Didi 950 Australia Project Update

Yesterday I wrote about the Didi 950 of Mike Vermeersch in Ohio, today is the turn for the parallel Didi 950 project of Fred Grimminck in Australia.

Fred is building his lifting keel version from scratch, using plans and offsets. He has been progressing very quickly and should be launching within a few months. His boat is destined for fast cruising rather than racing, so he is fitting her out for comfort rather than attempting to get close to class weight.

The lifting keel foil and bulb use similar details to the fixed keel except that it has no flare and root plate at the top and extends through a steel casing into the hull, where it bolts down onto the top flange of the casing. This is right where the engine is in the fixed keel version, so Fred's motor moves to under the companion ladder and is fitted with a saildrive instead of a shaft with stern tube.

Fred has made some changes from the design, so these photos show some differences from my drawings. Among the changes are encasing the lifting keel casing and mechanism all the way up to the deck and swapping the layout from aft heads and forward sleeping cabin to forward heads and additional aft sleeping cabin.


Casing for lifting keel being installed. Galley locker will surround it.
 

Water ballast tanks and double quarter berth on port side.

Galley.

Port water ballast tanks and double quarter berth, looking through into lazarette.

Navigation station.

Looking from nav station, through saloon into forecabin, in this case with forward heads.

Companion ladder to cockpit. The motor is behind the ladder.

Cockpit and cabin.

Deck and cabin nearing completion.

Casting half of the lead ballast bulb.

The next update on Fred's Didi 950 will likely be when he launches her.

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