dix design cat?

[Brandywine]

found this in a random web serch any one know anything about it?

DH 550 Plywood Cruising catamaran

[Efraim]

Can't comment on this desigh, however Dudley Dix has been at it a long time and has designed some pretty sucessful boats. I helped a friend build a Didi Mini a couple of years ago using the same building technique, radius chine ply. The plans were excellent, and the support from the designer is exceptional, he always answers his email and is happy to talk about his designs over the phone, call or write him, you wont be sorry.

[Mick C]

There are quite a number of his boats built and being built. Personally I think the DH550 is an amazing boat. I know a few people are building them. There is one called Marram being built and is on Facebook, there is a guy in uk building one and now supplies kits for them. Exocetus I think is the name. Look up a DH550 called wild vanilla sailing at the moment. Beautiful.
Mick

[lamadriver]

Dudley's boats sail well and as noted he is very accesable. He has helped me out on several occasions regarding issues ( im the second owner)

[Teleman]

A very big boat, not a simple design, will take a lot of time and money to build. Then you have to finish and equip it to the highest standard.

Eventually you'll want to sell your very large investment.
There is a misinformed but stubborn market prejudice against plywood boats, and the higher in the price/size bracket you go, the more pronounced the prejudice.

The prejudice ignores the fact that properly designed and built ply/epoxy/glass boats are as good as any other material. You just have to be scrupulous about immediately repairing any dings that expose wood.

The pics of Wild Vanilla give some idea of the sheer size. Beautiful boat, but a big project.

Dudley also has a 47' version of this boat, check out his website.

[danielamartindm]

Really a gorgeous design. But 39" bridge deck clearance? Hmm.

[Boatguy30]

1m of bridge clearance sounds pretty good to me. Don't find that on a lagoon!

[Matt Johnson]

Ha! I'm anchored right next to a DH550 in St Maarten right now. Sure is a good looking boat, and I never would have guessed it was built of plywood.

Matt

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by danielamartindm

Really a gorgeous design. But 39" bridge deck clearance? Hmm.

Hmm what?

[Mick C]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

Ha! I'm anchored right next to a DH550 in St Maarten right now. Sure is a good looking boat, and I never would have guessed it was built of plywood.

Matt

Wild Vanilla or Cheetah or the new South African one who’s name I can’t remember?
Mick

[Catmandu]

FWIW, I owned DH 550 Wild Vanilla (Hull#1) for 4 years and can say that they are great boats. Very stiff and light for their size (we weighed 14.7 tons loaded with junk, empty water tanks, 2/3 fuel) and as such they sail really, really well:

here is a video of the boat doing 9-11 kts SOG in 9-11 kts true wind at about 50-55 degrees and 14-17 kts apparent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8RZ648iCU

It took a while to wrap my mind around the construction approach and get comfortable but the approach is sound and equivalent to a cold-moulded strip planked wood epoxy boat, just in 8x4' sheets. I spent a month with Phil Harvey (Harvey Yachts) who is the designer/builder who also built the first two Gunboat 62's and then helped with the Gunboat 60's and 55's for Gunboat. After a lot of discussion I came to really appreciate the rationale behind his design and build approach - (Phil builds one a hell of a boat):

Pro's:
1.) Very light, very stiff more so than a poly/vinyl/glass boat (only carbon fiber is stiffer, but not necessarily lighter)

2.) Good performance - average 200-250nm/day without breaking a sweat, just hanging out (300 nm/day in the right conditions).

3.) Great layout/livability/views - Room of a 65 footer in the Salon

4.) Very Safe:
a.) Center cockpit (I am now a believer after having sailed Catana's, flybridge Lagoons, Leopards, Outremers ... but this is a religious topic and we never take up group time with religious issues).

b.) Smaller rig - the boat has the rig of a 48-50' cat to make it easier to manage for a crew of 1 or 2 yet the boat still performs (I thought of it as the boat came pre-reefed). This might be a con for some but you can always put on a taller mast and more sails ...

c.) Easy to single hand. I could solo sail the boat with ease. My daughter and I sailed the boat from Nassau to Palm Beach FL, about 200 nm in about 18 hours - no muss, no fuss.

