Wooden Boat Festival, Port Townsend

The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend WA ended a week ago. Two days of off-and-on light drizzle washed the smoke from the wild fires out of the air and Sunday turned into a gorgeous day with lots of visitors. There were three boat of our design on display.

The Didi Cruise-Mini "Segue" has been at the Festival many times. Her owners, David and Nancy Blessing, have become good friends of mine over the past few years and hosted me in their beautiful home in Port Ludlow. Their boat was built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock. The Festival gave me the opportunity to view some of the beautiful boats built by the school and also on display. I also spent a few pleasant hours in the company of Executive Director Betsy Davis and some of the many people who make this school a valuable resource of the boating community. The school may be available to build our smaller designs, up to about 21ft, but the bigger boats would not fit into the requirements of their programs.

Didi Cruise-Mini "Segue".

The Cape Henry 21 "Slough Coot" is owned by Michael and Jody Baccellieri of Portland OR. Their boat attracted an endless stream of visitors to visit aboard and talk about her. Michael and Jody had spent the previous 2 weeks cruising the beautiful islands and anchorages of Puget Sound and were very happy to chat about their capable little vessel.

Michael and Jody aboard their Cape Henry 21 "Slough Coot".

The Didi Mini Mk3 "Voodoo Child" was built by amateur Mark Paterson in Vancouver BC, to an extremely high standard that rivals the best produced by many professional boatyards. Visitors who talked to me after being aboard "Voodoo Child" all spoke of the incredible standard of finish and the many features that Mark built into his boat. She is very well-equipped, including carbon mast, boom and sprit. We took her out to sail in the Friday race, unfortunately into the worst possible conditions for a Mini 650 to show her paces. We had a boat, designed for windy downwind racing and trans-ocean passage-making, in a sometimes windless around-the-cans race where contrary current was at times faster than boat speed. I will have to sail on her another time to experience her speed in her own conditions.

Didi Mini Mk3 "Voodoo Child".

I had flown to the Pacific Northwest via Portland so that I could visit friends in that area. One was the owner of a Lotus Europa similar to my own, to help him to sort out some problems. That done, we took it for a spin on Vancouver WA roads, giving me even more appreciation for my own car, which I had resurrected from a lifeless wreck over a 5-year rebuild. Just a few more jobs to do to complete the total body-off restoration. People wonder when I walk up to this tiny car how a tall guy like me can fit into a car with the roof below waist level. The saying is that you don't get into a Lotus, you put it on like a pair of trousers, one leg at a time. 😊

The roof of my Lotus comes only to the bottom of the windows of my wife's Chev Sonic compact.  Seen here with my Ford Windstar and son-in-law's jacked SUV for contrast with my "toy" car.

To see our full range of boat designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Wooden Boat Festival, Port Townsend

That season is coming around again, time for the Wooden Boat Festival in the beautiful little Pacific Northwest town of Port Townsend, WA. This is the 41st edition of one of the most popular wooden boat events in the world, with hundreds of wooden boats on show and dozens of presentations on a wide range of subjects of interest to boating people. Dates are 8th to 10th September 2017. The festival website is not yet fully functional but that will come soon.

Among those many boats will be three of our 21ft plywood sailboats, all different, which can be visited on the docks.

David Blessing's Didi Cruise-Mini "Segue". This is the detuned cruising version of our Didi Mini single-handed trans-Atlantic raceboat.

Michael Baccellieri's Cape Henry 21, "Slough Coot". She was built with some deviations from our design but the current owner is working to get her closer to the original drawings.

Mark Paterson's Didi Mini Mk3 "Voodoo Child". This is the full racing version of our Mini-Transat racer, with the newer hull shape and rig. 

I will also be taking part in the presentations. I will participate in the Designers' Forum, along with other boat designers, moderated by Jay Benford. This is from 12h00 to 13h00 on Friday 8th in the Cascade Room. Bring your boat design and construction questions to this session and observe how diverse the range of opinions and solutions can be among designers with different backgrounds and design styles. This is normally a very interesting gathering.

I will have my own session in the Cascade Room from 09h30 to 10h30 on Sunday 10th. My presentation is titled "Surviving a Capsize on the Ocean". Nobody can guarantee who will survive an ocean capsize but this presentation is aimed at making boaters aware of the many factors that are working together to reduce their chances of escaping alive from a capsized boat. Armed with that knowledge, they will be better prepared to choose the best options if they do ever have the misfortune of being inside or under an inverted boat.

To see our range of boat designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Another Didi Mini Mk3 Launch

About 3 weeks ago Ronald Groenewoud launched his Didi Mini Mk3 in Netherlands. Last week another was launched,  meticulously built by Mark Paterson in Vancouver, British Columbia. Named "Voodoo Child", Mark has no plans to race her in the formal Mini-transat class but will compete in local mixed fleet club racing. He has outfitted her with all normal Mini 650 equipment plus a few extras for comfort.

Transported on her road trailer.

"Voodoo Child" in the travel lift slings, on the way to the water.

Rig up and testing sails for fit.

Transom with twin rudders.

Cockpit and cabin with crew shelter. 

Mark has opted for the fixed keel option, with trim tab.

Robust companion hatch, as seen from the cockpit.

Electrical and electronics panel.

Plumbed-in toilet, shown during construction.

Compact galley, shown during construction.

Mark is now doing sea trials, bedding the rig in, testing sails and systems and learning what his new boat can do, as well as its character. Testing was with white sails last weekend and will move on to the powerful asymmetrical next. I will show sailing photos on this blog when available.

To see more of our designs, go to our desktop website or our mobile website.

Didi Mini Mk3 Launch in Netherlands

Ronald Groenewoud is in Enschede, Netherlands. He has been building his Didi Mini Mk3 for the past three years and launched her today. (Mobile web page for this design). This is a radius chine plywood boat, built from our plans.

From his photos it seems that he has done a great job of building her. I don't have info on the boat or the builder to write a story, so will rely on Ronald's photos to tell that story for me.

Hull completed. It is built over permanent plywood bulkheads.

Deck stringers added, ready to receive the 6mm plywood deck skins.

Completed hull and deck, finished to a beautiful standard.

Pouring encapsulated foam flotation required by the Mini 650 Class Rules.

Fabricated aluminium keel.

Pouring the lead ballast bulb in halves, to be joined over the keel.

Ready to leave the workshop. Tight fit, with some plaster removed from both
sides of the opening to let it squeeze through.

Custom road trailer, ready and waiting.

Loaded and ready to go.

Launched with a travel-lift.

Afloat.

Waiting for her rig. Maybe tomorrow?

Ronald built his boat single-handed, as he is likely to sail it most of the time. Congratulations Ronald, looks like you have built a good boat. Ronald has a Dutch-language blog but the photos look the same in any language. :-)

To see our full design range, go to our desktop website or our mobile website.