The 50ft ketch, "Sabbatical II", is now progressing apace in Howdy Bailey's yard , Global Yachts, in Norfolk, Virginia. She is being built for Ann and Scott Ripley of nearby Virginia Beach. Her hull was turned over last month and the deck and superstructure are now nearing completion. Her owners are ecstatic about the standard of construction being turned out by Howdy and his dedicated team.

Howdy and his crew are, in turn, very impressed by the standard of detailing supplied to them for the construction of this boat. But then, this is the 6th design on which we have worked with Howdy, 5 of them having been commissioned by Howdy, or his clients on his recommendation. Bear in mind that this relationship has developed across about 6000 miles of ocean.

The design was supplied to the builder as a full package of paper drawings. This was backed up by additional drawings prepared to allow Howdy to make full size patterns for all framing, tankage etc. We nested the frames as well for most economical material usage. These were all sent to Howdy by email for plotting in-house. The whole process went smoothly and proved a very satisfactory way of doing it. These computer files can also be used for CNC cutting of components if the facilities are available.

By all reports received, Global Yachts are producing an excellent job.

Interest in my radius chine plywood concept continues to increase. The Didi 38 is now being built on 4 continents. One of the builders, in UK, is making a video of his construction project with a professional cameraman. He anticipates that this will be available for sale in the 2nd half of next year.

We have received confirmation from Wooden Boat Magazine that they will be featuring this construction method in their excellent publication within the next 6 issues.

With each new design which we do in this method we fine-tune it or adapt it a bit more to offer more versatile products. The latest ones are moving us deeper into kitboat territory, the goal being to enable commercial kit suppliers to sell flatpack kits of all components ready for assembly.

These designs now include a 22 page guide on the procedures of building boats to this construction method. This will be expanded to accommodate new designs.

All of these designs are fully detailed on CAD. Standard packages are for construction from plans and offsets in the traditional manner. Being computer faired and very simple in hull form, they do not need to be lofted, only for the bulkheads to be drawn full size from the supplied diagrams. CAD files are available as an optional extra, to allow the bulkheads to be plotted or CNC cut at the builder's location. Another optional extra is for us to supply the full size patterns.

Plywood, although a manmade material (assisted somewhat by nature of course) is the least costly boat building material in my country and probably most others. Even when bonded and protected with costly epoxies, it remains well below the material cost of GRP composite construction. When combined with construction over permanent bulkheads, (ie using the permanent features of the boat to give it shape rather than using temporary framing which takes time, money and effort then is discarded) the cost of the final product is pulled way below that of a comparative one-off article in other materials.

The Didi 26 design is complete and the first boats are being built in Sweden and Australia. There is strong interest also from Europe and USA.

She is to the Australian Level Class 800 trailer-sailer rules and has weekend accommodation which includes a vast double berth under the bridgedeck. Much of the interior can be ommitted if a stripped racer is preferred. A possible alternative for the future will be a pair of quarter berths and an extended cockpit well.

She has a bulb dropkeel and transom-hung rudder on a performance hull. The rig is double swept-spreader fractional and uses asymetrical spinnakers on a pivoting and retractable bowsprit.

This design inorporates a plywood backbone which is shaped from full size patterns which are included in the standard package and allows much of her structure to be set up in self-jigging egg-crate fashion. The cabintop is multi-chine stitch and glue using panels cut according to clear diagrams.

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