Hui Wharram

We snuck down to the Keys last weekend for a little family getaway. Timing worked out perfectly that we were there at the same time as the Hui Wharram, or Wharram meetup. I have been a fan of Wharram designs for years, and this is one of the first times I got to see so many up close.  It was so cool to see even the big 36' cat pulled up in knee deep water at the beach at Lorelei cafe.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. It was great to see the 3 boats I'm keenly interested in: Tahiti Wayfarer, Hitia 17, and Tiki 21.

Beautiful boats and great group of people!

Ulua leeboard guard

I had the day to myself with mommy and baby gone to Mommycon. She said there was no one dressed as a super hero so I'm not sure how good of a Con it was. 

I had noticed in the trial run that the leeboard really bent a lot in the mount, and needed to figure out a light way to stiffen it used before I could finally varnish the hull and get it outside to clear the shop for the last few sailing bits.

My original mounting location was above the seat bracket, just below the gunnel. I was never happy with the hole placement, and wanted to use aluminum angle as described in Gary's book, but already had my seat brackets and couldn't fit the angle above it. I decided to mount the new bracket under the seat and fill the old hole. I also wanted 3 mounting whiles so I could move the board around to mess CLR but ended up with just 2. 

Once I had the bracket I drilled the 1/2" holes then mounted it under the seat bracket. I used those holes to mark centers, then drilled over size to 1" so I could fill with thickened epoxy and re drill to 1/2" to help seal the hole and prevent rot. Every step at this point is 3-4 little things, each prepping for the next. This is why sailing bits take so long! 

It was my first time working with aluminum, and it wasn't so bad! I misaligned the second mounting hole for the leeboard bolt, but I decided to move froward anyway as it is really only ascetic and both are covered by the board in use. Learning each time I work on something, and getting better. I strive to do my best, but I kinda like the little flaws too because I remember what was going on when I worked on that piece, kinda like a tattoo I guess.

I cut down a couple cutting boards to use as wear guards and to shim the leeboard even with the gunnel. This was a lot of fun and will add a bit more wearing surface to keep the board from twisting on its mount while on the trimaran tack. The boards cut easily and formed to the shape of the hull giving me a nice 1/2" plate. Still need to do finish trimming (you can see my marks to round the bottom corners) and counter sink the mounting bolts. I drilled all those oversize too in the hull to fill and redrill later.

Then I sanded. And sanded. And sanded. I've used the boat a few times already even though I hadn't sealed some of the mahogany. I had to clean all that up. My final fill coat outside was very rough on the port side, lots of orange peel. I've recently thought it may be better to paint the hull so I can use fairing compound on the outside. I still may because sanding the Orange peel took me down to the weave in a few places I wasn't careful with.