Didi 40cr2 Kit from Exocetus Marine

Exocetus Marine in UK develops and supplies kits for our radius chine plywood catamarans, with kits produced for the Dix 470 and DH550 cats. A kit is currently in development for the new Dix 430 catamaran. The kits are very comprehensive and can be customized to each customer's needs, from basic bulkhead kits through to inclusion of whatever equipment and materials the particular builder would like to be delivered in the shipping container with the pre-cut plywood and other timber.

I have written about the Exocetus Marine kits in earlier posts on this blog, from when development first started in 2012. They have come a long way since then, under the expert hand of owner Kevin Bream.

CNC Kits for 47ft Plywood Catamaran
Dix 470 Catamaran Kit Build in UK
Kit-build Dix 470 Plywood Catamaran
Plywood Catamaran Kits
More About Plywood Catamaran Kits
DH550 Kit Shipped to Southern Africa
Dix 430 Catamaran

The DH550 catamaran "Valerie", built in Durban, South Africa, and in charter service in the Seychelles, was built from a very comprehensive kit supplied by Exocetus Marine, which included solid timbers, epoxies, engines, hardware, electronics, porthole frames etc.

DH550 charter catamaran "Valerie".

The Dix 470 catamaran "Marram", being built in Australia, is a big amateur project. The components have all been cut from CNC cutting files developed and supplied by Exocetus Marine.

Dix 470 "Marram", a husband and wife amateur project.

Exocetus Marine is now expanding their range in a new direction. This harkens back to my origins in radius chine plywood designs with my Didi 38 prototype "Black Cat", which has spawned a large and expanding range of designs from 15ft to 55ft, spanning both monohulls and multihulls. The Didi 38 design itself expanded to the Didi 40cr and, most recently, the Didi 40cr2. It is the Didi 40cr2 that is the newest project by Exocetus Marine.

"Passion X", prototype of the Didi 40cr2 design, built as an amateur project in Australia.

As with their catamaran kits, Exocetus is developing a very comprehensive kit for this first expedition into monohulls. In doing so they have transformed my CAD drawings into a complete 3D model before extracting the components for cutting by CNC then testing for accuracy of build. In doing this they are building the boat as well, enabling preparation of complete building instructions to guide those who will follow to build the Didi 40cr2 for themselves.

These photos are a few from the build record to date.

Bulkhead example, with jigsaw joints, doublers fitted around stringer slots.

All parts are referenced for identification and assembly instructions.

Bulkheads set up on the building stocks.

Cockpit structure installed, bracing the whole structure.

Backbone with bevels and scarphs pre-cut.

Pre-cut opening for propeller shaft log.

Laminated keel floors.

Keel floors installed through backbone structure.

Stringers being installed. This is a tangent stringer, with a doubler on the outer face for joining the radiused skin above the stringer to the flat skin below.

Hull side panels jigsaw-jointed at ends of sheets.

Example from the interactive building manual for the DH550 catamaran. A similar manual will be supplied with the Didi 40cr2 kit.

Check back to this blog occasionally. I will update here on progress of the kit development and the construction of their boat.

For more information on our designs go to our main website or our mobile website.

Memories of a Trans-Atlantic Race

This week I was sent a photo that brought back good memories, 24-year old memories of our first Cape to Rio Race on "Black Cat", in 1996. It was sent to me by Gavin Muller, who was the youngest in our 5-man crew. He took it on the last night of our race, as we were sailing between our Brazilian landfall of Cabo Frio and the finish line off Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro.

From left, Adrian Pearson, Brian Cole, Dudley Dix and Sean Collins. Sadly, two are no longer with us, the others are scattered around the world.

The Cape to Rio Race is 3500 miles of tradewind ocean racing, starting in Cape Town and finishing in Rio de Janeiro. A race like this breeds friendships that last a lifetime. Most of us were good friends before the race and the three weeks in close quarters in the middle of nowhere, in company of seabirds and the occasional fish or whale, cemented those friendships forever. Gavin was the odd-man-out at the start of the race, being much younger than the rest of us, but he too became a friend for life.

