Dix 38 Pilot "Spailpin" Antarctic Voyage

The yacht "Spailpin" is a steel Dix 38 Pilot, owned and skippered by Barry Kennedy. She is currently in the Antarctic, on her second voyage to that wild and very remote part of our world.

She was built in South Africa by Luke Fisher as his family cruiser, named "Bryana". He competed in the 1700 mile Governors Cup Race from South Africa to St Helena Island in 2012, with his wife and two teenage children as crew. Barry Kennedy bought her from Luke, renamed her "Spailpin" and made upgrades to ready her for more vigorous sailing adventures than she had done with Luke and family.

As "Bryana, when Luke Fisher owned her.

Wikipedia defiles a spailpin as a wandering landless labourer, an itinerant or seasonal farm worker in Ireland. Others also offer a rascal or layabout as alternatives. Seeing where she is now and how hard she and Barry have worked to be there, I don't think that the "layabout" handle will fit. That said, she did hang out for most of 2019 in the Falkland Islands between her two voyages.

"Spailpin" hanging out in the Falkland Islands this year.

Prior to her Antarctic voyage a year ago, Barry and "Spailpin" cruised the fjords of Patagonia. These photos are from that voyaging to some of the most incredible scenery in the world.

Look carefully and you will see "Spailpin" in the middle of that sea of ice.

Moored to ice.

Serene but very cold near to the bottom of the world.

Two weeks ago Barry and I exchanged emails when "Spailpin" was in port in Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southern city in the world. Barry was preparing and stocking her for her voyage back to Antarctica while waiting for two crew to join him. Since then they have reached Antactica and are anchored in the sheltered waters of Enterprise Island.

Wind patterns over the Southern Ocean on Christmas Day 2019, showing the track of "Spailpin" from Ushuaia, at the top, to her location at the red dot, at Enterprise Island.

Their crossing last year was very rough. This year they had much calmer weather, with only a few hours of gales. When passing Cape Horn it was calm enough for them to anchor and go ashore to visit the lighthouse and memorial. You can follow the travels of "Spailpin" at https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Spailpin.

See more about the Dix 38 Pilot and our other designs on our main website or our mobile website.

Hout Bay 30 Cutter New Launch

Another boat to our designs has been launched in Russia. This one is a steel Hout Bay 30, built by Aleksander Kokorin of Kranoyarsk in Siberia. He launched into the Yenisei River, which is the largest river system flowing into the Arctic Ocean.

The Hout Bay 30 is a frameless design, so the hull is built over temporary frames that are removed at the time of turning the hull over. I have a few photos from the start of construction in 2009, then a big gap through to those at launch in 2018.

The temporary frames have been set up on the building stocks and the centreline stringer fitted.

The transom has been set up. The stringers will be tack-welded to the tabs that can be seen projecting from the frame edges.

Arriving at the launch ramp.

Setting up a bipod frame to raise the mast.

Boat afloat, mast in place and bipod ready to do its work.

And up it goes.

No sails yet but she looks very pretty in a beautiful setting.

See more of this and our other designs on our 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.