Recent content by Dudley Dix

This thread has become little more than a series of personal attacks and of little value to followers of the thread. I see insult in some posts, resulting in angry responses. The same opinions appear over and over again. I want only to make some observations and am not going to enter an...

Wide sterned light boats are easier to sail downwind. A boat with narrow stern pulls up a quarter wave, which pushes on one side requiring a lot of helm to counteract. That results in over-steer then the quarter wave pushing on the other side and the process starts again in the other direction...

This is a general response to various posts in this thread. 1) When I use floating frames on a steel design it is for sides and most of the bottom. The centreline has integral tanks that form part of the keel support structure and the floating frames stop short of the tank sides, so the...

There is no requirement for yacht designers to be registered or licenced. In USA a Naval Architect has to be a qualified Professional Engineer. My qualification is as a Yacht Architect from Westlawn but I have 30 years of practical experience with designing and building boats as well. I cannot...

You really should get the advice of the designer of the boat. The designer may not want you to make the change. I try to stick to a policy of not advising on designs drawn by others. I have principles in mind when I draw a boat and don't like it when others interfere in my designs without...

Mike, in response to your post of 01-21-09. Yacht design and scantling rules have the same origins, they have developed empirically over a long period, with the same objective. That is to build boats that will not break. The rules used by the inspection societies have their roots in the...

At no time have I ever said that a boat has to be heavy to be strong. The fact is that steel is strong but it is also heavy. Aluminium is also strong and it is lighter, about 50% of the weight of steel for similar structural stiffness.

I was not aware of this discussion of a few months ago, it was brought to my attention yesterday. I know that I am not the best designer in the world and hope that I am not the worst. There are valid reasons for using rudders of all types. What works for one boat will not necessarily work on...

I would like to pass on some information to the forum about whoosh. He has now told me his real name so I have been able to check back in my email files to find what was said. You can read earlier in this thread how he said that he had contacted me and found me inflexible about my boats...

Wynand has pretty much had the same thoughts about most of the post from which the quote is extracted. I will not say it again. Please see my response to your PM. Whoosh, you have done a 180 degree turn-around. Early in this thread you favoured lightweight modern boats for offshore sailing...

For amateurs I would always recommend steel ahead of aluminium. If they choose aluminium then they had better first invest a lot of time in training themselves in the proper preparation for and welding of aluminium. If not then they are at serious risk of a calamity at sea from failing welds...

Whoosh, what have I done to you that you feel the need to antagonise me? You seem to have a problem with anyone who has an opinion different from yours. Yes, I have seen Ganley designs. No, I have not sailed on one. I have known owners and every one of them was happy with his boat. Most of...

You are unlikely to need any patterns if you build from a CNC kit. Most builders of my boats build from offsets and bulkhead/frame diagrams, if building from scratch. A small percentage order Mylar patterns. Only some of our dinghies are built from paper patterns, they are too dimensionally...

Floating Frames Thanks to LyndonJ for pointing out this thread to me. At the start, I apologise for the length but it covers a lot of territory. I designed the boat that Wynand Nortje is currently building. If I remember correctly, that is the last steel design that I drew with attached...

I did respond to Welder4956 by private message but should also post this note for others. My plan and study pack prices are on the pricelist at http://dixdesign.com/priceabr.htm . There are links to the pricelist from almost every page on my website, from the navigation menu panel. I am not...