Gavin Muller repairing our light spinnaker.

Adrian Pearson (RIP) was my partner in "Black Cat". Brian Cole introduced us while I was building our boat for the race, bringing him in as crew. Later he joined me to co-finance the project.

Brian Cole (RIP) was the oldest in our crew, at 60. He was a director of North Sails Cape Town and a regular on the crew of my previous boat, "Concept Won". He joined us on this race as navigator for his first and only ocean-crossing voyage. His wife, Marion, was co-skipper with Judy Provoyeur of the all-lady crew of the Schumacher 41 "Kelly Girl", our closest handicap competition in the race. On handicap, they had to reach Rio more than 20 minutes ahead of "Black Cat" to beat us.

Sean Collins was a client many years ago for a rig redesign on his cruiser. He became a friend, sailing with me for many, many miles on "Concept Won". We raced together uncountable times in fully-crewed and double-handed races around the buoys and around the coasts of the Cape of Good Hope, quite justly also named "Cape of Storms". We had much experience sailing in mild weather and in those storms.

Gavin Muller, at 21, was not long out of college. His math teacher, an acquaintance and also a boat owner at Royal Cape Yacht Club, had asked me if I had a crew slot available for Gavin, who had previously sailed a Cape to Rio Race with him while still a school boy. Another friend of mine had to withdraw from the crew and Gavin slid into his spot.

Another of Gavin's photos. This one shows me in the bosun's chair working on the headstay foil, damaged by the spinnaker pole. The big cat watches over me.

"Black Cat" is the prototype of my Didi 38 radius chine plywood design. I designed her primarily for this race, starting to formulate the concept while racing to Rio in 1993 as navigator and sailing master on the Shearwater 39 "Ukelele Lady". I built her in my garden in Hout Bay, a suburb of Cape Town. The build took 2 years with help from my wife Dehlia, Sean Collins and another friend, Nigel Watkins, who didn't join us for the race.

Part-way through that race, with the nearest land (the Brazilian island of Trinidade) about 500 miles away, we had a close call with a boat of about 40ft that was sailing unlit on a moonless night. I was in my berth under the cockpit, dozing with my brain on alert as usual. Brian and Adrian were in the cockpit and I heard a discussion start, trying to identify something ahead of us in the dark. We were under spinnaker, averaging about 10 knots, so closing pretty fast. I joined them in the cockpit to see that we were on course to T-bone this wooden boat. Two wooden boats colliding in mid-ocean would not have been pretty. The skipper of the other boat suddenly appeared on deck, shining a flashlight on his mainsail. Within another 15 seconds we would have been past him and would have made much noise to advise him that he had missed out on the action of unidentified ships passing in the night. I suspect that he still holds those images in his head of our big cat spinnaker bearing down on him fast.

We figured from his course and position that he was possibly en-route from Cape Horn to Europe. Next morning on the daily fleet report I told of our near-miss. The story appeared in the Cape Town newspaper next day, although not entirely accurately reported. We were also the subject of the daily cartoon, the original of which now hangs proudly on my wall at home.

The cartoon drawn by Grogan for the Cape Argus newspaper.

We had not seen our competition "Kelly Girl" since the start but they were always close behind in the handicap race. We hadn't seen another boat for many days although the position reports showed that there were always others somewhere over the horizon. Trinidade was a mark of the course and, as we approached the island toward sunset one day, we saw "Kelly Girl" behind us on the horizon. After that we saw each other at least once a day.

