Pride on the Clyde – Well Mdina actually

Spent an hour watching “The Men Who Built the Liners” on BBC4 last night They did it with pride and it was a job of grinding hardship. Gavin and Bob at CC have it easy, but they to take enormous pride in their work and they don’t wear Bowlers or Bunnets!

Anyhow, the first layer of pre-preg carbon is complete on "Old Socks" and the skills of the Medina shipwrights are plain to see.

My daughter just reminded me that I used to call her "old socks" when she was little. So now "old socks" is in the mould! The first layer of pre-preg will go in today.

People are still asking about the price of these hulls and we are still not sure. It’s almost like building two boats, as there are two big components, the hull and the deck. Then the two have to be joined and there is a bit of fairing to be done to make sure the boat measures at the sheer line. So the amount of effort involved will become clearer over the next couple of weeks.

We are also working with the major fittings manufacturers to arrive at a sensible fittings list. We will use the very best where it is necessary but compromise on weight and cost in non critical areas. This is taking a bit of time to work through.

CC are using pre-preg cloth to meet strict self-imposed health and safety standards. They believe that the VOC s given off in a wet layup carry an unacceptable level of risk. A pre-preg layup carries none of these risks and the one hit curing process produces a boat which is 30% stiffer.

The first production version of DCB is now being built in the IOW by Composite Craft.

Various fit out options are being examined this week, so final pricing should be available next week.

Composite Craft will be hosting an "Open Afternoon" on a Saturday in November at their workshops (date to be advised). Prospective owners will be welcome. Jo Richards will talk through the thinking behind the design and Composite Craft will explain the build process and the choice of materials.