Seasons Greetings

Merry Xmas everyone!

We actually managed to get away on time with all required jobs done - surely a first for a boat! It was only 20 minutes before we had our first drama - engine alarm going off and oil smoke coming out of the engine room as we gave the engine its first good hard workout after the off-season tune-up. Ever have that sudden sinking feeling..?

In the end it turned out that the engine was over-heating because the raw water intake seacock was so "free" that it had vibrated more than 3/4 closed under the weight of the handle, so a quick nip-up with a wrench fixed that. Better still, the oil smoke turned out to not be coming from the engine itself but from the stainless exhaust dry risers; it seems that the engine has never had a really hard run since the engine room was overhauled and it was the first time the dry risers got really hot, so all the oily residue that was still on the stainless under the thermal blankets started to burn off.

We've also had one genset go down due to a faulty circuit breaker, but that can wait till we get back. The inertial starter on our outboard also broke, but after a couple of tries with different materials I have managed to fabricate a replacement part that is working great. Beyond that, all pretty good.

The sail up the coast was variable but pretty good, broad reaching most of the way, with boat speed up to 10 knots at times, and for a little while down to having to use the motor. My brother Paul and his partner Rose joined us for the trip, along with my dad, and also Simon Jenkin who previously crewed with us down from Hawaii to NZ.

Paul, Rose and Simon left us in Russell and my mum joined us for Xmas. We then sailed up the coast to Whangaroa in what started out as a great beam reach and turned into a hard beat into 25 knots - Dad and I enojoyed it, not so sure about everyone else...  Mum and dad left us in Whangaroa and now we are just relaxing and doing the holiday thing.

Here's a few pics...

Sharon assumes the position.

Isi at the helm with Granddad.

Sarah's turn.

And Emma assumes her standard position...

Aye-aye, Cap'n!

Russell, Bay of Islands.

In Whangaroa Harbour

Kamalii Destroyed in Christmas Day Alien Invasion

Terrible news. In a surprise attack by body-snatching Afroaliens the crew of Kamalii was today taken over, with our good Captain possessed by the evil overlord of these extra-terrestrial invaders, intent upon bringing about world domination and afros for all.

"Take me to your hair stylist, Earthling!"

In a desperate bid to prevent the spread of the alien scourge, the crew of Alure were forced to launch a swift rocket attack to destroy the invaders, unfortunately with the complete loss of Kamalii in the process.

Tough break, but the world was saved.

A Few More Jobs

A few more jobs done. Thanks to Sharon's brother Mark and my Dad for their help in the sweltering heat today. Have also fitted some more climbing steps to the main mast so that attaching the main halyard to the main is not such a mission.

New inflatable Dan Buoy unit. Now we can get rid of that irritating old-style pole.

Instrument cluster on the binnacle finished. OK, not really a "cluster" since their's only one instrument, but one day...  Thanks to Jason for climbing the mast and re-fitting the wind sensor since I was too chicken-shit to do it.

May not look like much, but these new stainless plates around the main boom reefing blocks will hopefully put an end to the chaffing problems we had.

All Aboard

Finally, 2 days shy of a year since we arrived in NZ, the boarding ladder is finished and back in operation again. We missed this puppy when we were trying to swim off the boat!

The ladder got hooked by a sheet on the trip down and tore one side in half. A huge thank you to Vic Hinton who put in a lot of work stripping her down and sorting out the repairs. Super job, and the final result is brilliant.

Baby Got Back

Transom is varnished, lettering all fitted, looking good. (Yes I know I need to clean up the dribbles down the hull...and no it's not varnish.)

Another Milestone

I've been meaning to post a pic for the last week. We've finally finished varnishing the cabin (Yay!), so just the foredeck and capping rail to attack now, which will have to wait until after our trip away to the Bay of Islands; I have been banned from taking any varnish away...

Hmmm. Also need to do those grab rails...

Update

It looks like we are actually on track to get away for Xmas. Wonders will never cease.

Just one coat of varnish to go on the starboard cabin side, transom is done and lettering is fitted (just need to trim the excess bedding compound and will the post a pic), oil changes done, zinc has been replaced (thanks Jason!), even serviced the outboard. Just need to reassemble the reefing line turning blocks on the main boom and that is all the "must do" jobs done.

Very chuffed to get one minor job completed; ever since we left California I was unable to get data from our NMEA bus out to the nav computer. Finally decided to ditch the $300 serial-to-USB converter I got sold in the U.S. and replace it with a $50 one from Dick Smith's, and presto! Now have all my nav data coming through on the nav computer, including AIS targets and all that other good stuff us SailNerds love.

