National Sea Rescue Institute Does It Again

I have written before about the very capable National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), the privately-funded rescue service that protects mariners all around the coasts of South Africa. Crewed mostly by volunteers, they rescue users of the sea wherever and whenever they are needed, when possible saving their vessels as well. Much of their work is not seen by the public, happening in pitch darkness way out at sea in storm conditions but occasionally the man in the street, more accurately on the beach, gets to see them doing their work from up close. Such was the case recently at the beautiful Santos Beach in the lovely town of Mossel Bay, on the Indian Ocean side of the extreme southern tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas.

This rescue was of the yacht "Day Off", a steel Dix 43 Pilot built in Cape Town by Randle Yachts. Her crew had brought her into Mossel Bay to shelter from an approaching storm. For reasons unknown to me at this stage, her anchor chain broke and she was carried ashore by wind and seas.

Dix 43 Pilot "Day Off" well and truly aground on Santos Beach, Mossel Bay.

Mossel Bay Harbour is in the background.

Santos Beach is just outside of Mossel Bay Harbour, where NSRI Station 15 is located. Although just around the corner from their base, "Day Off" was very securely on the beach and would have required a large amount of power mixed in with a big load of skill from very capable people to get her off the beach and safely afloat again.

The NSRI boat is at left, turning "Day Off" head-to the waves before pulling her off.

"Day Off" was pulled off the beach, then towed into Mossel Bay Harbour to a safe mooring. No doubt they will have discovered why the anchor chain broke and will remedy the problem.

"Day Off" almost afloat and on her way off the beach.

Thank you to the NSRI for another successful rescue operation.

New Photos of Dix Designs

Photos of boats that I have designed often come into my hands through various routes. Sometimes it is the owner proudly showing the boat that he had created with his own hands, sometimes it is a friend who took the photo from an interesting perspective or for some special reason. When I can I show some of those photos. Here are a few recent ones.

This first one is the steel Dix 43 Pilot "Sea Bird" that was owner-built by Andre Siebert in South Africa. She is on her maiden cruise on the West Coast of South Africa.

Dix 43 Pilot "Sea Bird" in Port Owen marina.

Ryerson and Annie Clark had Big Pond Boat Shop in Nova Scotia build a Cape Henry 21 for them and did the finishing work themselves. They launched earlier this year and have been doing short cruises as they learn to sail their new boat, named "Elvee".

Cape Henry 21 "Elvee" enjoying a beautiful Nova Scotia sunset.

David Edmiston owner-built his Didi 40cr2 "Passion X" in Sydney, Australia. It differs from the standard Didi 40cr by having a wider stern, deeper keel and more powerful rig. This photo of Passion X" was submitted to the Greenwich Flying Squadron photo competition.

Didi 40cr2 "Passion X" in Sydney, Australia.

Joop Mars built his Didi 26 "Black-Out" in Netherlands. In the photo below he is racing her single-handed and loves her sailing characteristics.

Didi 26 "Black-Out" sailing in Netherlands.

Michael Baccellieri of Portland, Oregon, bought an owner-built Cape Henry 21 that had some builder-created problems. Michael fixed the issues, did what he could to get her closer to the original design, refinished her under the new name of "Slough Coot" and went sailing. He and a friend cruised Puget Sound for 2 weeks, then exhibited her on the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend WA

Cape Henry 21 "Slough Coot" relaxing on Puget Sound.

To see more of these and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Sailing in Extreme Weather

There have been some extreme weather systems around the coast of South Africa in the past week or two. The weather around this very inhospitable coast, from Cape of Good Hope (aka Cape of Storms) through to Richards Bay, teaches the locals to be very hardy sailors who are able to handle their boats in sometimes wild conditions. This is justifiably one of the three Great Capes of the world and many circum-navigators tell of their passages through these waters being the most scary periods of their voyaging.

The first storm was from a deep depression and cold front that had come in from deep down in the South Atlantic. It hit the Cape Town area and produced very intense gales and heavy rain, unfortunately not enough to break the long-lasting drought that currently plagues the Western Cape.

The other storm was from a cut-off low in the Indian Ocean off Durban, 1000 miles from the first storm. It produced gales that broke numerous large ships free in the port, with a large container ship lying broadside across the entrance channel. It also wrecked the marinas in the yacht basin, with some yachts sinking on their moorings.

Two boats of our design sailed through these two storms. Both were in the hands of very capable skippers. Survival of any boat and crew in extreme conditions is through the partnership between a capable boat and an equally capable crew. Put the most seaworthy boat in the hands of an inexperienced or irresponsible skipper and that good boat may be doomed. On the other hand, a capable and experienced skipper has the best chance of bringing an inadequate vessel through tough conditions.

The yacht in the first storm was the steel Dix 38 Pilot "Spailpin" (ex "Bryana"), on delivery by Jeremy Bagshaw. Jeremy and wife Anita own the bigger sister Dix 43 Pilot "Jerrycan" and have sailed many thousands of miles in her in the Indian Ocean. Jeremy has written of his experience in this storm on his blog entry titled Some Thoughts on Big Weather.

Dix 38 Pilot "Spailpin" in much calmer waters under her previous owner.

