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 [...]

The Daily Grind part XXII

01 December 2017 | st marys, ga
Capn Andy/winter chill
The sudden change in the ambient temperature and the unfinished, unstarted, grinding job on the hull bottoms gives me a bad feeling, like will I get anything done before winter really sets in, now that I’ve squandered the 6 weeks of good weather by sailing around. In that time we’ve gone from North Carolina to Fort Lauderdale, then from St. Lucia to Fort Lauderdale, and finally from Fort Lauderdale to Gulfport, Mississippi. When we first left the working environment had just started to cool down from the high heat and high humidity, and now on the way back to the Gulf Coast the change in temperature was distinct, my Caribbean clothes were inadequate, I froze, although the low was only 41 degrees.
.
I started some grinding today, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and it was about 1 PM and there was no warmth from the sun. I was using a 40 grit belt sander on the starboard hull to remove old layers of Pettit 2000 barrier coat. This stuff might be effective if it is applied during summer’s heat, but if I remember correctly, I was applying it in October in Maryland using heat lamps to warm the surface. Maybe that was not enough. The difference between the port and starboard hulls is significant, the bottom paint on the port hull comes off in chips, on the starboard hull that was coated with the barrier coat, there are large patches where the bottom paint sloughed off, leaving bare epoxy/glass surface. So, I am grinding a substance that is like old chewing gum, it clogs the sanding belts and bubbles when it heats up from the friction of sanding.
.
I manage about 2 hours of the sanding torture. My arms are sore, the belt sander is not a lightweight tool, I find other things to do. Still, I get about 8 feet of the bow sanded. It is obvious that the reblocking of the boat, lifting it onto blocks so that it is higher off the ground, is necessary. We have been asking for this for all this year. I’m sure it will happen now.
.
The boatyard is in full swing, the season here is the reverse of the season up North, there the boats are launched in the Spring and hauled out in the Fall, here they are launched in the Fall and hauled out in the Spring. They spend their winters in the Bahamas, South Florida (The Keys), or in the Caribbean.
.
I hate to admit it, but it’s coming up on 2 years I’ve had Kaimu here for repairs and rebuilding. A lot of work has been done and a lot more has to be done. It’s like building a boat all over again. When I put the boat together 15 years ago I wondered if I could do it at my age, now I am much older and doing it again. It is taking much longer this time. Of course, back then, the boat was very simple, no solar panels, only the mast up, none of the rest of the sailing rig was ready. Now it is more complicated. The work is just a difficult though.
.
I spent about an hour today with the grinding process and could see that if the stuff stuck on the boat’s bottom won’t come off, then OK, it is there to stay. I will have to order more epoxy as I am almost out. I have to make fairing mixtures and repair any damage to the laminate. The boatyard owner, chief crane operator, and manager says he will lift the boat on Wednesday. Probably early. No sleeping in.
.
The day seems short, freezing cold in the morning don’t want to get out of the bunk, then coffee and late breakfast of Ritz crackers and peanut butter, then venture out to find out it’s almost noon. Prepare for grinding, put on a Tyvek uni suit and respirator, get to work grinding, give up after an hour. It seems like late afternoon already. I go to the communal area and use the computer to check on the progress of the rest of the world. It’s about a quarter to four and it is seems like the sun is going to set. It starts getting chilly again. I watch a presentation by Benoit Mandelbrot in the TED series on youtube. I try to hang on and the other yardbirds are off to make supper. I leave in the dark and make a ham and cheese sandwich for supper. It is pitch black and a quarter after six.
.
The image is from the internet, it is the Mandelbrot set graphic.
Comments

About & Links

SailBlogs Groups