Planning on building a Dudley Dix design

[gaurav.p.shinde]

hey guys,

i have started a sailing school in India(www.pelicansailingschoolmumbai.tk) so that more and more people get to sail for very small costs. our school is offering beginner and advanced courses at costs as much as 120$

we are planning to build are own yachts instead of buying them. it would save us a lot of money and effort of getting through customs, duties of which are very high for imports into india.

i have gone through the Dudley Dix designs and find that the Didi26 matches our requirement for training.

Do you think it is worth it to train in a Didi26?? would it be a good option?

if u can help me with better options if u think so, let me know


secondly i want to build one yacht for myself with which i can sail to maldives, muscat, UAE and africa from Mumbai... which designs do you recommend. i like the Didi 40cr... wat do you think?

any tips and suggestions other than this are welcome...

[Sam III]

I have not built the 26, I am in the process of building a Didi Mini 21 and think the build is very straight forward. I used a cnc cut kit to speed up the build and found the building instructions were very good.

Dudley supports the build after the sale of plans.

A 26 foot boat is a reasonable size for instructions.

Sam

Note: Truth in commenting, I am a CNC Kit Cutter for Dudley in the United States. But I was a Dix customer before I started the business.

[gaurav.p.shinde]

hey how and where do i source mast boom and sails for the project?

[Sam III]

I sourced my mast and boom from US Spars in Florida. I am sure you can find someone closer than them. Look in New Zealand or Australia.

Same for sails.

Sam

[GDFL]

If you need small and easy to build maybe take a look at origami construction. There are plans for some smaller boats that would fit your needs and they are geared towards cheap and fast (to build)

[SeaJay]

I purchased the Didi 38 plans and then upgraded to the Didi40cr. Dudley was extremely helpful and encouraging as I modified the plans to suit my requirements. He prepares an extremely detailed and well thought out set of plans. I ended up buying a completed hull from a bankrupt builder, but only because it was a great buy and mirrored the design philosophy found in the Didi line. I don't think you'll go wrong with the Didi 26 and I know first hand that Dudley provides superior support to amateur builders. I say go for it.

[rugludallur]

I'm currently building a Dix design from steel and I have been very impressed with the detail and practicality of the design.

I think building your own boat is a great way to learn but make sure your cost and time estimates are realistic, if you just need a boat it's usually less expensive to buy a used boat but then you don't know exactly what you are getting and might need to spend a lot of money refurbishing it.

Jarl Stefansson
jarl@dallur.com
http://dallur.com

[Wynand N]

Originally Posted by rugludallur

but make sure your cost and time estimates are realistic....

Even us pro's get it wrong most of the time

What size Dix are you building? I agree on you on the plans and Dudley and I were good friends when he still resided in South Africa before moving on to the USA.
Had built a few of his boats; 38ft (I commissioned the design in 1991), 43 ft centre cockpit, 57ft and 65ft. In fact, the 65ft on his web page was my built and the 57 is also feature on his web page floating on the water.

Dix does support his plans till the boat is built. Cannot think of another designer doing that unless there is monetary gain. The reason his plans are complete and builder friendly is due to his hands on approach. He built a few of his designs himself in the past in his back yard and raced them successfully.

[rugludallur]

Hey Wynand,

It's a HoutBay 33 and I have been documenting the whole thing on http://dallur.com

The gallery is already pretty big and I have a few videos including a time lapse from the webcam which I will release once all steel work is done.

Jarl
jarl@dallur.com
http://dallur.com

[Wynand N]

Jarlm, good choice and that is the boat I would have build myself. Affordable and simple.

In fact, my last boat to be build would have been a Houtbay 33 but since the build could only started 3 months after I completed my last boat, I opted for retirement from boatbuilding and now have time to spend with my grandson, fishing and just lazing around