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.
21 March 2024 | St. Marys, GA
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17 November 2023 | Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield, MD
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03 October 2023 | Alice B. Tawes, McReady Pavilion, Crisfield, Maryland Eastern Shore
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What? Festooned Again?

25 March 2015 | Bodkin Inlet/Chesapeake Bay
Capn Andy/still a little wintry
First, the message was of the poor quality of the last panorama shot, if you downloaded it and tried to blow it up. There is no poor quality of the original, it has over 5000 pixels resolution horizontally. Sailblogs limits photos to 400 pixels. If I made a photo 5000 pixels high and 400 pixels across, it would not be shrunk. I've tried to use portrait aspect ratio or even higher aspect ratio as a result. I would rather they limit the vertical range rather than horizontal. I will try to put more pictures on Flickr and provide the link.
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The work on the mast resumed. The Strong Track sail track needed more clips blind riveted to the mast. They recommend spacing at 6”, but increased to 3” at the head of the sail track, at the positions of the headboard when reefed, and at the tack. In order to calculate the positions of the headboard when reefed I went on board and took the mainsail out of its sailcover and measured the luff from the tack to the first reef point, then from there to the next reef point and so on. Then, measuring down from the top of the sail track on the mast I could mark the positions where the headboard would be when the sail was reefed.
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The clips were blind riveted to the mast using existing sail track mounting holes. Some of the holes had to be drilled out a bit. At the bottom near the gooseneck new holes had to be drilled. I kept 3 clips for a possible addition to the sail track due to a broken piece when it was taken apart, but it probably won't be needed.
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The original sail track had an extra foot or so added to the bottom using a sort of link of two side plates with through bolts. When I wrenched the track off the wooden mast, the top 4 or 5 inches snapped off and now I had 3 pieces, the original track, the foot or so extension, and a bit off the top. If the two bigger parts aren't enough to hoist the main sail, then the last little bit will have to be added.
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Tides Marine, makers of Strong Track, the sail track we are using, say to push the track onto the clips, don't pull it, and use a two man operation with one pushing and one aligning the track to the clips. I was eager to get started and didn't have anyone to help and didn't want to wait for someone to drop what they were doing and come over to help, so I began putting the track on the clips. I could get it started but it needed more oomph, so I put a line with a double rolling hitch on the track about 2 or 3 feet from where it was going on to the clips and pulled on it with the come-along attached to the spreader bolt, about halfway up the mast.
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It was actually pretty easy to pull the track onto the mast. The line with the rolling hitch had to me moved every few minutes and the track had to be aligned with the clips when necessary.
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I tested the new LED anchor light bulb with the Aqua Signal series 25 fixture. There are two types of festoon sockets used in the series 25, one for pointed festoons and the other for “dimpled” festoons. The dimpled festoons have square cylindrical ends with recesses. I have never seen one. Of course our fixture had the socket for the dimpled bulbs. Instead of a recess for the contact, the fixture has a little bump to contact the bulb's dimple. It was easy to use a small drill to make a hole through the bump and then counter drill it with a larger bit to make a recess for the pointed festoon bulb. When tested, the LED bulb was very bright.
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The image is of festoon bulbs, one dimpled and the other pointy.
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