Grand Reveal

Cabin side paint is done, chrome is fitted, looks great.

And we've finished sanding up the starboard cabin and primed it ready for varnishing, Once this is done it's just the foredeck and capping rail, and then I can hang up the varnish brush for a while.

It's a Miracle!

Here's me trying to convince Sharon that I do in fact walk on water. I was not successful.

The transom work is all done and I have five coats of varnish on so far. With luck it will be finished by next weekend, with lettering, etc all fitted, and I will post the grand reveal. It's looking awesome...

We also have finished painting the cabin sides (big thanks to my Mum for her help and A1 painting skills), and I hope to re-fit all the chrome this weekend and will post shots of the finished job.

"Captain To The Bridge"

The binnacle has come together nicely. We re-chromed the compass mount as a nice touch. Since these shots I have mounted a new stainless steel rail on the forward side which will be fitted with a teak instrument cluster. The wheel will be coach-whipped, as it was before, a job for Sharon over the holidays...

Some may notice the cockpit dodger screen is looking a lot clearer. My Dad has been busting his butt polishing it, and has removed most of the scratches and hazing.

It's The Little Things...

Anyone who's tried to attach or detach the main halyard on Kamalii in a seaway knows what a bitch it can be, unless you are 7' 6" and have four arms. Not having a captured pin made it all the more exciting. Have fixed that, and will be starting on a number of other small, simple jobs that should make handling her that much easier, such as more steps up the mainmast, but alas not the new boom gallows, which will have to wait until next year given the time constraints we have to get ready for going away at Xmas.

No More "What's the name of that boat?"

Well, only from the port side at the moment...

Battleships

After weeks of prep work (it just went on, and on, and on....) on the timber and portholes we have finally this weekend applied the first coats of primer to the cabin sides. If the weather plays ball then we may have the painting done by next weekend. This is making me very happy - this job has been gnawing at me for a long time.

Removing Old Cord...

While we were at the binnacle I decided I'd get the wheel dipped and powder-coated. This meant removing the old coach-whipping around the rim. The whipping had been soaked in glue and then painted; couldn't cut it off with a saw, and couldn't take it off with a heat gun. Had to use a disc grinder to cut if off! There was a lot of oxide buildup - looks like that whipping had been on for decades.

Binnacle Under Way

We've stripped the binnacle, have filled all the old holes, removed the temporary instrument pods Rick made, and made the cut-outs for a new control panel and DC power outlet.

Hull Repairs Complete

John has finished up the hull repairs. Was more involved than we thought, and therefore more expensive. Could have been easily dealt with when the transom was done, so very annoying.

Repairs complete prior to painting.

Reassembled deck and new backing block for mizzen highfield lever. We replaced the blocks on both sides.

Transom Repairs

All the dodgy wood has been removed from around the starboard aft corner. John had to open up the deck to get to all of it. While it was clear the water was getting in under the rotten runner backing block, some water seemed to be getting in to the transom wood above the deck line. I worked this out today - it was through the ensign post socket. It was not properly sealed, and there was an old drain hole drilled through the wood under it, which would have previously gone into the lazarette, but now seems to just discharge into the transom timbers. Easy fix. Hopefully all will be 100% after this.

Decking opened up, new sections of packing wood partially laid in (it continues under the teak decking).

Sand, Varnish, Repeat.

Have started getting serious, sanding up the cabin sides in preparation for painting. Still loads of prep to do, but Rob and Sharon have put in many hours to get it this far.

 Have got four coats on the starboard cockpit. Weather has turned crappy again...

Behold, The Pumpinator!

OK, I know what you're thinking: it looks like a squid mated with a hose extruder and this is the mutant offspring.

But, while it may not be aesthetically pure (though to me it does bring to mind the induction manifold of  an early fuel injected Holden 308, which should make it beautiful in the eyes of some) it does work very well, delivering loads of water, great pressure, and near-silently, with the added bonus that if any pump should fail it doesn't matter, the water flow rate just drops by a third, and I can "hot swap" a pump if necessary.

The Home Stretch

Well, not really, but we are finally ripping into the starboard side brightwork. Sharon has done an awesome job stripping down the cockpit.

Ventilated

John has opened up the hull at the stern where we found the soft planking. The water had indeed been coming in from under the mizzen runner backing block. The rot was quite localised, but unfortunately has affected the rib at the transom, so he has had to start cutting that out and will scarf in a new section. Of course, to get the bad inner planking out involved taking more outer planking out, and so it goes...

It's all a bit annoying, as it could of been easily dealt with when the transom was rebuilt, but at least it hasn't turned out to be a major job.

You can see the partially removed rotten top of the rib on the right hand side. 