5.) Super easy to repair. This was the primary reason that Phil built the DH 550's out of Bruynzeel Plywood and other hardwoods - His experience with gunboats was that when they broke (grounding) in the S. Pacific they had to be airlifted to West Cost US or China to be fixed as there were no facilities to repair carbon fiber. The DH550 can be fixed in remote places - all you need are some hand tools, maybe some extra wood, sandpaper and epoxy. You don't even need electricity although it helps.

6.) Shallow draft - 22" we frequently anchored in 3'-4' of water in the Bahamas and ICW - all by ourselves.

7.) 1,500 - 2,000 nm motoring range (lose the wind or rig in the S. Pacific you can still make it to the next island group at 7 kts.)

8.) 39" bridgedeck clearance ... having sailed many different cats I have a rule: "Beware any cat that you can't drive your dinghy under!" Our boat only slammed twice the whole time we owned her - motoring out of jupiter inlet on an out going tide against 20kt winds into steep standing waves.

9.) Very good looking cat (this is subjective but I had numerous yacht owners chase us down in Palm Beach to inquire about the boat saying it was the best looking cat they had ever seen.)

Cons:
1.) Labor intensive to build but there are kits and you can build one yourself if you the have the time and inclination...

2.) You have to stay on top of dings and scrapes and take good care mounting hardware. As long as you keep all wood covered in epoxy the boat will last forever. Even when you don't the bruynzeel does not readily absorb water but it will eventually get soft and have to be replaced. You have to be a stickler and not just screw things into the wood.

3.) Re-sale value is a struggle as it is a semi-custom boat and when people hear "plywood" most run away. In reality bruynzeel marine ply with the appropriate scarf joints gives the cross-grain strength of a cold moulded strip planked wood epoxy boat but in 8x4' sheets which saves time/$$ in the build process.

The surveyor that looked at the boat when we bought it said that it was "an extremely well designed and well-built boat that would safely take us around the world." The surveyor that looked over the boat when we sold her said: "I have been crawling through boats for 35 years and have crawled through this one for two days. This is the first time that I have not seen a single stress crack anywhere and believe me I have looked! I like this boat ... "

[Mick C]

Catmando. A big thanks for this. It is exactly in line with my thoughts. Great to have your inputs.

There is only one thing that is of concern in the design and to some might seem trivial but nevertheless is big in the eyes of some.

The beds, the fact that they are climb into beds and the difficulty making that type of bed. My wife is a stickler for island beds for this reason and th older we get the more important it becomes.

Can you comment on the position/type of bed, thanks

Mick

[Pitchondesign]

FWIW... Cheetah is for sale, and has been for some time. I saw Cheetah in the Bahamas,and it's a beautiful boat.

[Catmandu]

Cheetah is finished to a very high standard with beautiful woodwork and jointery throughout. I had heard that potential buyers were a little nervous about the hybrid drives they fitted her out with. She is a gorgeous boat.

Her owner of Cheetah was telling me about a run from the BVI’s to Trinidad where the conditions were perfect (following seas and wind off the beam) which allowed him to average 15 kts. He said it totally changed his views on sailing ...

[Catmandu]

Hi Mick

When Phil H designed the boat with Dix he wanted a boat that performed so the hulls are on narrow side (10:1) LB ratio. The rear cabins are just over 2m wide but not set up to accommodate island berths. As such, the beds are more of a pain to make than islands but that was a conscious decision of the original layout. Phil H’s thoughts were that he did not want to spend more time in his cabin than in the salon so why build a big fat hull to accommodate a giant cabin when you spend most time up top? Some would argue that you would be better off with a cc monohull in that case. He focused on making the salon spacious with un paralleld views and ventilation and kept the hulls on the narrow side.

That being said, all of the DH550 boats have different (custom) interiors and you could fit transverse island berths mid hull if you wanted - daggerboard trunk might get in the way but you could do mini keels in that case.

If I were building one from scratch I would extend the hulls/transom 3’ out the back and move the engines w/shafts out from underneath the rear berths in favor of sail drives and increase the size of the rig. I would also configure the cabins (2) amidships with island queen beds and a third in the stern and save the stern in the owners hull for an office/workshop.