs who have built these designs.

Sunday 13th - 1:15pm - Plywood Kits for Larger Boats - PowerPoint presentation about constructing kit boats that are larger than open dinghies and kayaks. This will cover boats from a 21ft lapstrake plywood trailer-sailer through to a 55ft radius chine plywood cruising catamaran.

Paper Jet "Water Rocket" at the 2014 Festival

The Didi Cruise-Mini "Segue" of David Blessing will be there among the on-the-water boats but I don't know yet what other of my boats will be there.

When not involved with other things, I am happy to meet with builders or anyone interested in my designs. If you can't find me then visit the Didi Cruise-Mini. Whoever is in attandance at the boat should know where I am and how to contact me.

If you are in the Pacific Northwest, or able to get there, this is an event worthwhile visiting.

To see our designs, visit our main website or our mobile website.

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We (myself, Christophe Matson, Eric Risch the designer of the EBDS, and Steven Bauer) had a wonderful time guiding three wonderful families through the construction of 3 beautiful Echo Bay Dory Skiffs this past Friday through Sunday. The skiffs were all made from precut kits, allowing for the quick, efficient construction.

Day 1 was assembling hull sides.

Day 2 was attaching chine logs, gunwales and bottoms.

Day 3 was installing seats and outerkeel as well as doing some shaping and sanding.

Then all 3 familes launched their creations. In fact, out of nearly 30 boats built at the Show, we were the only 3 that launched!

Not one boat leaked. One family rowed across the river to their home and the others loaded on the cartops to drive home to New Jersey and Colorado. They will receive sailing kits to complete their boats.

Big thanks to Wooden Boat's support of Family Boatbuilding, to Eric Risch for giving us the design rights to use this boat, and to Christophe Matson for his patient skilled help with the families. Finally, thanks to the families for signing up with us. It was a blast, especially seeing you all rowing on Sunday.

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I have recently added two new radius chine plywood designs to our range and wrote about them on this blog. Here are updates on both boats.

Yesterday I visited the prototype of the Hunter Gall's DS15 project nearing completionOther news on the Didi 950, bigger sister to the DS15 One of those boats will result in a variation on the design, with a lifting keel. A lifting keel was part of the original concept for the builder of the prototype but he decided in the end on the simplicity of a fixed keel. The lifting keel proved to be a very viable option, using the same basic keel support arrangement as the fixed keel with no structural redesign. The major difference will be moving the motor aft to a position under the companionway, driving a saildrive rather than a shaft. This is to make room for the lifting keel to rise through the galley central locker unit.

The prototype of this design is to be built in Ohio, USA. The others that have been ordered will be built in Australia, Latvia and Greece. There is interest from other countries as well.

To see our full range of designs, please visit /.

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Those who followed our abortive Cape to Rio Race on the Didi 38 "Black Cat" and my recent blog posts about it will know that we went through situations that were demanding of quality seamanship, a cool head and total commitment to the well-being of boat and the other crew members. Those qualities come from thousands of miles sailed in all conditions, good and bad, sometimes under much pressure.

Our navigator on "Black Cat" was professional sailor David "Wavy" Immelman and he proved to have all of those qualities and more to spare. At any time that there was tough work to be done on the boat, Dave was there to do it or to assist. We had never sailed together before but Dave proved to be very capable and a sailor with whom I will be very happy to sail in the future.

Dave had prepared the boat for the race and onward voyaging. He was to take over as skipper after my departure in Rio and was to take her to the Caribbean for cruising and racing. He had committed to the owner of "Black Cat" for long term voyaging and racing. Unfortunately those long-term plans disappeared into the blue with our rudder, so Dave is looking for another boat.

Dave Immelman is RYA Ocean certified, with experience that includes Volvo Ocean Race, Americas Cup and Solent Racing. He is also tough, having rowed single-handed across the North Atlantic.

If you know of a racing, cruising or charter boat that may have a suitable opening, please message me so that I can put you in contact with Dave to supply his CV.

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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 /. For our mobile site go to /mobile.

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My own build of the GIS continues until this Friday when kits for the boat go out, the patterns for which are based on this build. The assembly of the sides is quite typical of a self-jigging skiff, with side panels wrapped around bulkheads, glued, and carefully leveled to prevent twist in the hull. These builds are notorious for twist getting built into the hull. It is easy to see when the boat is in the water without any people or gear, and the transom sits out of level with the water. With this sighting trick in mind, you will see it more often now!

Pre-finishing is always employed to make finishing and painting a more efficient process. I use "scrape-filling" to fill the grain of the wood and seal the plywood in epoxy.



I approached this hull differently because of the twist in the side panel as it wraps around the first bulkhead, developing compound curvature as it fairs into the stem. Putting the whole thing together in one glue-up session, solo, is a workout. But boy was it fun. I've built a few dozen boats like this; this skiff was the most fun to assemble.

