Nicely built Wharram Tiki 38 in San Francisco

Boatsmith has a contract to fabricate and install new teak decking on several areas of the 190' motor yacht Pangaea. This boat is currently at Bay Ship and Yacht yard in Alameda California undergoing a major refit. I was very happy to get this job as I've worked many years for this company in times past. We have lots of friends in the bay area and it is a chance to visit and reconnect with them. I flew out to California the weekend of the 4th of July to make patterns of the new teak decks. The patterns were then crated up and shipped back to Jupiter FL for fabrication. Once complete we will drive out to Alameda for the installation.

One very special bonus of this trip was that I was able to hook up with Beat Rettenmund who along with his partner Beatrice Restrepo and her mom Arisili (I hope I spelled that right) are building a wonderful example of James Wharram Designs Tiki 38. Over the years I've seen many Wharram catamarans and honestly most did not impress me favorably as to the quality of workmanship.

Beat and Beatrice's Tiki 38 is finished off to a very simple level but is very craftsman like in every detail. To me a yacht is a vessel where anywhere you look you see something that makes you say,wow look how nicely that was done. They have accomplished this in a most admirable manner. They stayed focused on their goals and have built a truly marvelous yacht that is almost ready to take them where ever they so desire.

I was invited to the build sight by Beat to checkout their boat and "talk madly about boats, the sea and mermaids". A not everyday invite. This was my first day with a new camera and due to my excitement over the boat and my electronic ineptitude many of my pictures were not very good but I will share the ones that turned out.

The "CULPRITS"

Beat, Beatrice, and Arisili

Cat eyes. Most of the windows have some sort of decorative shape to them

Below I am in the pod and looking into the stbd companionway.

Here you can see the watch berth and the storage below the seats. The pod seems to be a very nice space on the boat. The wheel steering is here, and good shelter for making passages to weather. Forward of the pod there is an open cockpit with outboard wells under the seats. Beat has purchased 15hp E-tech motors and plans on installing these in place of the gas power heads on two outboard motors. I am looking forward to seeing these when completed.

One detail I was very impressed with was the simple solution to a galley cooker. It is very easy to spend hundreds of dollars on a proper marine stove and still not have an ideal setup. This cooker costs $70 at Harbor Freight and works at least as well as most marine stoves. Okay, so maybe it will rust out in a year or two, but it can be replaced several times for the cost of even the most inexpensive equivalent marine stove. As George Beuhler said in Backyard Boatbuilding, you can go sailing cheaply now or be a melon farmer forever while building the perfect museum piece boat. It would appear to me that Beat and Beatrice are definitely not melon farmers.

Everywhere I looked on Aluna I saw clever little things that will make the boat much more pleasant to sail on. Below are pictures of the stbd companionway ladder. In the photo on the left, you can see that there is an additional step added below what the plans called for. Beat said he noticed that it was a very large first step and designed and built this lower step to alleviate this. I tried it out and it is a very nice improvement. I would certainly recommend this to other Tiki 38 builders.

Beat and Beatrice have about 6,000 hours invested in this project over five years.One way they have kept their hours reasonable is they have left the interior with a natural finish. They were careful with their epoxy and fiberglass reinforcement applications and didn't sand and fair the insides for paint. The result is utilitarian and clean. It also saved them many hundreds of hours, hours spent sanding, which is not most peoples favorite pastime.
The photos above and below are of the cabin interiors and you can see the workmanlike manner in which the filleting has been done.

Here is a little detail I wish we had used on our Tiki 30.Beat ran his wiring for his lights and fans thru the foam core of the deck. Very clean.

The two pictures below are of the outboard mounts.

Here's a shot of the forward deck.

This is a close up of the anchor rollers.
This photo shows the frame of the aft boarding ladder.It will get wooden treads lashed into the center area.

Sometime ago, Beat and Beatrice were able to go sailing with Glenn Tieman aboard
Manu Rere, a Tama Moana design from Hanneke Boon and James Wharram.This is a relatively new ethnic design and is powered by two crab claw sails. This is a very old sail plan design that has seen somewhat of a resurgence of interest in the last few years. While cruising on Manu Rere Beat became a new convert to the crab claw rig and is installing this sail rig on Aluna.

