First Sealer Coat on Main Mast

First sealer coat for the main mast has gone on. It's a penetrating epoxy sealer. The spars are going to look seeeexy! Not looking forward to the on-going maintenance so much...

Spars Shaping Up

Here's a shot of the main mast almost ready for sealing. Sexy!

...and progresses some more.

Really tempted to finish the transom bright! Actually, the whole hull was bright for the first couple of years of her life; then they wised up...

....and progresses some more...

Almost done with the first layer of planking.

Hauling out has been delayed due to waiting on the boat currently in the spot to go back in the drink.

Transom Rebuild Progresses

Rick and Richard have removed the entire skin of the transom, scarfed in new sections of framing where required, and are now starting to lay up the inner planking.

All the black stuff is not rot - it's pitch that was poured through the gaps in the blocking; ol' time gap filler.

Transom Rebuild

Getting into the business end of things now. There were some areas of rot in the transom, so we decided to do a complete rebuild. Richard and Rick have opened her up, and as expected the rot was restricted to the outer skin, and all the blocking and members are 100% fine. Edit: Spoke too soon - a few members need some repairs.

The big news is that we finally have a confirmed haul-out day - May 21st.

Mizzen Repairs

The only problem found with the spars was some soft wood at the head of the mizzen. Rick has fitted a new section to match.

The Modern Bits

Even a classic old girl like Kamalii needs a dose of modern electronics. Not too much - I hate yachts that are set up like floating computers. On a boat it's not a matter of if the electronics will go on the fritz, it's just a matter of when. I was adamant I was not going to turn her into a digital light show, but you just can't get away from the fact that a certain amount of electrocrap is required and expected these days.

Kamalii came with a pile of old electronics, some of which had never even been installed, but it's all pretty vintage stuff (1990's - doesn't seem that long ago to me...), large and consuming a heap of space. We've decided to keep the existing radar and autopilot, and replace them when they inevitably die. (That was a nice bonus, we thought the radar was stuffed when we bought her, but we were able to get it running again). Everything else is going now.

This photo shows Richard trying to work out how the hell we would fit all the existing uninstalled gear in the port side nav station. The short answer is that you don't. That's a steam-driven HF radio in the background.

The starboard side nav station is nice and tidy, but the crappy old chart plotter has got to go. We'll fit a new sounder and VHF in it's place.

Nasty Little Critters

Back in the 1990's the cockpit was reworked a little, with deeper seating. Some cheap teak ply was used for the outer skins - result has been rot and some termite infestation. Fortunately there is absolutely no sign of termites anywhere else on the boat, so replacing (with solid teak) and treating should deal to the issue.

Progress So Far

Got an update from Rick last night. Everything is tracking along well, with no nasty surprises at all. The quality of the boat really shows - everything was the best of the best, and so it has all held up well.

The spars were in fantastic order, only a little bit of soft wood at the top of the mizzen for which Rick had to scarf in a new piece. The mast bases were in excellent order, and there are no issues with any of the glue joints. They are going to look a million bucks when they are finished.

The decks have been given a thorough going over. Given the generally good state of the caulking and decks overall we made the decision not to refasten the whole of the decks at this time. Rick and his team have gone around and reefed out any caulking that is remotely suspicious and replaced it, fixed up plugs where necessary, and pulled random fasteners - which have all been in good condition.

They ripped into the rotten wood in the cockpit seating, which has termites. It's a little worse than we thought, but no major. Purely a result of previous refit work done with inferior materials (cheap ply). Rick is going to replace effected areas with solid teak, and we will treat the whole area for termites.

Rick dived on the boat again and is quite optimistic on the state of the hull planking. We have budgeted to completely re-plank the entire outer layer of planking, but Rick now believes that the rot/worm damage is very localised to the waterline and some specific areas, and we may only have to re-plank specific areas. We would still refasten the entire hull, but not having to re-plank the whole hull would save quite a bit of money (which no doubt will be fully consumed in other areas). Fingers crossed.

She may be out of the water in less than two weeks - we wait with baited breath.