We wish all of our readers the very best for the year 2000 and beyond. We seem to have come through the fuss of Y2K with a minimum of hassle, having found no problems with any of our systems to date. We hope that it continues that way.

Dudley will be sailing in the Cape to Rio Race 2000, the first trans-ocean race of the "New Millennium", skippering "Didi" (ex "Black Cat"). The start on 8th January 2000, is in Table Bay, at the foot of the very dramatic Table Mountain. The finish line is off Ipanema and Copacabana Beaches in Rio de Janeiro, 3500 miles away. This is a great race, linking two of the most dramatically beautiful cities in the world. You can read more on the MTN Cape to Rio Race website.

Our office will be open to process your orders while Dudley is away. He will be back in the office on 8th February.

Marintek are currently introducing their new Windy 580 to the Mediterranean market, at the Istanbul Boat Show. This boat is based on the TLC 19 but has received some deck modifications to better meet the requirements of the EC regulations.

You will remember her as the little boat which Anthony Steward sailed around the world in the only open boat circum-navigation ever made. The production boat has a lid, of course, as well as weekending accommodation for a family of four. A very neat and modern little package.

The Windy 820 design which we announced in our September newsletter has grown a bit and become the Windy 880. The extra 600mm (2ft) does not sound like much but has changed her from a coastal to an offshore cruiser.

Our preliminary designs have been accepted by Marintek and she is into final design, with the lines and offsets having been completed, ready for hull plug construction to commence. This design is for Marintek in Turkey, who will have her in production during next year.

We welcome a new agent to represent us in other parts of the world. He is Andrey Popovich and is based in Vladivostok, Russia. He can be reached by email at mkd@farpost.com and will be preparing a Russian website featuring our designs.

The radius chine plywood method of construction continues to grow in popularity. To the 4 designs thus far drawn for this method (Didi 26, Mount Gay 30, Didi 34 and Didi 38/40), we now have over 30 sets of plans sold and boats being built in many distant corners. The Didi 26 is the most popular design in this range.

The next design for this method will be the Mini-Transat announced last issue, for a South African client.

Australians Ian Duncan and Lizzie Coulson liked the overall concept of the Dix 61 but it needed a bit of tweeking to turn her into their perfect cruiser. We drew alternative pilothouse styling for them, to make her into their ideal offshore yacht.

We are adding pages to our website for each of the builders with whom we currently work or have worked in the past. We already have pages up for five of them and the others will follow as time permits.

Also under this part of our website is another new section for the projects of our amateur builders. If you are building one of our designs or have already done so, we would welcome any photos that you can supply to show off your achievements.

We are building a website for the Traditional Boat Association. This is a very active boating group which is oriented towards people with an interest in classic craft and is based in Cape Town, South Africa. We are doing this as a service to boating and will be hosting and maintaining the site for them as long as they need. Take a look at it, at http://dixdesign.com/TBA . It will be under construction for awhile and should grow into a great resource for all who are interested in classic craft.

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