Dudley Dix is a yacht designer, of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n origin, now based in

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

, US. He graduated from the Westlawn School of Yacht Design. He is notable for having developed the "radius chine plywood" method as a basis for boat construction. Dix won the 1979 Cruising World Design Competition. Dix has designed yachts of many types (such as

monohull image:monohull.svg, right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull (watercraft), hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple ...

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

s and

trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...

s) employing a variety of materials for the hulls (such as steel, aluminium and wood/epoxy composites). His building methods include cold moulding and radius chine plywood. The radius chine plywood method was developed by Dix himself, and most of his designs use this procedure. The radius chine plywood method enables fast, cheap construction of relatively lightweight vessels. Dix is particularly concerned that his designs are fully seaworthy. Didi 38

Dix has built many of his own designs for his personal use, including the Didi 38 ''"Black Cat"'' which he sailed from 1995 until 2000 (including three crossings of the South Atlantic). One of Dix's larger designs is the 55' DH550 ocean-going cruising catamaran, such as ''"Friends Forever"'' (built by Jean-Jacques Provoyeur and Richard Bertie).

See also