Kaimusailing
s/v Kaimu Wharram Catamaran
| Vessel Name: | Kaimu |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Wharram Custom |
| Hailing Port: | Norwalk, CT |
| Crew: | Andy and the Kaimu Crew |
| About: | Sailors in the Baltimore, Annapolis, DC area. |
07 April 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Clammy Hands
Items came in from TEMU, the Chinese cut rate retailer. One was a nice little drone that cost about twelve and a half dollars. It looked like an easy thing to play with while I coughed and sneezed. I was fighting a summer cold, even though it is not summer elsewhere, it seems like it here. A nice [...]
02 April 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Sun Doggie
After laminating the cedar strips onto the gunwales of the dinghy I found the screws I used wouldn’t come out. The epoxy had seized them. The screw heads were stripped so I cut a straight slot in the heads with the cut off wheel. The cedar smoked when the screw heads got red hot. I could remove [...]
21 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
Just Add Water
The rainy weekend started off with overcast and fog but no rain. It looked like I might be able to get something done on the D4 dinghy. I wanted to change the bow seat which is really the bow deck. The sailing option uses the deck to hold the freestanding mast. I didn’t like how the deck looked, [...]
01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
D4 Dinghy Alternative Seats
The rain event was more wind than rain, strong winds with gusts up to 44 mph. We drove into town to see what the harbor was like. There was a small sailboat that had dragged anchor and was sitting close to shore. The tide was out. We left and played with Bleu at Notter’s Pond.
23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
D4 Inside Seams
Day two of the dinghy build started out with me finishing wiring the hull bottoms together on the centerline of the bottom panels. This was much easier than the wiring of the chine edges of the bottom panels and the side panels.
15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
D4 Dinghy Day One
A Wharram Pahi 26 had been anchored in the river nearby the boatyard and was hauled out with the travel lift. I went around to look at it and talked to the owner couple. I was surprised that it had been built in Martinique in 1988. The boat is more than 30 years old.
The Chimney Effect
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Now the planks had to be calculated as to how they could be positioned in the beam brackets and extend the beam to its port end. It was found that the web couldn’t be extended until the beam bottom was all in place, then the web planks could drop in from above, finishing the bottom 2/3‘s of the beam. An unexpected problem was that clamps could prevent additional work until that plank had its epoxy hard.
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The hockey style of work was appropriate for the time of year, hockey playoffs, and made it possible to get work done in the heat index of over 100. Today was 106. This has almost shut down the project, but the stopping point is when beam #2 is complete, including the pyramid of planks that support the longitudinal mast beam. This aluminum beam runs from beam #3 to beam #2 right on the centerline of the boat. The mast steps on it and the design has beams 2 and 3, and the short beam (#2.5?) supporting the longitudinal beam. Some designs have a “dolphin striker” set up beneath the beam that supports the mast. This is a strut that points down toward the water and has a stay from the ends of the beam, over the end of the strut, that is tensioned to support the downward thrust of the mast. On the Narai MKIV Wharram designed a pyramid on top of beams 2 and 3 and on top of the short beam. This pyramid tapers the beam up toward its center where there is a flat section in the middle 2 feet of the beam. The longitudinal mast beam crosses the crossbeams on the middle of each pyramid.
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The center part of the beam, between the inboard gunwales, has been left bare wood as a gluing surface for the pyramid. It has to be kept dry and for this reason the beam project has to be completed before we can stop and take a midsummer break.
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Another pair of planks were added today extending the bottom 1/3 of beam #2 to its port end. The planks of the web are ready to extend the middle 1/3 of the beam to the end, but clamps are in the way. The decision to call it quits for the day was easy, the heat index had gone up to 116.
