my new boat

Howdy Bailey Yacht Services in Norfolk, Virginia, is building the keel for the Didi 950 project in Ohio. This one has a fixed keel that is supported by a steel box on the inside of the hull and which is bolted to the grid structure. The box also forms the engine beds, to concentrate these major weights in a tight area for low pitching characteristics in lumpy water.

Howdy and his staff are doing a masterful job of building this keel, which is assembled over a rigid skeleton of schedule pipes between end plates. The side plates are wrapped over the skeleton and plug welded.

One of Howdy's staff welding the keel structure.

Completed keel skeleton with pre-formed side plates awaiting fitting.

Same stage, looking at the top plate.

The tubular internal skeleton, instead of transverse plate spacers, has multiple benefits. The pipes make the skeleton very rigid to resist twisting when fitting the side plates, they have soft surfaces to minimise hard spots that can distort the side plates, they present broad surfaces for plug welding the side plates and they serve as efficient heat sinks to draw heat away from the plug welds, minimising heat distortion.

The keel bolts bear on the keel box inside the hull, sandwiching the hull skin between the the two. Howdy Bailey Yacht Services fabricated the box as well, then shipped it to the builder. He has test-fitted the Beta 15hp motor on the beds ahead of installing the box into the boat. The following photos show the box with engine standing on the integral engine beds.

Didi 950 keel support box front view.

Beta 15 being test-fitted on the engine beds.

Aft view. The holes are for shaft, exhaust and ventilation.

Finding a suitably qualified engineering company to make the keel is often a worry for people considering building an offshore boat. Howdy and his staff have the experience and are available for this work.

To see more of our designs, visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/.

This seems to be a period of hull-turning. About 10 days ago I posted about the Didi 26 being turned in Hood River, OR. Now I am doing the same for Mike Vermeersch's  Didi 950 in Ohio.

Mike turned his hull this weekend and it went very smoothly and safely. It is a much bigger boat, with more weight that can potentially get out of control and more height needed to successfully accommodate the hull on its side as it goes through the process. Bigger and heavier boats need more care, preparation and equipment than is the case with smaller boats.

Mike chose to turn it using the spit-roast method. This is only one of many methods that I describe in my book "Shaped by Wind & Wave".

Turning by this method is done by attaching axles to both ends of the hull to suspend it on supports (Mike used engine hoists) while it is rotated on the axles. Care must be taken to get the axles on centreline and close to the vertical centre of gravity of the hull, to keep the rotational forces small. In this case Mike asked me for the position of the VCG, which he says proved to be spot-on. Once lifted, he turned it by himself, exerting about 20lb of force to rotate the hull. These photos tell the story.

Spit-roast axles ready to be fitted.

Axle bolted to transom.

Axle bolted to bow.

Axle in chain sling attached to boom of engine hoist.

Lifted on engine hoists and turn started.

Almost over.

Cradle ready for the hull, on castors for easy moving.

Safely settled in her new cradle and ready for interior work.

Thanks Mike Vermeersch for the great photo series.

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