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.
01 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
23 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
15 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA
26 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA
14 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA
09 January 2024 | St Marys, GA
23 December 2023 | St Marys, GA
10 December 2023 | St Marys, GA
25 November 2023 | St. Marys, GA
17 November 2023 | St. Marys, GA
17 November 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
03 November 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
26 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
17 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
11 October 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
04 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
03 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
03 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
Recent Blog Posts
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.

11 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

D4 Redux

The inflatable (deflatable) dinghy I had bought was deteriorating. It had bottom seams separating. It is a West Marine branded dinghy made out of PVC. HH66 is the adhesive to reattach the seams. A friend had a similar problem and bought the same adhesive. I was waiting to hear from him how it worked [...]

06 February 2024 | St. Marys, GA

The Clincher

We decided to go to Amelia Island for the day, probably to the beach. Our plan to cycle around on the Raleigh 20’s seemed like a bad idea, Bleu can’t keep up with a bicycle for very long and when he quits he quits. So we would walk, where?, Fort Clinch State Park. She has a forever pass for Florida [...]

26 January 2024 | St. Marys, GA

Zen and Bike Maintenance

Eloisa rolled into the boatyard after a long drive down from the mountains. It was getting cold and isolated up there. I had a nasty toothache and we went to Southern River Walk. Bleu, her black American cocker was showing a bit of plumpness. I had had a sandwich and some wine already, so I didn’t [...]

Chainplates

13 May 2017 | st marys, ga
Capn Andy/Warm Spring
The punch list for getting the rig ready to restep the mast included torquing down the beam mounting bolts and installing the chainplates. It was important to check the beam mounting bolts because the rig pulls on the hulls and if the bolts are loose the hulls can become canted. Some of the rigging cables are cut to fit and would therefore be an incorrect length. The result would be finding out later that the beam bolts need tightening, and whoops!, the sailing rig doesn’t fit anymore.
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It took 2 days to mount the chainplates, way longer than I expected. One problem was a heat wave, hitting 98 on successive days. The chainplates have bolts that pass through them, then through the hull skin, and are secured with nylock nuts inside. This means a lot of climbing up on deck and then down in the hull to hold the nut with vice grips or a wrench, then going up and down outside to turn the bolt and tighten it.
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Each bolt in the chainplates is a unique length. Some are passing through several backing pieces of wood, some are passing through a stringer, and all had to be checked for proper fit. My solution was to shove a lot of bolts into the chainplates to dry fit them, then climb up into the hulls and mark in a notebook which bolts are too long or too short. Then go back outside and rearrange the bolts until all were the right length.
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Next was a trip to the hardware store to purchase 3/8-16 stainless steel nylock nuts, after spending considerable time looking for the ones I took off not that long ago. When the chainplates were removed, they took with them some of the glass surface of the hulls and some bedding compound, probably 5200. This all had to be ground off the chainplates. I found using the multitool with a scraper blade removed the most material the fastest, then a quick clean up with the angle grinder and flap disk made the chainplates look as good as new.
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Carefully keeping the bolts in order and not mixing them up, Bed-it butyl caulking was wrapped around the bolts just under the head, then around the shank after they were inserted through the chainplate. Next came running up and down, in and out, putting fender washers and nylock nuts on each bolt, tightening it, then moving on to another.
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The photo is of the starboard upper and lower shroud chainplates. Aft of them is a chainplate for the running backstay.
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