DIX - Key Persons
Born 1949, I began my professional life as a Quantity Surveyor but retrained for yacht design through Westlawn School of Yacht Design, now Westlawn Institute of Technology. I drew my first design in 1973 and built it, a 15ft sailing beach catamaran. I have designed professionally since winning the 1979 Cruising World Design Competition as an amateur with my CW975 design.
I don't lock myself up in theory but regularly test my own concepts by building them. During the '70s I began with designing and making surfboards for myself and friends. A unrehabilitated beachbum at heart, I surf whenever I can.
Boats which I have built are a few dinghies, the 15ft catamaran and 3 offshore yachts of 34-38ft. First of the big boats was a modified van de Stadt design, which sparked my interest in boat design and was the reason for my enrolment with Westlawn. Second was "Concept Won" to my award-wining CW975 design. The most recent big boat was "Black Cat", prototype of the DIDI 38 performance cruiser racer, which I built to test new construction methods for plywood boats which I was developing. The result is a strong, light, speedy and economical method of building a round bilge boat mainly from sheet material. My next build project was the Paper Jet, a high performance plywood sailing skiff with trapeze and asymmetrical spinnaker. Although I intended it as a trainer for two teenagers, I sail mine single-handed.
I have a strong reputation for designing practical concepts, probably arising out of my own boat building experiences and a dislike for things which are over-complicated. I have a wide range of designs drawn primarily with the amateur builder in mind but suitable also for professional custom builders. These are mostly for plywood or steel, the materials most often chosen by amateur builders. I also have designs suited for GRP production either as custom one-off boats or for series building from a mould, in sizes from 8ft to over 60ft.
The son of a provincial Flying Dutchman champion, I have sailed since I was a toddler and get onto the water as often as possible. Having been active in offshore racing in South Africa since the mid 70s, I have sailed in most of the major offshore races around the country. I have sailed across the South Atlantic 4 times, once double-handed and the others in crewed racing mode.
I was deeply involved in sailing management for a few years, serving for many years on the sailing committee of Hout Bay Yacht Club and on regional and national committees of the Cruising Asociation of South Africa and South African Sailing. The last 2 years of this period I was Chairman of CASA and on the Council of SAS.
Mike O'Neill has done some experimenting with rudder toe-in angles on his Didi Mini "SCM" (ex "Warlock"). He has found that 7 degrees of toe-in between the two rudders gives good feel to the helm and reduces drag on the windward rudder. To achieve 7 degree toe-in, set the link length so that the rudderstocks (narrower portion above the waterline) are 30mm further apart at the aft edge than at the front edge. These measurements must be taken at the same height above DWL for front and back.