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 [...]

San Marzano Sails

12 March 2020 | St Marys, GA
Capn Andy | Pleasant Spring
It turned out that the bottom paint that was damaged in shipment was declared a total loss, not just packaging damage. A new shipment will be sent out from Defender Industries. I’d like to see a photo of the inside of the UPS truck.
.
I received a call about a Raymarine i50 depth sounder that was reading --. This can mean the transducer cable is intermittent or perhaps the depth under the transducer is less than 3 feet. I had had problems with my simple Humminbird depth sounder, although it was probably due to marine growth on the transducer, so I ordered a similar simple depth sounder, transom mount transducer, for $69 on eBay, free shipping. It is of Chinese origin and has no brand name on it.
.
The depth sounder came in and I took it down to the floating dock and hooked it up to the brick battery. It came on and read depth, but it also read the temperature, hmm. I need to call up the vendor and see if I can get some info on that function. A shipment from Harbor Freight came in including a heat gun to continue to work with the foil backed insulation foam. I had also ordered more chip brushes and nitrile gloves, and several power tools for others in the boatyard. It seems that shipping from them is always $6.99.
.
We have been having windy weather and I got a call from Jimmy who has a floating dock down near the shrimp boats. His kayak had blown off the dock and was in the weeds on the other side of the marsh. He was in Atlanta and needed someone to track down his kayak and maybe bring it back to the dock. I jumped in the Sumnercraft dinghy and rowed around looking, but could not find his kayak. Later I was on the phone with Steamfitter Bill who had launched, was anchored, and due to get underway soon. I mentioned the kayak and he said yes there is one right nearby him on the edge of the marsh. How could I have missed it?
.
The next day I could clearly see the kayak early in the day. High tide would be late, maybe even after sunset. At the end of the day I set out again and again I could not see the kayak. I knew where it was though and rowed to that vicinity. When I came across it I could see why it was nearly invisible in the late afternoon sun. The shadows of the marsh reeds put the kayak in the shade and it was a dull dark gray color. I could see it well enough when I was right beside it. I towed it to Jimmy’s dock and tied it up there.
.
I decided to work on the port side running backstay winch. The winch handle had broken off leaving its teeth or bit still in the winch and jammed tightly. I could not remove it and found the soft aluminum somehow broke off drill bits as fast as I could replace them. I had broken 3 bits. I was able to remove one of the broken bits and tap the hole so I could screw a bolt into it. It did not work out. While screwing around I was able to unscrew the top of the winch off and now I could bring it into the shop and use the tools there to maybe pop that winch handle part out of the top of the winch. I used a punch and hammer, vice, 50 ton hydraulic press, but it took several iterations of savage work to finally get that slug of aluminum out of the winch. I reassembled the winch and found the pawl was not engaging, the winch turned but didn’t ratchet, didn’t hold the line. I took it apart and found the pawl was jammed, must have happened during all that beating, etc. More work. The pawl wouldn’t come out of its socket. I pried it out, careful not to lose it’s little spring. A dremel tool and little cylindrical grinding bit made clearance for the pawl. I lubricated it and reassembled it and now it was working fine. I tested it out with one of the new winch handles.
.
I wanted to tighten the running backstays to see how the headstay and inner forestay compared as far as tension. I was at the limit of adjustment on several of the stays and wanted to see which ones I had to recut. As I tightened the starboard running backstay I noticed too late that the shackle attaching the purchase to the stay had opened and was now looking more like an L than a C. I removed it and went back to the shop. When I tried to bend the shackle back into shape the holes for the shackle pin did not line up correctly. Fortunately the tools available made it possible to shape the shackle just about any way I wanted to. I compressed the shackle around a slab of aluminum, then twisted it and aligned the pin holes. After I reassembled the purchase to the stay I tightened the running backstay and found both the headstay and the forestay were properly tensioned. It looks like I will have to recut the upper and lower shrouds however.
.