I started by glueing and screwing the panels to the first then second bulkheads, the place where the compound curvature in the panel is centered.



The stem was fastened then the hull was zipped up from the midship frame aft. It is now glued with no twist in the hull fore-to-aft.



I am also posting on the Michael Storer Boats Forum.

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well, practically. i stuck the wingbars on with string.

stood back and admired my work. (you'll notice that i stuck them on once before, made holes in the hull, then decided they were too far forward and moved them back. not like me to be that conservative, but i realised that i got my numbers wrong, upon measuring a Mach 2, and i probably should have put the centreboard case about 85mm further forward. im happy with how its sitting now. mast step is 985 from the bow, front of centreboard is 1585.) anyway, standing there planning how i was going to paint it, i realised there were still a few jobs to do. made a list.

The list nearly fitted on the foil alignment template, so thats a good sign. i reckon if i tick a few of these jobs off each day i should be done in like 3 or 4 weeks. start work in a week.

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The Calendar Islands Yawl 16

A Sail-and-Oar Dinghy for one or two people

The CIY 16 began as a 19 x 6 1/2-foot daysailer design with a deck and coaming with a bit of Herreshoff flavor. A friend who sails the Goat Island Skiff design by Michael Storer wanted a similar boat -- singlehanding, lightweight, lug rigged sail-and-oar dinghy -- but with a hull shape more amenable to Maine waters. I immediately thought of my CIY lines that I had drawn years ago and that had been sitting untouched and in need of inspiration. I had already put the lines into the computer so I scaled them down and reworked them to make this hull. The specs are:

LOA 15 1/2'

Beam 5' 1"

Displacement ~522lbs

Depth amidships 1'9"

DWL is 3'10" x 13'2"

Cp is 0.54

The hull has a wide plank keel for rolling the boat up and down the beach. The skeg is there for tracking under oars, but the cutaway allows the stern to come through the wind when tacking. The lines are fairly straight forward and full aft. In a breeze she will plane. Yet trimmed on her DWL, the transom is out of the water and the stem is in the water and she'll row fine with 10' oars so long as we keep her light. Construction will be 1/4" plywood: bottom and garboard stitch and glue style, with lapstrake sides, about 5 strakes total for topsides.

It's always fun designing something really new. The next steps are to put in all the planks in the model so look forward to that post. I'll be looking for someone to prototype the boat. Let me know if you are interested. Stay tuned!

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Small selection of our plywood kit designsPlywood kits for our designs

To see our full range of designs, go to /

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Michael Vermeersch of Ohio commissioned the Michael with wife Pat & daughter Catherine.Since adding this design to our stock design list, another three boats have been started. They are in Australia, Greece and Latvia.

The Didi 950 is drawn to the Class 950 Rule and detailed for building by the radius chine plywood construction method. It can be built from plans only or from a kit. Kits are currently available in USA but can be supplied by most of our international kit suppliers as well. Enquire with the supplier in your area and I will send the files to them for pricing. Note that for USA you must order from us, you cannot order it directly from Chesapeake Light Craft.

For our full range of designs, please visit /.

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The details of how to design a yawl so that the tiller gets around the mizzen is an interesting topic. There are a number of tricks:

Using a line steering system: Here you can see Michael Storer's Beth Sailing Canoe with the tiller forward of the mizzen and the lines connecting to the rudder, which is out of the picture.


Using a normal tiller with an offset mizzen




The other methods I mentioned just won't fit the situation we have in the Goat Island Skiff, mainly because there is not room for a split tiller and we want to keep the solution simple. We are deciding about just how much to offset the tiller. You can see above that the tiller will hit the mizzen before 45-degrees. The big question is how much room do we want to give the tiller to swing. In the pictures, we decided to test a 45-degree swing. That puts the mizzen a little further off the centerline than I'd like. This boat is very light and pushing a tiller than hard over makes the rudder act like a brake and the risk of losing so much speed that you can't get through the tack is something to consider. Then again, we don't need it so close that things feel claustrophobic. In the picture above of the offset mizzen, notice how little offset the mast is...the tiller must touch the mizzen pretty early. Does that give enough steerage for the helmsman when the push the tiller in the mizzen direction?

We'll have a solution soon after a full-scale mock up. The way we are doing this, collaboratively, is something I do on many projects. It always gets a better result because many thoughts and ideas can be sifted through. The more the merrier. Whatever the solution I draw up, the mizzen can always be moved a little more or less off the centerline according to the skippers preference. The important thing is to maintain the rake of the mizzen, which has been determined. My point is, that collaboration with designers, customers, and other folks with experience through the forums and boat shows can be an advantage in getting many thoughts onto the table and generating the best solution.

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