Kamalii is for sale

The time has come to move on.

I have not posted on this blog for a long time, as life has gotten in the way of sailing, and having only sailed the old lady a few times in the last year it is sadly the time to move her on to the next caretaker, someone who I hope will love Kamalii as much as we have. She is truly a magnificent piece of sailing history. Reading back over the blog it's been an amazing 10 years and I am really proud to have made sure that Kamalii will continue to sail the oceans.

https://youtu.be/xF3ZSlD1g6s

https://www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk/yacht/630/KAMALII

Yes, we are still here.

It's been a long time between posts. But Covid, and stuff...  

Anyway, the old girl has been getting used a little bit, and of course the maintenance has not stopped. We went out the other week for one of the Americas Cup races, with a record number of guests (31) and had a great old time in stunning weather (although not a lot of wind). Always great to get Kamalii out on the water, and be reminded what an awesome ship she is.

New Blocks

Sort of new, anyway. After we put the mast back in I found the cheeks on the running backstay blocks had pretty much given up. They were marked for replacement some time soon anyway, but lying around on the deck for several months while the mast was out with water pooling around them evidently finished them off.

Paul Tingey knocked up some nice new cheeks, they look great.

The whole global pandemic thingey has kind of put a pause on putting Kamalii up for sale. I guess we'll still have her for next summer.  :-)  

The Stick Is Back In!

Finally, after all the Covid hold-ups, the mast is done and back in Kamalii. We brought her down from Gulf Harbour to Half Moon Bay on the Thursday morning to catch the tide (rather shoal coming in) and left her tied up overnight, then dropped the rig in first thing in the morning.

There was some mad panic when I couldn't find the mast chocks (four people furiously going through every locker we could think of), but Isi had thoughtfully packed them away and managed to come out of class at school in time to get my messages and let me know where they were. Other than that no drama at all, though it was a bit of a rush to get everything together in time to get back out before we missed the tide.

I replaced the V1 stays (lower cap shrouds) as these are the highest load bearing stays. The rig is just loosely set up now and in the next couple of weeks we will find a suitable weather day (increasingly difficult as winter arrives) to take her out under sail and tune the rig. I'll endeavour to use the time in between to drop the genoa in at the sailmaker for some maintenance, and hopefully give all the winches a service etc.

I'm glad that it's done, and really didn't need the sailing season wrecked, though Covid did that anyway, but it's nice to know that your mast is 101% in tip-top shape. A big thanks to Paul Tingy and Robin Kenyon for doing such a top job.

Heading to Half Moon Bay. Any day on the water is a good day - even without a mainmast.

Not such great conditions heading back to Gulf Harbour.

What's all the firewood on the aft deck? The trestles that were made to support he mast - may as well put them to use elsewhere!

Mast Repairs Complete

The mast is nearly ready, only about 6 weeks late thanks to the Covid lock-down. Paul and Robin have done a great job and the mast is looking a million bucks (feels about close to what the repair cost too...). I must admit it's a good feeling knowing your mast has been gone over from top to bottom.

The new masthead has been sheathed in fibreglass, so it is fully sealed - don't want it all happening again! We had all the fittings electro-polished as well, the spreaders have been painted and varnished, etc, etc. I will replace some of the standing rigging as well, but don't want to hold things up, so will do that after the mast is in. Plan at this stage is, subject to weather, to put her back in Kamalii on Thursday. Fingers crossed. 

New masthead has fibreglass sheath - not going to let it happen again!

Before the sail track went back on

See the scarf lines for the new section? Beautiful.

Of Masts and Pandemics

The guys (Paul Tingy and Robin Kenyon) have been working hard on the mast. It's turned into a bit of a major, not only was the masthead in more of a state than we thought, but we found a few other issues too.

First the masthead. What has happened is the old cables to the masthead light and wind unit from when the mast was built ran internally up until the last metre or so of the mast, which was solid, so they brought the cables out then routed channels in the wood up to the top and glued pieces over . Unfortunately at some point those cables were cut off and sealed over with some silicone or such, which failed and has let water seep in down the channels internally. Basically she started going soft from the inside out, until she gave way. The top meter or so of the mast was basically unsalvageable.

On top of this, there are several clusters of tie-rods that run through the mast track all the way through the mast and are fastened on the exterior front face, basically to really tie the track to the mast. Unfortunately in the upper section where the rod comes through the front of the mast it was run through the glue line. A bit of load pulling in on the glue line, over time it opens up a bit, and now we have soft wood around the bolts.

The decision was made to router out the front face all the way down to the upper spreaders and glue in a new section. This removed any dodgy wood from the glue line and also means the through-bolts will now be pulling on clean wood, not seams. 

Note the old channels for the cables, now dug out. Mushy.

You can clearly see how the masthead has crushed down under load. Good thing I spotted this when I did....

Lots of setup - the table and guide for routing out the front face.

The routed front face.

 

The top metre and a half, or so, of the mast was then removed and a whole new masthead laminated up. Unfortunately it's not just a case of whack a new top on the mast; sections have to be scarfed in at a minimum 12:1 ratio, so this meant scarfing in again almost all the way down to the upper spreaders.

The results are impressive. And expensive. Sigh. But I have to do things right.

Laminating the new masthead. Note the long sections for scarfing to the mast.

Test fitting the new section. Existing mast has been tapered to a point.

It's now all glued on and largely shaped, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures right now.

Now the crappy bit: New Zealand has gone into full lock-down due to Covid-19. As of tomorrow all work has to stop for a month. F**k.

The guys have worked their nuts off today to get the wood sealed up so it can sit now until we are able to start work again. Whenever that may be. More sighs.

Masthead not quite finished, but she has to be sealed up.

Hardware being test fitted and used to shape the fibreglass cap. We are putting a fibreglass cap over the top to really seal it and help spread loads.

We are only a few days away from being able to start varnishing her up etc, but now that is a long way away. In the mean time I have stripped the spreaders down and re-varnished/painted them, painted up the spreader butt blocks, got the hardware electropolished, etc. 

Fresh varnish.

So, I guess an update in about a month's time...