A few days after rounding Trinidade we were sailing in 5000m of inky blue water that suddenly turned brown and murkey. We hadn't seen a seabird for a few days and had hooked nothing on our fishing lure, trailed for many days. At the same time the sky was full of birds and our lure hooked a long-fin tuna. Within 5 minutes we had three of them aboard before deciding to keep the lure aboard rather than have nature think us greedy. The truth is that, with one fish for dinner that night and the other two in the freezer, we could not cope with any more. Within an hour we were back into inky blue water and 5000m of water, having completed our crossing of the 60m depth of the Almirante Saldanha Sea Mount. In another million years or so maybe this will be another island in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile our race-within-a-race carried on with us sometimes ahead and other times "Kelly Girl" appearing out of a thunder storm ahead of us. Cabo Frio was our first landfall in mainland Brazil and we rounded that promontory abeam of each other and 100 yards apart. We finished about 3am that night, about an hour ahead of "Kelly Girl", with the 20 minute handicap advantage in hand as well. Another 4 years on, in the 2000 Cape to Rio Race that same boat was skippered by circumnavigator Anthony Steward, who finished about 20 minutes ahead of us. These two boats are very closely matched for ocean racing.

Relaxing in the Bay of Islands after the race.

Since that 2000 Rio Race "Black Cat" has crossed this ocean twice more, to total six Atlantic crossings. She has also raced the 1700 mile Governor's Cup Race from Cape Town to St Helena Island twice, including line- and handicap-honours in the 2014/15 race.

It is now 24 years that "Black Cat" has been sailing. She has nearly 100 sisters on the water or in build. She has also spawned another 16 performance designs in sizes from 15 to 55ft for a wide range of concepts. These range from monohull dinghies to trailer-sailers and large catamarans, even fast little gaffers. More than 500 boats are on the water or being built to this range of designs. Most are amateur projects, with builders producing impressive quality.

Didi 29 Retro, a gaffer with a great turn of speed.

DH550, a very comfortable and eye-catching cruising cat.

Both of the boats above, as different as they may appear, are derivatives of the Didi 38 design. To see our other plywood designs go to https://dixdesign.com/plywood.htm. Or to see our full range of designs of all types and materials, go to our main website or our mobile website.

DH550 Catamaran "Valerie"

"Valerie" is the newest DH550 catamaran, launched in Durban, South Africa, a few months ago. Now she is in the Seychelles, awaiting her charter licence. Within a few weeks she should be licensed and available for crewed charter among these gorgeous Indian Ocean islands.

DH550 "Valerie" relaxing in an idyllic setting.

"Valerie" with Argie 15 as yacht tender.

A closer view.

Starboard aft cabin.

Galley on port side of saloon.

Settee on starboard side of saloon.

Inside helm and nav station.

Fast, comfortable sailing.

"Valerie" was built from a kit from Exocetus Marine in UK, who supplied a fairly comprehensive kit. It included CNC-cut components for hull, deck, bulkheads and interior joinery, as well as deck hardware, machinery, electrics and many other items.

"Valerie" will have a website in a few months. Until then I can forward any enquiries about chartering her to her owners.

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

Road Trip to Sail the Didi 29 Retro "Arabella"

It was my 70th birthday 2 weeks ago and I was surprised by my family with a totally unexpected visit by my sister Dorothy and her daughter Robynne from across the Atlantic, come to participate in the festivities and to help make it a very special occasion. Winding down Dorothy's trip, she and I made a brief road trip to North Carolina. We started off down the Outer banks, where I hoped to find some decent surf. The weather stymied that one with strong onshore winds, so we wasted little time feeling sand between our toes, visited the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras and arrived at the ferry dock to board for Ocracoke to find rows and rows of cars waiting ahead of us.

Innocent us, we did not expect a flood of people to be visiting this tiny barrier island. I expected to arrive at the ferry dock and be boarded 15-30 minutes later, then a short crossing, time to get lunch on the tiny island before boarding our reserved ferry to Cedar Island. Wrong. After sitting in the queue for a long time, the very accommodating NC Ferry staff let us jump the line to catch the next ferry, or we were not going to make out 4pm ferry. That short crossing to Ocracoke is actually about 4 or 5 times the straight-line distance because the ferry has to wind back-and-forth through the channels.

Satellite view of Ocracoke Inlet, Courtesy Google Earth. The Hatteras ferry dock at extreme right, Ocracoke ferry dock at extreme left. The sand banks and channels move around and the ferries have to zig-zag through them. 

