Kaimusailing

The time came to reinstall the mast beam. The wood cap had already been bolted into place and now the aluminum I beam had to be brought into position under the cap. The inflatable dinghy once more assumed the duties of a work boat. The beam was placed on back of the dingy and brought under the cross deck. Webbing straps were ran under it and it was hoisted up into position. The vertical bolts that came down from the longitudinal beam were secured. This involved a lot of alignment work both on deck and below. Working in the inflatable workboat was difficult, since it could move in any direction when force was attempted on the beam or wrenches.
After the beam was bolted to the cap and sitting on the bracket to one side, the next step was to bring the other bracket under the remaining end of the beam and hoist it up, tensioning the end of the beam, and then bolting the bracket to the side of the hull. All this was taking place under the cross deck out of the sun. There was a cool breeze blowing between the hulls. It would be a pleasant task if it wasn't for the spiders who lived in this shady spot, and the waves coming from power boats sending the workboat up and down while we are trying to work.
It turned out the bracket had been bent when it was removed and now it was almost impossible to fit it back in place, especially while bouncing around in a dinghy with nothing but water below.
Hoisting equipment and porta power were used to pull and push and wrestle the bracket into position. The bolts went in and finally it was bolted in. Finally the job was done. Tools were put away. There was a feeling of relief, but then there was a feeling of remorse. It was the end of one job and the beginning of some other job. The fatigue overcame any sense of accomplishment.
On deck a tool box full of harware was accidently kicked over. The tedious job of reorganizing and putting away the pile of bolts, nut, washers, screws, and pop rivets was a form of therapy.
A familiar boat came by. The crew invited us to a Fourth of July party.
The end of the day was an expedition to check the rest of the beams and one was found to have similar problems to the one just replaced. Technique was to strip off any epoxy/glass that would come off and then probe the wood substrate and remove any soft wood. The result in this case was a depressing pile of wood chips and a beam with serious gouges.
Next we made a batch of New England Clam Chowder for the party. It was made the evening before, as soup is always better the next day. Here's the recipe we used:

Kaimu's Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

bacon to cover bottom of soup kettle
small potatoes 1/8th'd or diced equal to amount of clams
drained clam juice (2 qts, make up difference with water)
3 thin sliced vadalia onions
2 diced sweet red peppers
2 stalks celery thin sliced
1 tablespoon garlic salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup flour
2 (51 ounce) cans clams
sherry to cover drained clams
2 tablespoons paprika
2 qts half and half

Instructions:
In a large stockpot fry bacon in the bottom, when it's well browned remove and slice into bits, return to pot with potatoes, onions, celery. Cook vegetables in bacon fat until wilted, add clam juice, garlic salt,and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Blend half and half into flour. Soak drained clams and sweet red peppers in sherry and paprika. Lower to simmer until potatoes and vegetables are tender. Add clam mixture and heat to boil, add half and half mixture and simmer until thickened.
Makes about 8 quarts more or less.

This was a very rich soup. The party goers had trouble handling it. If you wanted chicken wings, you could just plop them on your place and continue along, looking for other tidbits. However, the soup required a cup or bowl, ladle, and putting down that plate of tidbits, so it was extra trouble to get some of the soup. Some tried it and word got around and by the end of the day there was 1 1/2 cups of soup left.

The highlight of the evening was the fireworks display. It was really topnotch, they had a system of firing off whole groups of fireworks at once. Not that this was a party of pyromaniacs, but one could get a feel for the martial origins of July 4th fireworks display. The group of pyrotechnics would fire off in a group of 16, four at a time. What a display! Boom, boom, boom, boom, and then a slight pause, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then at one point, as group after group were fired off, I saw the blastmaster who had just fired off another set of groups running away from beach full of fireworks and one swirly rocket was chasing him. The whole group was firing off at odd angles. One came at me like a screwball, I ducked behind a huge gas grill and the rocket shot off up into a tree. There were more of that group shooting everywhere. The pyromaster was cautioned by the host and the display continued.
The next day, at our own dock, a boat came in with sunburned family, not everyone happy, docked, tied up, began moving gear back to the cars. They had been on the other side of the inlet and witnessed a great fireworks display. They described the fireworks in the trees and screwballing over the deck. Yes, I know, I was there.

The work continued on Kaimu. The beam that runs under the helm station runs into both hulls. It is about 20 feet long and is inaccessable in many places. It was even worse shape than the mast beam. When the nuts on the ends of vertical bolts were removed from the lower ends of the bolts, water poured out. Chopping into it, in the soft spots, removed gobs of soft wood. Still, it would be impossible to replace it without hauling the boat in a paved yard, removing the stick, removing all the other beams, and moving the hulls apart. This beam is buried into both hulls with no way to lift it out or remove it to the side without cutting a hole in one of the hulls. It would have to be restored in place.
To get at the middle area of the beam, the midships fuel tank would have to be removed. It could be dropped right down into the water and towed away. Of course it had to be restrained on its way down and we had to hoist it onto the dock while the beam work was underway. All went well until it came time to hoist it onto the dock. Too heavy. The electric bo'sun's chair was employed to pull the hoisting strap up onto the dock. The hook of the strap got caught on the dock edge and the winch on the chair slowed and then stalled. Afterwards it just clicked when engaged. We had to manhandle the tank onto the dock.
It turned out the winch had cracked its drum, plus some of the gears were damaged. Fortunately a spare winch had already been disassembled during windlass repairs as a possible windlass motor replacement. It wasn't needed for that, but now it was used to rebuild the electric bos'n's chair. After some preliminary testing, a trip up the mast, some epoxy work up there, and it was back in service.