History, Part IV

HULA KAI arrived on Long Island on Thanksgiving '03. I felt bad about the yardmen and trucking company having to deal with this on Thanksgiving, but they all were extremely pleasant about it. Once she was set, my cousin, Marc Lyon, and I began ripping up the old fiberglass and opening her up to dry. We removed the rudders and crossbeams for restoration. Surprisingly the wood was in great shape. The decks on the other hand were de-laminating, as well as some areas in the hull. We peeled away any glass that would come up and the laminations of plywood, too. We worked on some days when it was literally 10 degrees outside, one of the coldest winters here in the Northeast. Marc came to work when it was even colder, when I had gone to Florida on business. Such dedication!

Before I left we constructed a tent over the whole boat to keep snow and precipitation off her bare decks. The protection from the wind alone can really warm things up.

2/11/05 - OK... to catch up and get this website operating in the way I had intended. I will give a summary with a few pictures, describing what has transpired since February of 2004. I'll give monthly updates from now on... I hope.

Summary of 2004: Through the winter months into the early spring, we spent the days sanding and ripping off old glass where we could. I had intended to just get the boat ready enough to get in the water for the summer of 2004, but once I saw what I had got myself into... I thought I'd just take a year and half and do everything once, the right way. I'm glad I did. I knew there was going to be some areas of dry-rot and so, went right to work on those. The major areas were: the inboard-aft section of the port hull, the inboard side of both bows, and the cockpit coaming and the decks beneath. Other smaller areas were in the bilge of the hulls -- the inboard side. The laminates had dry-rotted, but the hull was sound due to the glass and epoxy that had been expertly applied to the keels by John and Alfred Kumalae about 10 years before.

So as spring 2004 progressed, with some of the best weather one could hope for, we continued to peel and peel. Eventually, we had removed all decking from the transoms to the front of the wing, and the decking from the bows back about one foot. The area of the hulls that I cut back was from the bow tip back about 4 feet, from the shear to the water line. I did the same on the aft part of the port hull. The stringers and ribs were all in perfect shape!

Another area that we peeled away was under the wing. It had originally been covered with 6oz. cloth. I had remembered that my fathers boat, 'Ipo Kai', did not have any cloth here. In March, I travelled to California where I met up with Warren Seaman. We spent a couple of days together talking boats and CSK history. He told me that later on at CSK they stopped putting cloth on the bottom of the wing because it would delaminate. So, I will be just giving it a coat of paint, then. Although, I'd suspect epoxy would hold tight compared to the polyester resin they used then.

So once the decks were off, I painted the interior areas that I knew were going to be impossible to reach once closed in and then began decking! At this point I was on my own as my cousin had other work at the time. So here I was on the hottest days of summer lugging these sheets of ply around, measuring and re-measuring, and finally cutting, then trimming and trimming.... very tedious. I cut a template of cardboard, but that only gets you so close. I was cutting wide too. I did not want to ruin a piece of wood by trimming off too much. Around the cabin, I glued a strip of mahogany to glue the deck to. I know I'll be adding a few pounds to the boat when done, but her racing days are long gone. I need her to be tough and comfortable for my family and friends.

At some point, I think May, I purchased a trailer. At 12 foot in the beam, she's just barely legal to take down the local roads without permits. I bought a couple of orange flashers and "WIDE LOAD" signs and I'm in business. The boat weighs about 2000lbs. on the trailer, so no problems with hauling. I kept the boat at the boatyard in Port Jefferson until the fall of 2004. At that time, I moved her to a bit of land my mother owns across the street from my house, making working jaunts more frequent!

History, Part III

I was born in '65. By the time I was 3 months old, I had many hours under my belt in an open outrigger. And by the time I was 5, I was an old salt at scrambling out on the ama to avoid going over in the puffs.

In 1968 - 1969, my parents were flying to California on occassion to meet with Rudy Choy to discuss designing and building a catamaran. My parents were in love with Dr. John Purcell's 'Patty Cat II', a 44' ocean racing cat that was built in 1964. A 44-footer was a little beyond their budget, so they went with a 38' version, which was also a stretched out 'Imua', Jack and Dot Swart's first of three C/S/K catamarans. Recently, I have discovered that 'Ipo Kai', the 38' Rudy designed for my parents, was taken from line drawings of the 36' 'Hiolani'. Having spoken to my father about this, he does recall the conversation going from an 'Imua' design to an 'Imi Loa' design. 'Imua' was just a little too small and did not have access to the hulls through the central cabin and 'Imi Loa' was just too big. Besides, my parents were still crazy about the racy look of 'Patty Cat II'! I guess, 'Hiolani', with a slightly wider hull than 'Imua', and elongated would give the proper proportions for 'Ipo Kai' that C/S/K used for their 'racing' hull, as opposed to their 'cruising' hull.

Follow Mike Brown's blog on "The Adventures of Ipo Kai' for a detailed description of the revitalization in progress.

http://ipokai.blogspot.com/

PATTY CAT II
Marina Del Rey, ca. 1966

HIstory, Part II

I found an add for her on Mike Leneman's site Multi-Marine . He had listed her as a favor to John, an old friend. I think I called the first day and immediately made an offer. I had been looking for a small C/S/K cat since I was a kid. As a guy in my late thirties with a wife and a 6 year-old, this was perfect! And better yet, it needed work, putting her in my budget for initial outlay.... minimal. I called my dad and he was thrilled, never really having recovered from selling his 38' C/S/K when I was about 25 years old. Which brings me to a little personal history:

The Outrigger Years: 1963 - 1970

My father was into sailing mulihulls fairly early in the game. In 1947, he had seen an issue of Yachting Magazine featuring the "sleek double canoe" built in Hawaii by Woody Brown and Alfred Kumalae. The term 'catamaran' was not in use yet. For the next 10 years he spent his rainy days building models of outriggers and catamarans like the ones he saw in the magazine. And then, in June of 1958, after reading magazine articles that Rudy Choy was writing regularly for Yachting and others, he came across the Popular Mechanix article on the Malibu Outrigger. Within 5 years, after getting through his residency, he built a 24' Malibu-styled Outrigger in 1963. It was something else... being on the East Coast. In Malibu they were very popular as you can see in the movie "Endless Summer". But, here on Long Island Sound, it was certainly a freak!

History, Part I...(moved from GeoCities)

To start this blog, I am transferring the old story and info from a GeoCities account and then hopefully add more updates on a regular basis. So here goes:

I purchased her from John Kuhlman of Northridge, Ca. in October of 2003 where he and his family sailed her for more than 30 years between Ventura and Catalina Island. She was then known as 'Nip & Tuk'. John was her second owner. Her original owner was Bill Scott who built her on Malibu Beach in 1963. At the time, Warren Seaman of C/S/K Catamarans (designer of the popular Malibu Outrigger) was living near-by during construction and would stop to inspect progress and give pointers. According to Warren and Roy Seaman, Bill was highly respected carpenter in the Malibu area. If you rent "Beach Party" w/ Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, you will see this cat in the background in a few scenes. The film was made just prior to her launching.

Here's an older photo of "Nip&Tuk" , pre 2003.



More to come...