Part of the appeal of the crab claw rig is the simplicity,the low tech materials and the associated low cost . Below are the pine saplings that are becoming spars. I have not had the opportunity to sail one of these rigs and am hoping that I can finagle a ride.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and am looking forward to going back to California next month for our job and especially to revisit Aluna Beat and Beatrice. I hope that everyone enjoys this post.

Completing Reuel Parkers 14' periagua

We are finishing this little boat off today so we can play with in the keys this weekend. We are going to Islamorada to attend the Wharram rendezvous. Here we have turned the boat back upright and installed seats and are working on a small foredeck.

Reuel added this skeg to help the boat track better. The original design didn't have one to facilitate better maneuverability in the crowded harbors where it earned its keep.

We're painting the hull after we painted the inside. We have also installed oarlock sockets on the rails. I'll put some action shots up with a performance review come Monday.

Rapid progress on a Reuel Parker periagua

We had a good day today in the Boatsmith shop.We scarphed the plywood together and cut out the bow and stern transoms. It's a lot like the Sabot I built when I was thirteen, just stretched out a few feet. It sure goes faster with epoxy.

Here we have set the bottom and transoms and the frames on a table with blocks underneath to establish the rocker.

We then offered up some 1/4" plywood for the sides. Once they were scribed and cut out we glued them in place with super glue and little blocks of wood to hold the shape while we made epoxy fillets. A fair amount of attention was required at this point to adjust everything so that it all ended up fair and sweet.

Twas mighty warm in the Boatsmith shop today (98 degrees). The only advantage and sometime disadvantage is that epoxy goes off really fast. This means that you can't dawdle but it also means (as we prefer fast hardener) that you can really truck. Here we have epoxy filleted the inside of the hull.

In this shot we have taped the outside corners with 1708 6" tape and then quickly applyed a coat of microballoons tp fair the cloth in. This tape is on the heavy side but will make for a more durable hull and appling the micro ballons while the epoxy is still semicured saves us from having to sand pure fiberglass in between. All in all pretty good.

Jim Smith classic

Sometimes it seems that getting pictures of our work is real hard.This boat was built by Jim Smith Tournament Boats back in the early eighties as the Miss Broadbill.She is a 60' express model. Forward of the main cockpit is a mezzanine deck under which big motors live.Then you continue fwd and go down into the cabin.This makes for a relatively low profile with a surprising amount of interior for an express boat. Sorry about the lack of more pictures ,my battery said adios at this point. We installed teak decks on the bridge, the mezzanine and in the main cockpit of this great boat a liitle over a year ago as well as the covering boards and coamings. WE went up to Jacksonville FL this week to perform some maintenance and took this shot. Areal classic wooden boat well loved and well cared for. The teak in this picture was bleached just the day before and is now ready to be sanded smooth once again.

Building a Reuel Parker Periagua 14

I was up in Fort Pierce, FL last week to see his progress on the 45' sharpie schooner Ibis, and he showed me the small craft he is planning on using as a tender for her. It was a 14' periagua that he designed based on an old Swedish work boat. The originals had no skeg and would pivot readily. Reuel added the skeg to enhance the tracking ability of the boat.

You can see the pronounced rocker in this photo and in the photo below notice the skeg and narrow beam. Reuel says that he is very pleased with both the rowing performance and the weight carrying ability of this boat.

Another attractive feature of this tender is the all up weight is about 65 lbs.

The oarlock receivers have been changed from the plans because although they made effective outriggers they were very cumbersome and inconvenient with respect to handling and storage.

This boat also has slightly different seat/thwarts than on the plans.

All in all i was very favorably impressed with this boat and decided that it would make a great tender for the Wharram Tiki 30 that we're currently building. I will keep you posted as we build this delightful little boat.

Van deStadt Sailing Yacht by Hans Lukat for sale

This is a very nice very clean boat offered for sale by the owner builder. But this is not just any builder. It was built by Hans Lukat of Stuart Fl. Hans immigrated from Germany about 50 years ago and was already an accomplished boat builder and sailor. He spent a short while in Newport Beach Ca. before moving to Stuart. He went to work at Whittaker Boat Works, stayed there for 47 years, and retired just 3 years ago as the head carpenter. Whittaker Boat Works has been around for quite a while and has built a reputation for building some of the world's finest wooden sportfishing boats. Hans built this boat for his personal use and launched her in 1976. While he was younger and a bit more spry, he raced her throughout south Florida quite successfully, enough so that his PHRF rating was adjusted downward several times.

