Her basic specifications are:
- LOA: 75' 3"
- LWL: 54'
- Beam: 18' 2"
- Draft: 9' (board up), 13' (board down)
- Ballast: 38,700 lbs lead
- Displacement: 143,000 lbs(!)
- Sail Area: 2,348 sq. ft. (with 85% jib)
Constructed in double-planked mahogany over laminated oak frames with deck-to-keel bronze strapping. With solid 1 7/8" teak decks, the entire super-structure from the decks up is teak. Fitted with two Evadur solid bronze water-tight bulkheads, solid bronze mast steps, bronze centre-board, engine bed, floors...over 10,000 lbs of bronze!
Larry Doheny was quoted as saying he loved Kamlii like a wife, and he held onto Kamalii right up until 1992, sailing her in numerous Transpacs and other west-coast yachting events. In 1992 Doheny donated Kamalii to the US Coast Guard, which then sold the yacht 2 years later. But Kamalii was not far from the Doheny clan; she was purchased from the Coast Guard by Doheny's old war-time buddy, Shull Bunsall, who's son Shull "Buzz" Bunsall, Jr. had married Doheny's daughter.
While sailing Kamalii on the west coast, with trips down to Mexico, Bunsall began a refit of the yacht which progressed in fits and starts. Unfortunately, with the refit only about three quarters complete, Bunsall died in 2002, and Kamalii, held in a family trust, passed to his three children. Conflict between the siblings and a resulting lack of available funds to spend on upkeep meant that Kamalii spent the next 10 years sitting in a slip in Newport Beach, unused. While Bunsall's son Buzz did his best to ensure that all the core systems were regularly run and serviced as necessary, no funds were available to spend on general upkeep, and slowly but surely she began to decay.
Advance to 2012. Having been on the market for several years, no buyer had been found. Uninsured, the boat could not be hauled for inspection, and most potential buyers were scared away by the unknown state of her hull and keel, with a clear level of rot at the waterline and visible degree of worm damage, and the obviously significant amount of work that would have to be done on her. But we are always game for a challenge!
Having been looking for the right yacht for a while, we came across Kamalii and were immediately intrigued. Work and family commitments meant we could not get up to the USA to view her, so we dispatched Keiran Russell of Quadrant Yachts to spend several days inspecting her and providing us his expert opinion. Armed with mountains of video and pictures down to the last screw (or so it seemed), and with the input of Rick Brown, a master shipwright who knows the boat intimately, we decided to make an offer without having laid our own eyes on her. And now we own her...