It is pizza day and I began my revamped process, no spaghetti sauce this time. I’ll try not to use the shredded mozzarella that comes in a bag. I did some more research. Using canned tomatoes is OK and better than using spaghetti sauce from the supermarket. I had a can of plum tomatoes and prepared them by slicing them in half around the equator and then squeezing out or shaking out the seeds, then slicing them. Away with the seeds. I kept some of the juice left in the can, poured it into a clear glass to see that there were no seeds in it. I added it to the tomato slices. I had little packages of fresh basil and oregano, destemmed them, crushed, and chopped them, and added them to the tomatoes and juice. I mixed that up and it had a wonderful aroma. I received a donation of garlic and added an entire head of crushed garlic to the mix. Wow.
.
The tomatoes I used were a USA product, not the recommended San Marzano’s from Italy. It turns out that there is no way the little district of San Marzano could produce all the tomatoes that are labeled as coming from there. It is one of those Italian protected brands. The real San Marzano tomatoes are hand picked just at the peak of ripeness. The volcanic soil of the region gives them their flavor and sweetness. Perhaps tomatoes from Hawaii could also have a special flavor due to the volcanic soil. So, buying San Marzano tomatoes is likely to get you something else, might be good though.
.
I was told Cento is the brand of tomatoes I should get. I checked and they are available at Walmart, how convenient. The whole tomatoes cost just under 4 dollars a can, while the crushed tomatoes are half that price. I picked up two cans of the crushed tomatoes. I combined them in a closable plastic bowl and added spices, fresh basil and oregano, finely chopped, and a whole head of garlic, pressed. Into the fridge for a few days to marinate together.
.
Am I getting any boatwork done? I moved a disassembled sewing machine table from the boat to the Breezeway and the mainsail and jib from the Breezeway to the boat. I knew the mainsail would fit the mast and boom, it was the original mainsail on “High Spirits”, the donor of the mast and boom. The jib, however, might be too long on the foot, although I made sure its luff was the correct length. The only way to see how it would set would be to haul it up on deck, hank it on the stay, and raise it. There was very little wind which meant the no-see-ums would be out, swarming over me while I unbagged the heavy sail and hoisted it on the inner forestay. It was a lot more work than I expected and the result was disappointing. The sail would not work on the inner stay, the clew came all the way aft to the back end of the cabin, and the leech fouled on the spreader. Radio Bill who was watching me suggested I put it on the headstay up forward, so I unhanked it, dragged it forward and hanked it on the headstay and hoisted it. Here it would set properly, but I already had a sail for that stay, the light weight genoa. Now I had two sails. After taking down the jib and bagging it I felt like I had been in a wrestling match. I doubted I would be swapping sails on the headstay very often.
.
I took a break and started looking for a jib of the correct size for the inner forestay. I had the numbers already in my notebook. Actually the jib I had just tried should have been OK, the spreader was the item that made that sail unusable. I remeasured taking the spreader into account and began searching on eBay for sails. There was one sail that was 3 feet too long in the foot and 2 feet too short in the luff, but I wanted a short luff to help clear the spreader, would it clear? To find out I measured from the stay to the length of the foot of that sail and marked that spot. Then I hoisted the rigger’s tape measure up the stay till it equaled the luff length of the sail, and then brought the tape over to the spot where the clew end of the sail would be. I could see the tape cleared the spreader by about an inch. I purchased the sail, $225 including shipping.
.
The next day I was sore and stiff. I didn’t try anymore sail handling or any strenuous work. I had purchased an original first generation Kindle which did not work, DOA, and I received a refund. I thought maybe I could get it working. I took the battery to the local expert and he proclaimed it DEAD. I also received a charger for the Kindle, so I plugged it in and got the kindle logo to appear on the screen, but that was all. I began googling reviving dead kindles, which the geeks call unbricking, and found the original first generation kindle was in a class by itself. Fortunately there was a fellow who documented his investigation of the device, very dense coding talk, and when I got to the bottom of his first page of postings it said, “page one of 92“.
.
The image is of the 1st generation kindle taken from the internet.
Comments

About & Links

SailBlogs Groups