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
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
Recent Blog Posts
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.

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 [...]

Compression Tubes

13 April 2015 | Bodkin Inlet/Chesapeake Bay
Capn Andy/Springlike
When I complained to Kaptain Kris that my mast was full of old foam and PVC pipes, he suggested to leave it in there because it probably helped kill the clanging sound of loose wire in the mast. I didn't like how the foam seemed to have been also used as bedding for varmints over the years. Yum. The PVC pipes weren't aligned to any wire chases, so they were useless. Every time I probed to try to remove the foam, I found damp dirty gunk.
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Kris told me about a technique that builders use to make passages in foam insulation for wiring in commercial freezers. They drop a red hot steel ball at the top of the foam wall and if they've measured properly, it fries its way straight down and plops into the connection box they plan to use.
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I decided to purchase a high wattage immersion heating coil, the kind that is used to boil water in a coffee mug. A 1500 watt unit was available with free shipping for less than ten dollars on the internet. It came in a couple days later and I boiled a pot or water with it. I will use it to burn out the foam in the mast.
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Over the last few weeks I've been checking my usual internet haunts and found that Webb Chiles was sending journal entries from New Zealand. His entries were so good, I wanted to email him and remark. What would I say, I get it, Webb? Here we have a problem, preaching to the choir. Capn Webb posted pictures that were way too good for the iPhone and cameras he was using. I'm jealous. His descriptions of his sailing in New Zealand are something so accurate and precise, I am also jealous about that. He describes some work he did on Gannet, his sloop. I really like his style on that. I wanted to email him. But what about it? Yes, I get it. I really like it. What about those who haven't worked on a boat or sailed? That is the problem, how to convey our passion. He does it very well, maybe the best we will get to see.
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Down at the docks I had to lift the mast up onto a pair of sawhorses, not the old pair that were flattened by the mast. The mast is heavy enough to destroy sawhorses and difficult to manhandle. When it crushed the sawhorses, it ended up half on/half off the dock. It had to clear the top of a pier piling that was almost as high as a sawhorse. I tried hoisting it using the pair of sawhorses with a 2X4 set across them above the mast, near the middle. Could not lift it high enough. Next I ran a towing strap over the top of the piling, under the mast, then back over the top of the piling to a come-along. Pulling the strap lifted the mast up and eventually onto the top of the piling, when I quit pulling. I was afraid it would crash down again. Although the mast was heavy, having it pivot on top of the piling made it possible to realign it with the sawhorses. Soon it was ready for further work. The sawhorses were placed 1/4 from each end of the mast. This balance point made it possible to lift it and position it.
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Now I could enlarge the holes I started to drill for the shroud attachments. I used a 7/8" hole saw bit in the new 1/2" drill from Harbor Freight. After drilling 3 holes the drill began to smoke and spew sparks. It was fried. I kept on working, switching to attacking the foam junk inside the mast.
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I duct taped the immersion boiler to the end of PVC pipe and extended the 10 foot sections until it would reach the blockage inside the mast. I plugged in the extension cord and worked the pipe, twisting and prodding, until I noticed smoke coming right out of the mast through any screw holes. The foam was on fire. I withdrew and unplugged the immersion device and felt the mast to see if it was hot. It seemed to be OK.
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I had only enlarged half of the holes for the shroud attachments, all on one side of the mast. The shroud attachment compression tubes were actually l/2" stainless pipe nipples. They are threaded on each end 1/2" NPT. The measurement for pipe is confusing to us sailors. The 1/2" is based on 1/2" inside diameter, but different pipe materials have different actual inside diameters. I had on hand a 1/2" NPT pipe tap and it fit the un-enlarged holes. I tried threading one of the holes and found the pipe nipple would thread into the threaded hole. Thus, the stainless pipe would pass through the enlarged hole on one side of the mast and thread into the threaded hole on the other side of the mast. The picture is of one of the compression tubes threaded in from the other side. The excess will be cut off with a portable band saw and smoothed with the angle grinder.
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