Frankenplumbing

Well, the house water pump gave up. I had her serviced in California before we left, but I always suspected they didn't put the service kit in her they said they did, and sure enough the rotors are flogged out.

So, I have dropped in a triple-diaphragm pump in its place so we have running water, with the resulting temporary plumbing bomb site you see below. The thing is, I can buy three of these pumps, which combined will deliver the same water flow, and higher pressure than the old pump, for less than the cost of a service kit for the old pump! And they run way quieter as well, with the added bonus that I will have some built in redundancy in case a pump fails. So I have ordered two more and will plumb them all up in parallel using the existing water pressure switch as a master to switch them all together.

The old house pump, which is still a serious bit of kit (bronze double-displacement pump driven by 1/8HP DC motor), I'll keep and get round to servicing at some point and probably use it as a washdown pump.

Incoming!

Big blow on the way. We have managed to come up with a "quick stow" solution for the awning.

Slow Progress

The weather has been a real shit of late, which has made progress on brightwork, etc rather slow. We have finally gotten the rear of the cockpit finished, and have completed a quarter of the inside cockpit. Sharon has also been busily stripping the paint from the cabin sides, and both sides are now stripped.

The aft deck brightwork is almost done.

We've been doing a few inside jobs as well; fixed a leaky seal on one of the heads (such fun), and I am part way through plumbing, wiring and installing the frame for the washing machine. I also rewired the battery selector panel, which was previously a real screw-up of a setup, so now we can independently select house supply and engine supply from either bank. I've also started fitting new LED light units in the various lockers, and generally chipping away at that multitude of small jobs.

A Bit of History

Kamalii came with all the original drawings from Philip Rhodes office as well as letters between Rhodes and Doheny, and various other documents. An interesting document is a copy of a presentation given to the US Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers on the construction of Kamalii, which was delivered prior to her launch. I have scanned the report and posted it here for anyone interested.

Fizz, or lack there of

Should mention that I got "the man" down today to conduct a full galvanic check on the boat, as I have been concerned how fast we have been burning through zincs. She came up A1, with just the right amount of zinc and no bonding or stray current problems. Seems that with the huge amount of metal below the water (remember that bronze centreboard...) vs. the fact that we cannot over-zinc for fear of damaging the timbers, that we just have to accept that we will have small zincs that we burn through quickly.

The Little Things

I got the freshly varnished anchor chocks back together on the weekend. A little thing, but as with all little things on boats they turned out to be a protracted, fiddly, pain the arse. (And you can really see we need to get to those bulwarks...)

More Pics

I found a reasonable shot of Kamalii on the hard that I missed, and also a shot I took on the weekend from the other bank of the marina. Lighting was not good, but I think you can see the *massive* improvement.

The Old Ways Work

One of my goals when we hauled out was to fix the one leak we had in the hull, which was a weeping seam in the engine room. When we hauled it was immediately obviously where the source of the leak was, which was in some original outer planking that had a very open seem. I caulked it with traditional cotton caulking, and after a couple of days back in the drink she is now completely water-tight. Thanks to Rick Brown for having the foresight to show me how to caulk and providing me with the materials before we left California.

Getting lots of thumbs-up from passing boats when they see the new-look Kamalii. I want to try and get all the varnishing finished over the next two months so we are good to go for summer.

Splash

She's back in the drink. We moved her yesterday (this time without any broken straps or other incidents). Took her out for 15 minutes in driving wind and rain to let the stuffing box settle in, then back to the dock. I will try and get some decent pictures of her over the weekend, she is certainly looking a lot smarter. Now we are waiting a few weeks for the boat builder to come back and sort out the soft plank  on the topsides, mizzen runner backing blocks, etc, and then we can seal up and varnish the transom and refit the lettering. After that, it is going to be varnish and paint on the cabins to get the outside cosmetics finished in time for summer.

Hello, Sexy!

Not a great shot, very bad lighting, can barely make out the boot-top, but I could not resist - looking very different, eh?!

Goat's Cheese

I pulled apart the whole base assembly for the port side mizzen running backstay to identify where the water had gotten in that caused the rotten spot on the hull plank. Bingo. Water had been getting in under the backing block and then tracking down through an unsealed gap in the deck and bulwark. This will be easily fixed, however the backing block itself will need to be replaced - from behind it is the consistency of feta...

Backing block removed. You can see the big gap in the timbers on the right hand corner.

I dropped the screwdriver onto it from about two feet up. A tad knackered.

Camel Two

Test fitted the new lettering for the transom and bow of the boat. Looks nice. You can really see now why Kamalii has always been hailed by those who don't know her as "Camal Two"