my new boat

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/

The Sail 4 Cancer charity in UK has a Didi Cruise-Mini that has been donated to their cause and is available for sale. This is a cruising version of the Didi Mini Mk2, with a lifting keel and reduced rig, as well as more headroom. It is a small performance cruiser in the image of the Mini 650 trans-Atlantic racers.

Didi Cruise-Mini, a sleek little performance cruiser.

I sailed one of these boats recently on Puget Sound when I was there for the Wooden Boat Festival. She proved to be a speedy little cruiser with delightful manners. She handled beautifully, carries her rig very well and has comfortable accommodation for weekending or short holidays afloat. We sailed past everything under sail that we saw on the water, sailing higher and faster. This was despite towing a clinker dinghy that was almost as long as she was. We had no desire to tow the dinghy but it was also destined for the Wooden Boat Festival and dragging along behind us was the simplest way to get there.

Twin rudders and lifting keel give access to shallow anchorages.

This boat that is available is in the Hamble yard of Boatshed, in the charge of Peter Delbridge. Anyone interested in it can contact Peter at the email address (peter at boatshedhamble dot com). It was built as a rehabilitation project by a man who was recovering from a serious illness. He completed the boat, sailed it once then donated it to Sail 4 Cancer when he moved abroad and could not take the boat with him.

Lifting bulb keel, excellent stability with shallow draught.

It is a complete boat, with all hardware and sails, ready for coastal cruising. The lifting bulb keel and twin rudders will get her into shallow anchorages that are inaccessible to larger or deeper-draught boats.

Swept spreader rig for easy handling, less complication than a Mini 650 rig.

100% of the selling price will be donated to Sail 4 Cancer (less yard fees etc), a UK charity that provides water based respite services for families affected by cancer. This is an excellent opportunity to buy a boat at a very affordable price and benefit a worthwhile charity at the same time.

Efficient cockpit with cuddy for shelter when on watch.

She is priced to sell, at �6,000 and well worth a look to see if she may suit you.

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

The 25th running of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race proved to be a well-run and memorable event. The weatherman came close to creating big problems but it all worked out in the end. The massive cold front that tore apart parts of USA in the previous week arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon, dumping enough rain to wash out the planned Parade of Sail through Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Other than that, everything went off with the usual smoothness of a well-practiced organisation.

"Apella" alongside "America II" at the start of the 2013 race.

Behind the wind-driven soaking of Wednesday, we were handed a couple of gorgeous days to carry us down to Portsmouth. The weatherman didn't get it all correct though. The forecast light breezes from the south at the start, swinging to westerly for most of the race, held only for the biggest and fastest boats at the front of the fleet. Behind them the wind was sometimes the opposite of the forecast and then fell apart into increasingly large holes that trapped boats for hours. The further back that they were in the fleet, the larger the holes and the longer they battled to get through.

As for us on Dan Hall's Shearwater 45 "Apella", we had a pretty good race, one to store in the memory banks for recall in the coming cold winter days when only professional seamen and crazy people are out on the water. We had a good crew, comprising the owner, myself and a bunch of friends who are capable sailors.

Dan Hall, Dudley Dix, Paul Schaub, Dylan Bailey, Tom Miller & Scott Page.

We had a crazy start. Dan was on the helm, labouring under advice from Paul and myself that obviously conflicted with his own thoughts and must have been comical to anyone paying attention to us on nearby boats. Complicated by current, spectator boats and a big boat fleet that started 10 minutes before us but was mostly late to the line, we were dodging boats and going the wrong way within the last minute, yet still managed to cross the start line first, within 10 seconds of the gun and right at the committee boat. As Tom said, "sometimes too many chiefs actually works".

A Class gaff schooner "Hindu", which gave us some close-quarter racing.

