Kaimusailing

The day started down in the 40‘s but soon the thermometer soared up till it hit 80 degrees in the afternoon. It was a day to make progress, especially with any epoxy gluing. The psychology of boat related tasks began to take effect. Any task will be undertaken to avoid undertaking a particularly nasty task. Typically this will be something like working on the toilet, it will be put off and something else will get done. This time it is cutting the slots in the bottom of the keel for the new skegs. Working upside down with wood chips flying into your face, crawling around on the boatyard soil, trying to see the dark inside of the slot in the keel when all you can see is bright sunlit sky, this is a job to be put off. But not today.
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I put a second coat of white paint on the underside of the new deck plate for the pilothouse, the one that will fill the void left by the old freezer, and also painted the new helm seat, the compass mount, and a couple of covers for the bilge under the water tank under the cook’s bunk.
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I decided to buy a replacement kindle, used, online auction, fifteen and a half bucks, but with 12 bucks shipping. I looked for a repair part for the cheap point and shoot camera. It is a Fugifilm Nicepix Z70. These can be had very cheaply online when they have non-terminal breakage. This one had a broken battery door latch. There were also a couple more like that on eBay in the ten to 15 dollar range. The camera works fine and some of the recent pictures on this blog were taken with it. The battery door can be held shut with a little tab of scotch tape or put a rubber band around the camera. A new battery door looks like $20, way too expensive. I took the dremel tool with a little cut off wheel and began to fabricate a new tooth for the latch out of a discarded reading glasses earpiece. The latch is a tiny slide with a tooth on the end that engages an equally tiny piece of plastic on the camera body. The previous point and shoot camera that we used had the whole battery door slide a bit to release the latch, this one has a separate latch that is so flimsy, they must all break at some point. The new little piece was epoxied onto the latch with 5 minute epoxy. It works, but I’m looking for blue rubber bands that match the cameras aqua color.
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I finally actually moved toward the skeg portion of the keel with the new implement of destruction, a self feeding Speedbore drill bit from the local lumber store. I was not expecting it to work very well or last very long. I had bought two just in case. I was surprised to find how aggressively the bit tore into the keel. In no time at all I had drilled about 30 one inch holes about 2 inches deep, side by side in a row, to make the slot. Of course it needed more shaping and cleaning out the rough edges, but it was a relief to know the job was not impossible.
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A mix of thickened epoxy was applied to the portlight repair hole at the cook’s bunk, this was the portlight that got bashed in by waves twice, also the helm station needed some thickened epoxy to fill some damaged seams, but it was now glued together almost completely. The center of the helm station is the compass mount, which is newly painted. The old instrument panel with switches for nav lights, windlass, horn, etc. will be removed. A new panel will probably be located on one side of the helm station. It has to be away from the compass but accessible to the helmsman.
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The next day was a continuation with more detail work done on the portlight, drilling holes for the mounting screws, countersinking them with the trim router and a 45 degree bit, more sanding of the hole for the pane, making it all fit. It will be painted with two part paint, but the second part, the hardener, is nowhere to be found, so I ordered it online.
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In the pilothouse I laid the new plate down to fill the old freezer space and gave it a coat of helmsman varnish. Also the captain’s chair got a coat.
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The slot for the starboard hull skeg was begun. I noticed the drill was overheating, so I had to take a break about every 6 holes. It was not because I was working under the hull looking up at a bright sky, making the work area a dark nothing, it was not because my replacement shoulder began to hurt and the other one was making crunching noises, not because of the aching back, not because of the debris falling into my face, it was because of the drill, the drill couldn’t take the heat. When I took a break I could take a quick bike ride down to where there was internet access and go online, I could have a Keebler cookie, check for messages, look for anything else but to get back to that damn skeg hole.
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I finished the hole, or the rough hole, and when I was on the last drilling, the British man who had the boat next to me said, “You know, I have an implement that could cut that job down to half the time.” I was all ears. “It’s a sort of blade that goes back and forth...” he made a motion with his hands, “Oh”, I said, “like a multitool”, “Yes, that’s it” he said. I tried to tell him how it was not effective for this job, but he turned and left, puffing on his cheroot.
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It was my brother Phil in Hawaii who got me on the track to try something like the Speedbore. He had an even better tool bit in mind, but there is a lot of difference between a professional tool store in Hawaii and the local lumber store in the swamps of Georgia. I was lucky to find the Speedbore.
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One thing that had been bothering me is the estimated weight of Kaimu by the crane operator when she was hauled out - 19,000 lbs., close to ten tons. This was way more than I expected and when I looked in Wharram’s website at suggested displacement of his designs I found that the Narai MKIV would check in at about 6 tons fully loaded and the Tehini at around 8 tons. This would be at maximum load capacity, so I would expect Kaimu to land in the middle somewhere, maybe around 7 tons. I don’t think I have 3 1/2 tons of stuff stowed aboard, but the boat should not weigh more than this, ever.
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I took measurements of the hull, instead of my usual guesswork, and found it to only draw 33 inches, when I was expecting about 3 1/2 feet of draft. I was measuring from the actual water marks on the hull that I knew she was sitting at. I used a prismatic coefficient of .5 to make the displacement calculation and came out just below 14,000 lbs. This confirms the Wharram estimate and I am sure the crane operator is wrong about the weight.
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The new compass mount was tried out at the on deck helm station, it will work out OK. The switch panel I had mounted on the helm station, the panel that had switches for lights, horn button, and buttons for the windlass, was in pretty ragged shape. It was in an awkward place with the large steering wheel in front of it. It didn’t seem that much of a problem to me to reach in and turn on the lights or look at the depth display, but it had gotten corroded with sea water, so it all had to come out. There was nothing to save except maybe the depth sounder and the Yamaha rev counter. I will probably move the switches inside, either in the pilothouse or the chartroom.
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After removing the panel I decided to fill in the opening with a plywood plug and return the helmstation to its original configuration. That job and all others were cut short by a forecast of rain, substantial rain, so extra precautions had to be made to stow away anything that could be damaged by the rain.
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The deluge closed out a whole day. I spent the time reading a science fiction book by Greg Bear. The next day it was chilly but clear. The hardener for the arctic white paint arrived, then a bigger box with 3 gallons of epoxy, a bag of microballoons, and a smaller bag of “microfibers”. I was stocking up on supplies. I made an offer for a pair of winches online to replace the ones broken during the accident. It looked like they were local, so I added a note that shipping expense would be saved. Later a yardworker asked me if I was looking for a pair of winches. It was his ad that I had answered. It turned out he had other equipment. The boatyard often dismantles whatever the boat owner is replacing, and often they have that used boat gear available for sale.
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The main guy at the boatyard is the owner and he said he was formerly in the marine construction business along with his dad. He had a pair of winches at the workshop that he was putting up for sale. Each winch was about 4 feet high and had a reel of 1 1/4“ diameter cable on it along with a huge hydraulic motor. I said it would be a bit of overkill for the catamaran.