Dudley Dix Radius Chine Designs

[Bill Baillie]

I just took a look at Dudley Dix's web site on radius chine ply hull construction. Does
anyone on the forum have any experience with this technique? Does it produce a
strong, long lasting hull? The building process seems to be straight forward and
that's what caught my eye.

[Beowolf]

A couple of years ago, Dixx wrote an article in WB on the construction of Black Cat. His large radius chined cruiser/racer. I liked it a lot. Been considering his smaller designs when I am ready to move up to an overnighter. Looks like he opts for some pretty expensive rigs though.

Check out the article, it's worth the read.

Jeff.

[Bill Baillie]

I read the article in the Dix website and since I'm kind of a beginner at this sort of thing, I'm not sure if $38,000(US) in 1994/95 prices is high or not.
If you were to build one of the smaller boats would you go to the effort of glassing the hull? It seems that Dix didn't, but I wonder what would happen to the hull if you banged up against a wharf or hit a glancing blow on a rock or floating log. Even with an epoxy coating, without the glass or Dynel or whatever, you would stand a good chance of scraping off a sizable area of ply.

[Beowolf]

Personally, I would probably glass the outside as mine would be kept on a trailer and I'm much more concerned with abrasion resistance than I am about a few extra pounds. 38,000 is actually pretty good for a boat the size of the one that he built, but I don't think that those savings would translate into the smaller boats in quite the same way as you're still looking at a pretty costly rig, but I could be wrong. (It's been known to happen.)

Take Care

Jeff

[Bill Baillie]

I think that Dix uses expensive rigs because the hull is less expensive than most. This would keep the overall cost of the boat down. The interior is pretty spartan but still looks comfortable.

If you build one of the Dix designs, write it up on the Forum. I'd like to see how it goes.

I'm still in the process of trying to decide what I'm going to build. Other than general dimensions (about 22') I have not made a final choice.

Good luck to you....

Bill