We worked our way through much of the big boat fleet and had mostly good sailing all the way down the bay. Most of the time we were lying between 7th and 10th on the water and thoroughly enjoying what we were doing. A highlight of the race was twice managing to get ourselves ahead of the beautiful Baltimore clipper replica "Pride of Baltimore". When the wind came through after we broke out of the hole together, she sailed away from us.

Creeping up on the beautiful "Pride of Baltimore II".

We were in B Class, with our Windmill Point finish line 40 miles short of the Thimble Shoals line for the bigger boats in Classes A and AA. We planned to sail the optional additional 40 miles to claim "bragging rights" but gave up on that idea when the winds went light and onto the nose. Mission accomplished, we whimped out and motored the rest of the way to Portsmouth.

The awards party was today and we came away with first place in B Class, ahead of "Tom Bombadil". A great end to an enjoyable few days. Thank you to the crew of "Apella", all other competitors and especially to the organisers and volunteers who together made this such a successful event.

Tom, Dudley, Paul and Dan with the silverware. Scott & Dylan missed the party.

Dylan has promised to bring his Little Creek 47 "Flutterby" north from St Augustine, Florida, for the 2015 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race and we will race the bay together again. I look forward to it.

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

The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race is held annually, with schooners of all types and sizes racing each other from the Bay Bridge North of Annapolis to the southern end of Chesapeake Bay. Starting at 13h30 on Thursday 16th October, this is the 25th running of the annual race, which was started by the late Capt. Laine Briggs.This is really two parties, one in Baltimore, Maryland, the other in Portsmouth, Virginia, linked by a yacht race.

I have sailed in this race twice before, on steel boats that I had designed. In 2004 it was on the 60ft gaff schooner "Ancilla II", then owned by Renny Barnes. About 5 or 6 years later I did it on the  Hout Bay 40 "Adventure" that was owned by Charley Holmes.

This year I will sail with Dan Hall on his GRP staysail schooner-rigged Shearwater 45 "Apella". She was built in Cape Town by Patrick Fraser. Patrick commissioned the Shearwater 45 design and built two of them, one for himself and the other for his colleague Denis Colclough. The one that we will sail was the boat owned by Denis and was originally named "Wave Maiden".

"Apella", snapped by solo-circumnavigator Ant Steward at a recent chance meeting when leaving Newport RI.

Sistership "Moonbeam" out of the water, showing underbody. Gorgeous interior of "Apella", looking aft Looking forward.

Mike Vermeersch in Ravenna Ohio turned over his Didi 950 hull a couple of weeks ago and sent me a video of the process.  He turned the hull with the help of a few friends, using the spit roast method and a pair of engine hoists.


With the hull settled in her new cradle, Mike has settled into doing the epoxy fillets and coatings, ahead of starting on the interior joinery.

Epoxy coatings progressing on Mike's Didi 950

While builders have been making material progress with their builds, I have been doing the drawings that detail the lifting keel version for Fred Grimminck. Fred is building his Didi 950 in Queensland, Australia. He has also turned his hull in the past fortnight.

The lifting keel version uses a keel support box of identical footprint to that of the fixed keel version. The difference is that the keel has to slide through where the motor sits in the fixed keel boat, so the motor has relocated to below the front of the cockpit and has a saildrive. The keel support box for this version has the casing built into it, with a flange at the top edge for bolting the keel securely in the down position. In the raised position, the keel is at approximately the same level as the bottom of the rudders. Draft is 2.35m (7'9") with the keel down and 1.15m (3'9") with the keel up.

The keel is lifted by means of a tackle, with the tail led to a dedicated winch that is recessed into the galley counter. This is a simple system, without the waterproofing and complication issues of leading it to a cabin roof winch.

Accommodation of the lifting keel version of the Didi 950

This lifting keel offers Didi 950 owners the possibility of having a racer or a performance cruiser, with deep draft, that can live on much shallower moorings or can access shallow anchorages.

To see our full range of designs to a wide range of concepts and materials, please go to http://dixdesign.com/.