by Dave Christensen

I remember reading about the 1st races, crossing the Atlantic on a 21 foot boat. And if that wasn’t nuts enough, it was done solo. What kind of boats are these? Well, that thought festered for years before I saw a Latitude 38 cover with Brian Caldwell’s mini going full tilt. Wow was that cool! It reignited my interest. All of the mini activity was in France and there were no boats in the USA. I did some internet surfing and came across a Sailing Anarchy article about some high school kids building a mini from a kit. I found the Team Reaching Kids website and looked at what they were building. “Hey, I could do something like that.”

Having dreamed of building a boat some day, I was familiar with Dudley Dix’s plywood designs. I found that he had a mini in his portfolio so I ordered the study plans. After weeks of pouring over the plans I ordered the full set in September of 2004.

Hmmm. Build from scratch? From a kit? Or even build at all? These were the questions running around in my head the next couple of weeks. This would be a huge job, with many new skills to learn. Phoenix, Arizona is not known for it’s wooden boat heritage, so there are no local suppliers of marine grade plywood. A kit from CKD in South Africa was looking good. I heard of someone building a CKD kit in Southern California and since we were going to be racing our J/24 there in a couple of weeks, I contacted the builder to see if we could stop by and see his project. One look was all I needed to decide on the CKD kit. The quality and completeness sold me. “Now, how to sell it to Wendy?”

Wendy works foredeck on the J/24 and after 3 days of racing in Southern California she had quite a few bumps and bruises. Nothing unusual, just the normal J bites. On the drive home I mentioned that on the mini no one has to do foredeck. That was all it took! “Lets build the mini. . . “

Where to build?

The garage was the best place, knowing that if it was right there I would stick with it and could get more done. The problem was building a 21 foot boat in a 19 foot garage. No matter how we measured and moved things around it just would not fit. Now what? Wendy came up with idea of knocking a hole in the wall to the spare bedroom. A bit of measuring and it was decided that if we could build a boat, replacing the wall afterward would be a piece of cake.

We ordered our mini kit from Roy Mcbride of CKD Boats. We had to wait a few weeks for them to cut and pack our kit. While waiting I figured that I could get a jump on things by building the rudders and daggerboard. I decided to go more high tech than the plans called for on the foils. Instead of fiberglass covered wood, we decided to build carbon fiber and Kevlar covered foam. It was my first time using a vacuum bag lay-up, and they came out strong and light. “Nothing to this boat building stuff.”

Our Mini Arrives

By this time our kit had shipped. We got a call from the agent in LA wondering why, if we live in Phoenix, was our kit to be delivered for pick-up in San Francisco. “Oh, no! Where is our kit?” The agent then hung up and tried to get it off the ship before the ship set sail. We spent a long weekend wondering if we’d have to drive to San Francisco to get it. On Monday we got the call. The kit was in customs in LA. Yea! Now we just had to wait for it to clear. A week later it had cleared and I had 2 days to go and get it. A quick run to pick up a trailer, an all night drive to be there first thing in the morning, sitting around for hours at the huge warehouse, then . . . the first sight of our mini. And what a sight it was! Somewhere between Cape Town and LA, a fork lift operator decided that the small box with 700 lbs of lead keel bulb would be better on top of the main crate. The sides were all blown out and the top was flattened. The whole mess was wrapped up in stretchy plastic. I did a quick check as they loaded it onto the trailer and all the parts were there with just a bit of damage. By 9:00 that night, I pulled into our drive and unloaded it all - with help from some of our sailing friends. The next day we sorted through the mess to some sense of it all. “We are really going to build a mini!”

We started by cutting loose all the CNC router cut bulkhead parts. Then we epoxied them together. By now it was mid May of 2005 and it was time for a party to bust down the wall. Here’s one for Jeff Foxworthy: ‘You might be a redneck if you throw a party where you get to punch holes in the walls.’ After 50 or so of our closest friends helped with the hole, we made a “bump in” framed with 2x4’s, covered it with drywall and insolated it.

Building the Frame

Then we ran into a problem. The CKD kit includes all the wood for the hull, as well as for the strong back. I had left the 2x6 planks as they came - wrapped in plastic for shipping. They were pretty green and damp when they were wrapped. Not thinking, I unwrapped them and set them up on saw horses to dry out. I came back three days later to find that they had dried out too well. And maybe, too fast. We had warping, cupping and, worst of all, twisting. A trip to the lumber store was disappointing since the wood there was not much better. It’s hard to line up the bulkheads when the main strong back members look like noodles. Wandering around the lumber store I hit upon the idea of using ¾ inch plywood ripped into planks and glued together to make the right thickness. I nailed the legs down to the floor with a powernailer (think a 22 cal gun with nails and lots of noise). It took a day to set all the bulkheads into position. “Man this looks like a boat!”

Bulkheads were followed with stringers, then the hull skin. We had the hull all coved with the plywood skin by the end of October 2005. Most of the construction was straight forward and went well. It was now time to cover the hull with epoxy and start fairing. I had had the J/24 bottom professionally faired and painted when I got it, so that was the standard I was looking for - what the speed shops call a ‘grand prix bottom’. So I filled and faired, filled and faired, and sanded . . . and more sanding. Then primer, and more sanding. And on and on. After 3 months and 235 hours of sanding the hull bottom was done. “Time for another party!”

The Hull Flipping Party

We made a cradle for the boat to sit on after it turned over and I connected it to the strong back with 2x4’s. We again had over 50 people show up. First the boat was moved out in the street, then tipped it up on its’ side, then repositioned everyone on the other side and rolled the boat the rest of the way over. We moved it back it the shop and it was party time. After almost a year with it upside down it looked great seeing it upright.

We have been building the inside parts, bunks, water ballast tanks, mast box, daggerboard box and keel box. Trying to do as much as we can on the inside before the deck goes on and limits working room.

This has been a fun project and we have learned a lot. The support from the designer Dudley Dix and the kit builder CKD Boats, Roy McBride has been excellent. Everyone asks, “When will the boat be done?” I tell them, “In a year.” (The answer is always a year)

As we look forward to actually sailing the boat we are planning to sail it on our hometown lake (Lake Pleasant), various California coastal races and possibly the 2008 Single-handed Transpac.

Thanks for your interest in our project. You can see all the build pictures and follow our progress on our website: dandwboatworks.com

Dave Christensen & Wendy Larsen.

Related links: Dudley Dix Desing | CKD Boats | Mini 6.5 Class