 The boat building project was started early in 2005 with young sailors from the sailing school. Practical classes are run on Saturday mornings at Simon's Town Naval Dockyard. These classes are hands-on and everybody participates. Mike Mollat and Mark Algra supervise. Two dinghies have been completed and launched, another has been completely refurbished. The young boat builders have gained the following experience: - Carpentry / hand tool use - saws, plains, chisels.
- Power tool use - jigsaw, orbital sanders, circular saws, drilling machines, rechargeable driver/drill, electric planers.
- Mixing and applying epoxy resin to plywood and timber.
- Joining timber using epoxy fillet.
- Cutting and laminating plywood.
- Basic measurements and calculations.
- Preparing boats for spray painting
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The first dinghy the class completed was the RT-430. It was designed by David Ryder-Turner. This is a fast 4,3m multi purpose dinghy for single and double handed sailing. It has and interesting design with a round bilge forward for upwind sailing and hard chine section aft for planing downwind.
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The second dinghy that was completed is a 12ft single hander, designed by John Stewart, who on emigrating to New Zealand, donated the hull to the boat builders. A mast, sails and deck fittings were added. The dinghy was then sanded and spray painted ready for the June launch.
The Enterprise dinghy "Electra Glide" was tired after completing all 9-MAC 24 HR races and needed a serious revamp. She was stripped of all varnish and fittings and completely refurbished. Deck and side decks were revarnished and the hull repainted. All internal woodwork was stripped cleaned, re-epoxied and strengthened. The boat was relaunched in January 2007, lighter stiffer and finished 2nd in The Enterprise Class in the 10th 24hr race, held on 24 February 2007 at Rietvlei in Cape Town.
A world first for the boat builders at Izivunguvungu. After securing the plans for the very first Blue Eyes 20 from UK based designer Keith Callaghan - the first BE-20 sports trailer sailer has been started. This is Boat No. 1 - World Wide.
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