Dudley Dix

Dudley Dix has been designing small craft professionally since 1980, after winning the 1979 Yacht Design Competition run by Cruising Magazine. Since then he has drawn a wide range of cruising and racing designs, more than half of which have been for building from wood. These designs have been built all over the world.Born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa, he worked in the construction industry after graduating from University of Cape Town. While building a 36ft personal boat to a van de Stadt design, he became interested in boat design and enrolled with Westlawn School of Yacht Design, graduating with their Diploma Yacht Architecture. He is also an accomplished sailor in dinghies and ocean sailboats. He has raced across the South Atlantic Ocean four times, all in boats of his own design. Three of the crossings were in the 38ft wooden “Black Cat” that he built in his garden in Cape Town. Dudley’s origins in boat design and construction are rooted in amateur projects and most of his designs draw on the experiences gained over years of creating those projects. This makes his designs well suited to building by amateur builders who enjoy working with wood.