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 [...]

St. Marys Shakedown

25 August 2018 | St Marys, GA
Capn Andy/humid, thunderstorms
It was late afternoon when I was able to move Kaimu to the dock next to the travel lift well. I was craned up to the masthead and attached the VHF whip and windex arrow. All the gear that had been on tables while working on Kaimu was now stowed on board. I could remain at the dock overnight, but would be stuck in the mud at low tide, or I could anchor in the North River. As I motored away from the dock it looked like maybe 2 or 3 hours of daylight, why not get going? So I continued motoring down the North River to the St. Marys River and then followed the shipping channel out into the ocean.
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The first problem was the starboard lower shroud became unpinned from the chainplate. This was frightening and unexpected. We had done a lot of work on the rigging and it had been double checked. The conditions were very choppy with a lot of shaking in the rig so maybe a stainless pin fatigued. I put a snatch block on the adjacent chainplate and used the sheet winch to bring the shroud back into position. I found a new pin and cotter pin and repinned the shroud.
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I was very fatigued and probably should have anchored for the night. When I tried to use the autopilot it seemed to work but after a while it gave a series of beeps and went off course. I was hand steering with the genoa set on starboard tack. We were only going about 5 knots. I didn’t have the energy to set the main, plus it was now nighttime. There was a full moon but it was cloudy, so the moonlight came and went.
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At some point the wind shifted and I gybed to port and found the boat would steady on a course with the genoa sheeted to windward. I took short 15-20 minute cat naps overnight and corrected course and looked out for ship traffic in between. The wind died around day break going very light from the West. I set the main and was now sailing on a course about 060-070 and only going about 3 1/2 knots. The wind was forecast to clock to the NE later in the day. The 5-10 knot forecast would be more accurate at 0-5 knots.
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The wind did clock around but only to North by around 5 PM. We are off Jekyll Island about 20 miles offshore and now sailing at a good pace close reaching on a course of about 110. Earlier speed had dropped to 2 knots, if that. I felt I needed more rest but the autopilot that would allow that is out of commission. When I hit the +10 button, instead of turning to starboard it turns to port. I think something is wired backwards.
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It is possible to get a sailboat to self steer on a windward course by easing the mainsail and flattening the jib. I was able to finally get Kaimu sailing herself. One trick is to set up the genoa car for good sail shape. Flat with no belly.
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I decided to tack to starboard as we were going too much South, the wind seemed to be clocking a bit more. On the new tack it looked like the wind was NE and at a nice steady 10 knots or so. This was at the low end of the 10-15 from NOAA weather radio. Our course was WNW and I planned to close the coast and then tack back out to sea.
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I could see dark water ahead and indeed it meant more wind. This was the 10-15 predicted and it was time to think about taking down the genoa which is a light sail and replace it with the old staysail/jib a much heavier sail. The genoa came down about1/3 the way and then the halyard was jammed in the block up near the top of the mast. I couldn’t hoist up or down.
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I decided to heave to and wait for the wind to subside. When I jibed the main the clew came free of the boom. I lowered the main and hooked up the clew with a jury rig to the end of the boom. I thought, I’m not going to hoist this back up, the skies ahead were very dark and the wind had increased to about 20 knots. On the weather radio there was a new forecast of gusting to 20 from the East, but it was still coming from the NE. I decided to sail the 45 miles back to St. Marys and fix the boat there. It would be very difficult to work on the boat in the conditions.
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It looked like a front was coming our way with lightning to the North, dark clouds to the West and stronger gusts coming through, around 25 knots. I bore off and we were sailing 7-8 knots SW using the partially hoisted genoa as our sail. I was really tired now and sore but the boat was easy to handle on this course.
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I had the kayak on the foredeck tied with a line to the cleat on the starboard bow. I was towing the dinghy from the port hull and the outrigger canoe from the starboard hull.
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When we were about 30 miles out a long low dark cloud, like a roll cloud, was across our course and we would be going into some nasty weather. I set up the hatches to keep any rain out and decided to take a rest in the bunk and let the boat weather the storm. It lasted over an hour and was pretty rough. When it stopped raining I went on deck. The kayak was gone. The outrigger canoe was gone. We were going very fast in large waves and surfed down them. The forward solar panel on the port hull was gone. The sea was rough with big waves and we surfed down them. Waves broke and would crash on deck from time to time.
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It reminded me of the time sailing past Frying Pan Shoal and having to divert to Georgetown, the destination downwind, sailing overnight with a full moon illuminating the path forward. The 45 miles that took over 24 hours to make NE of St., Marys was covered in the overnight hours and we were off the St. Marys entrance in very rough conditions. It was NE strong winds against an outflowing tide. Wind against the current. Very rough.
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The job working the boat up through the entrance in those conditions was nerve wracking. The dangerous jetties on either side were sending geysers of water up into the air as the breaking waves hit. I estimate the outgoing current at about 5 knots. At one point Kaimu was sitting still in the middle of the channel, sailing strongly but only moving ahead when a gust came through. This was similar to sailing into Norfolk when its current is in strong outflow. I had used up 5 gallons of gas then just to get in through the entrance and into Willoughby Bay. Now I was using sail and would not start the engine until we were in through the entrance and entering Cumberland Sound.
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US Navy was conduction some sort of river boat operations near Fort Clinch on the Florida side of the entrance while a bunch of kayakers were paddling toward Cumberland Island. I was now burning fuel at a fast rate and gradually Kaimu went up the channel toward the mouth of the St. Marys river. I made sure I didn’t run over any kayakers.
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The outflow was very strong and it would be another 2 hours till low tide so I anchored next to the mouth of the St. Marys river and tried to trice up the genoa which was flapping violently in the wind.
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I tried to take a nap but the racket was to loud and nerve wracking, so I started the engine and upped anchor. I found the current was slack or just starting the tidal inflow so I motored up the river and turned into the North River. I used the cell phone at the helm station to make sure I stayed away from the shallows, after all it was at low tide levels in the river.
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I arrived at the boatyard and anchored, went ashore, forgot my sandals, and Ken, a yardbird with a Freedom cat-ketch, took me out in his dinghy to get them. I took a shower and went to the gas station restaurant with Matt who drives a Miata and we were joined by Bill the pipefitter. We consumed several pitchers of beer and I had a foot long chili dog. Back at the boatyard I paddled the dinghy back to Kaimu having lost one of the oars in the overnight storm. Have to get new oars.
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The image is from the SPOT position indicator page and shows the track of Kaimu going out and up, then returning
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