So, we had a drive-through tour that really didn't do justice to the very cute little town of Ocracoke, arriving in time to check in for our next ferry, without lunch. The ferry route to Cedar Island was more direct and parallel to the barrier islands, in deep water.The main entertainment was a variety of seabirds soaring behind us and looking for food to be churned up by the propellers or tossed in the air by passengers.

Once on land we saw the results of the coastal areas that were devastated by Hurricanes Florence and Michael last year. Homes destroyed, most that survived now being jacked up 6-8ft to get them above future flooding.Trees still on top of some homes, no longer habitable. And our hotel still undergoing reconstruction, with water service disrupted at times and cold water coming out of the hot taps. But the beds were new and very comfortable, so we got a good night's sleep. In the morning, a short ferry ride and drive to a marina in Oriental.

"Arabella" is very pretty. She was built by professional boatbuilder Bruce Mierke as his personal sailboat, to our Didi 29 Retro design. He customised his build to suit his own needs, so she has a shorter cabin and some different detailing.

"Arabella" in her dock, retractable bowsprit withdrawn

Lifting keel in raised position, hauled up by a tackle system led to the cabintop winch.

Lifting rudder in a casette. Bruce modified this from my original design, to give some steering when the rudder is partially raised. There is an outboard motor well but Bruce has an electric pod drive installed.

With the short cabin, Bruce has kept his halliards at the mast .

The bowsprit retracts and pivots on an inboard traveller on the foredeck, with control lines led aft to the cockpit.

"Arabella" hard on the wind.

Very neat high-peaked gaff rig with nicely-shaped mainsail. All spars are carbon.

So, how did she sail? Wind was very light, around 4-5 knots most of the time. On the flat water that we had, she sailed close to the wind at 3.5-4 knots, with little wake and an easy helm. She cut through the occasional powerboat wakes of the ICW with little fuss or loss of speed. Once cracked off, we pushed out the bowsprit, set the top-down roller-furled asymmetrical off the end and rolled away the jib to allow the spinnaker to breathe.

She powered up and reached at just a touch under the apparent wind speed, topping out at more than 8 knots boat speed in 9 knots of apparent wind. That put her boat speed at well above the true wind speed in which we were sailing. She did this with no fuss and very easy control. The speed gave the feeling that the wind had picked up but with the bag stowed and back on the wind under main and jib, we still had the same light breeze as before. She just gets up and goes. She will reel off the miles if used as a small cruiser.

"Arabella" has the smaller of the two gaff rigs that I drew. This one is suitable for most small crews, for racing or cruising. The other gaff rig is larger and will need a larger and more experienced crew. We also have a Marconi rig with square-top mainsail.

See our full range of designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Dix 430 Catamaran

A long time ago I drew the basics of a design for a 43ft wood/epoxy catamaran for a professional builder. He didn't have the resources to build the boat, so the design went no further. Ever since it has remained on our website as a teaser, hoping to entice another builder to commission the completion of the design. A few people did ask me to carry on but those requests somehow never coincided with a gap in my design schedule, so it went no further.

I did get to design the bigger Dix 470 and DH550 cats for radius chine plywood construction. A few of the 55 footers have been launched and others are in build to both designs. Both boats are also offered as comprehensive CNC-cut kits of all plywood components, by Exocetus Marine in UK.

Exocetus Marine wanted to expand their kit range down to smaller cats as well, so they commissioned a new 43ft cat with a similar aesthetic to the bigger boats. This has replaced the design that has been languishing on our web pages for so long. Exocetus Marine will have the programming for cutting the Dix 430 completed during the second quarter of this year.

Dix 430 sail plan

As with the bigger sisters, the new design is also radius chine plywood construction, the build method that I developed for my Didi 38 prototype "Black Cat". That boat is now 23 years old and is still racing competitive. That design has been followed by a stream of smaller and larger designs of similar or derivative construction.