The yacht in the storm off Durban  was the fibreglass Shearwater 39 "Ocean Spirit". Her owner, Neville Bransby, was out sailing on her in that storm by choice, single-handed. He wanted to prove himself and his boat in storm conditions. He did that effectively, losing only his anemometer in the process, when it blew off the masthead. Meanwhile, the catamaran moored right next to his normal berth sank on its moorings. You can read of it in a blog post authored by Richard Crockett, titled A Case of Sound Seamanship.

Shearwater 39 "Ocean Spirit" racing between Durban and Port Elizabeth in less extreme conditions.

All of us who go to sea in small boats have to accept the strong chance that sooner or later we will be caught by extreme weather. That chance goes up with every mile that we sail. If we sail trans-ocean or long coastal passages with safe havens separated by miles of rocky coast then we have to know how to handle our boats to come safely through whatever it is that is being thrown at us by Mother Nature in a foul mood. We cannot learn how to handle these conditions only by reading how in books and magazine articles while snug in a soft armchair next to a winter fire. We have to experience these things to know what we need to do to safeguard boat and crew, to have confidence in the abilities of ourselves and our boats.

I don't mean that you must go sailing in the meanest weather that can come your way, I mean that you must not only sail on those idyllic days when it is all sunshine and cocktails on flat seas. Those conditions teach us nothing, unless we are novices just getting into sailing. If you have plans to sail across oceans or offshore coastal then you really have a need to go sailing in 35 knots, to know that your reefing systems work in strong winds, that you know how to set your storm jib and storm tri-sail, that your jackstays allow free movement from bow to stern while always tethered in your safety harness, that you know what your boat likes if you have to heave-to or lie ahull, how it will behave, how fast it will drift or at what speed and direction it will sail under different sail combinations.

There are so many things to be learned by doing this, things that will stay logged in your brain as experience rather than knowledge, to be called into use with confidence when needed.

Lets go sailing but lets also be safe.

To see more about our designs, go to out main website or our mobile website.

Two New Steel Boat Launchings

Steel boatbuilding has been in a slump for a decade or so, with not many new builds starting, either as professional projects or by amateur builders. It has even become very difficult to find any professional boatbuilders who are still working in steel, in many countries. Most of the steel boats currently being built are the work of amateur builders.

I think that this was due to a combination of causes, mostly related to the state of the world economy squeezing disposable income. Fewer people able to afford spending years cruising the oceans of the world has changed cruising dreams to smaller boats of their own for coastal or trailer-sailer cruising, or chartering bigger boats for a week or two at a time from others in the islands.

That may be changing though, we have recently seen an increasing interest in our more serious cruising designs, including those of steel. There still remains the problem of a dearth of professional yards that will build in steel but it does seem that the interest in steel boats may be returning.

The past few weeks have brought two new launches of steel sailboats to our Dix 43 Pilot design. These two were built many thousands of mile apart, in different hemispheres.

Ian Edwards built his boat in Caernarfon, Wales. A 10-year project, she is now in the water and ready to start cruising.

Ian Edwards built his boat in Caernarfon, Wales

Ian turning his hull using the spit-roast method.

Andre Siebert built his boat in Gauteng, South Africa, then had her trucked 1000 miles to Cape Town for launch. I have a few more photos of Andre's boat than Ian's, so apologies to Ian for showing more of Andre's boat.


Andre's boat about to hit the highway from Gauteng to the ocean.

Andre Siebert's launch of "Sea Bird" at Royal Cape Yacht Club, Cape Town.

Beautifully finished pilothouse of "Sea Bird".

"Sea Bird" with her rig stepped.

Congratulation to Ian and Andre for their impressive projects. We wish you happy cruising.

To see more of this and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Dix 43 Pilot on BBC Treasure Islands

BBC 4 (British Broadcasting Corporation) is currently airing a series of programmes about the various islands around the world that are British territories. Titled Britain's Treasure Islands - Ocean Odyssey, one of the episodes features a sailing trip by explorer and naturalist Stewart McPherson on a sailboat to Chagos Archipelago, the largest atoll in the world. Chagos is 310 miles due south of the Maldives Archipelago in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and is the world's largest marine reserve. See more about the series of programmes.

Dix 43 Pilot "Jerrican" sailing alongside a Chagos reef during filming.

The sailboat in this program is the steel Dix 43 Pilot "Jerrican", launched in Cape Town in December 2013. "Jerrican" is owned by Jeremy and Anita Bagshaw and has logged considerable mileage in ocean voyages to participate in this programme. This has been a shakedown cruise for "Jerrican"and her crew, in preparation for long-term voyaging to faraway places. On the scale of shakedown cruises this is a big one, requiring 6 weeks of sailing just to get to the Maldives to pick up the film crew, then sailing back home again to the Cape of Good Hope after three weeks of filming had completed. Their cruising was planned to be in the other direction, into and across the South Atlantic until a chance meeting with Stewart McPherson at the False Bay Yacht Club set the gears turning to send them east instead of west.

"Jerrican" launch at Royal Cape Yacht Club in December 2013.

Jeremy writes a blog, SVJerrican - The Travels of a Robust Steel Vessel. It has some interesting writings, including how they came to be sailing to Chagos and the pressures of squeezing many months of preparation into a few weeks to meet their commitments for filming the program.

To read more about this and our other designs, visit our main website or our mobile website.