I became aware of this boat when Hans' son, Garry came to work with us at Boatsmith several years ago. Garry Lukat is also a very skilled and talented yacht carpenter and helped build this fine boat.

Hans is now well into his 80's and he no longer can sail this boat like he would like to, hence this special opportunity.

These pictures on the hard were taken May 5th 2008 in Stuart and show that the boat has been maintained to the highest standards.

The paint is shiny fresh Awlgrip, the varnish is spectacular and everything works like it's supposed to.

The photo above shows the forepeak where you can see the fuel tank and fuel filter. You can also see the level of finish that is evident throughout this fine vessel. Below is a shot of the portside settee. There is an identical settee to starboard with the same style of storage cubbies.

Below is a picture of the NEW 18hp Yanmar diesel engine. Sorry the photo is so bad.

Here is the galley with a two burner Primus alcohol stove.

Here is a view of the cockpit. Hans tells me that the sails are in very good shape as he has used the boat only lightly since buying new ones.

The vital statistics on this fine boat are listed below.

Length 31 ft

Beam 9 ft
Draft 5 ft
Weight 6500 lbs (Ballast 2500 lbs lead)
Construction cold molded Honduran mahogany
Mast sitka spruce
Designer Van de Stadt


If this finely built and well maintained sailing yacht piques your interest, you may contact Hans directly at 772 -335-2161. Hans tells me he is asking $25,000 but he is willing to talk. If this boat is your cup of tea then maybe your ship has come in.

Fitting teak deck panels coamings and covering boards

We've been working hard all of last week , thru the weekend, and the first part of this week trying to get this project done so the owner could take his new 60' Hatteras sportfishing yacht to the islands for the Bahamas billfish tournament this weekend. In this first picture we have glued down more of the deck panels.Each panel has been built exactly to the width required to fit between hinges and hatch edges.We start gluing in the center and then work out towards both sides.




While we have been gluing the deck panels we have also milled out the material for the coamings.These coamings are functional as well as beautiful. When the fisherman is working in the cockpit landing or releasing a fish, he can wedge his knees under the bottom and lock himself in freeing both hands for use.

In this photo you can see two pieces of bullnose margins for the steps from the cockpit up to the cabin door. Also visible are the routers we used to rabbet out the backside.It's easier and faster to have lots of routers set up with the various required bits rather than changing bits for the many cuts needed.

Layed out and ready to start making noise, dust,and pretty parts.

After the noise and dust here are the rough parts ready to be fit on site and radiused and sanded.

Here we have glued on the first side covering board.We have to shape blocks for clamping down the outboard edge and clamp these blocks in to keep them from rolling up.

Before we started gluing on the covering boards we had to fit in the corner pieces.These are cut with a very slight taper and sanded to fit.Very time consuming, several hours for each.After the corners are fit we sand the top edge of the coaming with a long hard block to ensure a tight fit between the coaming and the covering board. Later we will shape this corner piece to flow into the coamings and the covering boards.

This is a view of the forward end of the port side coaming.This new Hatteras yacht has an extra kink in the coaming.Just a little something extra to make it more of a challenge.

This shot sows the margins for the mezzanine.The bullnose pieces are milled out of 12/4 teak lumber.

We're closing in now. We have glued and clamped the aft covering board to the boat. We still have to cut across the board in two places for the tuna door but we prefer to do this after the board is epoxied down securely.Several years ago we cut one before we glued it down and just as we finished the first cut the board exploded and within 3 minutes had split several times from end to end , a lot of expensive trash.We had used wider strakes to make up the board and when we disturbed the equilibrium the stress in the laminate just shredded the fibers of the teak.Part of the learning process.

the picture below shows the decking almost completed on the mezzanine.

Here we have installed all of the teak decking and the covering boards and coamings. The tuna door has been cut and rehinged. we still have some detailing to do .The tuna door hinge is not correct and we will have to build and polish a new one.But right now we are off the boat while the owner takes his boat back to play with.We will have to wait several weeks until they return from the Bahamas to complete the final touches.