In addition to the kit option, the Dix 430 can also be built from plans or from plans plus Mylar bulkhead patterns. They can be ordered through our stock plan pricelist.

The new boat is a good size for family distance cruising and lazing around the islands. Initially available with cruising keels, a daggerboard option may be added later if there is demand for it.

Dix 430 accommodation

Dix 430 cross-section

See more of this and our other designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Didi 27 Retro

It has been a few years since we introduced the Didi 29 Retro, a gaff-rigged cruiser-racer based on our popular Didi 26 trailer-sailer sportboat. Bruce Mierke of North Carolina built his "Arabella" to this design with a modified (shorter) cabintop. Sisters are also being built in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Didi 29 Retro "Arabella", built by Bruce Mierke.

Inspired by "Arabella", another client commissioned a boat on the same basis but heading in a slightly different direction. The new boat is a classically-styled day-sailer with enough horsepower for exciting sailing.

The hull is based on the Didi 26, with some modifications. It has a plumb bow and aft the lines have been extended for a clean and powerful stern, ending in a radiused vertical transom. Along with that it has bulwarks forward, which taper aft into a normal toerail. The result is a more springy sheer curve.

Clean flush deck and centre cockpit

Bulwarks, bulb fin keel and spade rudder.

Being a dayboat, it has a clean flush deck with centre cockpit and no cabin structure. My client wanted only two settees down below with sitting headroom but I included a double forward berth to add the option of camp-cruising. A Porta-Potti and camp stove can be stowed under the cockpit and a boom tent can extend sleeping space to include the cockpit.

Powerful Marconi rig.

The rig is a powerful fractional Marconi sloop configuration, with square-head mainsail. The asymmetric spinnaker is flown off the end of a retracting and pivoting bowsprit. The deck-stepped mast is supported by double swept spreaders and there are also runners to help with the loads from the asymetrical in strong winds.

Camp-cruiser accommodation

My client wanted a fixed keel and a lifting keel will also be available. The foils are wood, sheathed in uni-directional glass, with a cast lead ballast bulb. The rudder is in a cassette that allows it to be lifted for servicing and for the lifting keel boats to get into shallow water.

We will be offering CNC kits for this boat, including the interior components. Plans are available immediately and kits in the near future.

To see our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Didi 40cr2 Builder Sheri Bamboat

Sheri Bamboat is the owner of XS-Marines, boatbuilder in Mumbai, India. They built the plywood Didi 40cr2 "Stargazer" for a customer and took moulds off that boat for future production building of the Didi 38/40 design range in sandwich GRP. Today an article appeared in Indian newspapers about Sheri Bamboat, telling the story of his involvement in sailing and boatbuilding in India. Read Sheri's story in the Mumbai Mirror.

Didi 40cr2 |Stargazer".

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

Happenings with Radius Chine Plywood Projects

My agent in Italy, Leo Giammanco of Nautikit, sent me photos a few days ago of a new Didi 40cr. Many of these boats in the Didi 38/40/40cr series have been or are being built in Mediterranean countries, including 6 in Italy. This one is named "Mia" and was built by Stefano Consolini. She was launched at the Marina di Ravenna, east of Bologna on the Adriatic Sea.

Stefano appears to have done a really nice job of creating "Mia". He has built her as a nicely-detailed comfortable cruiser with 18mm skin and concentration on strength, rather than lightness and performance. Stefano started the project in 2006 and worked as a lifeguard to finance the build.

"Mia" gets wet for the first time.

Nicely finished as a fast cruiser.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Vitaly Ghazarayan of Krasnodar has stepped the rig on his Didi 34, with the help of a group of friends. They did this without a crane, showing that with a good dose of resourcefulness, amateur builders can do almost anything. Those of us who launch where yacht club cranes and derricks are readily available, wouldn't dream of doing this.

This series of photos shows the process that they used.


Moving the mast into position.

The lift starts, using a pole fastened to the cabin roof as a spreader to gain mechanical advantage.

Up she goes, nearly there.

Securely in place, sorting out backstay, halliards, electronics etc.

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