Paikea’s Upgrades

A summary of some of the more ambitious projects we have undertaken on our Catana42s to date

Transom

Paikea has low transoms with steps up to the cockpit. The original design was a sloping transom which we have subsequently extended out to make a larger boarding platform. We did not increase the waterline length, simply squared up the hull so that the boarding space was more usable. We think this has also improved the aesthetics of the boat too.

Visit our blog page on upgrading the transom along with links to the video on YouTube. A more detailed explanation with information and pictures is available on our members’ website at https://youngbarnacles.com/members/paikea/transom-extension/

Rudders

As you would have seen in the above video, there was some serious work to do on our rudders.

a progression of old rudders to the new design before losing one in the Atlantic Ocean

We bought Paikea with only one original rudder and a starboard “temporary” rudder (pictured above on right). We had the great idea to use some ex-America’s Cup yacht rudders as a mold to make new rudders for Paikea. Our blog post on making our new rudders talks about how we made this and can be viewed here at https://youngbarnacles.com/making-our-own-catamaran-rudders/

For this design, the idea was to have winglets attached at the base of each rudder but there just wasn’t enough time to make and fit these before launch day. In the next blog and video, Shayne talks about how he will tackle the project in the water and what needs to be prepared beforehand in order to be able to bolt the rudder winglets on at a later date https://youngbarnacles.com/preparation-for-winglets-on-rudder/

Disaster STrikes….

You know what happens next …. we lose a rudder 800nm from land on our Atlantic Crossing. Once we made landfall in St Lucia, one of the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, it was time to have a look at the hulls and see the damage up close. We needed to know what had happened so we can begin to make plans on what to do next.

And now we have had a good look at what happened, and have a HEAP of data on different rudder performances its time to start thinking about Rudders 2.0

For more details and photos on our rudders see our Members pages https://youngbarnacles.com/members/rudder/

Carbon Fibre Hardtop

We originally had a soft cover for protection in the aft cockpit. It was definitely a lightweight solution but when you have access to carbon/nomex panels and you can make a hardtop for your aft cockpit that only weighs 40kg why wouldn’t you? Plus they are the deck pieces from the Swedish America’s Cup boat. Super cool!

The best feature of this hardtop structure is that we have the wonderful glass/nomex sliding hatch which was originally the foredeck hatch for launching and retrieving the spinnaker during it’s life as an America’s Cup contender. See the blog and video here

As always more info for our insiders on our members page https://youngbarnacles.com/members/paikea/cockpit/

Composite Chainplates

Our chainplates used to be a stainless steel strap bolted into the bulkhead through a plywood core. Add 30 years of use and weather and we have rotten bulkheads. We discovered that the chainplates were moving while in the Canary Islands just days before our planned departure for the Caribbean.

Our decision was to replace the bolts and continue on our journey. The fix lasted for 8 months of cruising the Caribbean before the kids notice the chainplate on the port side was pulling out of the deck. It was time for composite chainplates.

Once we made the carbon chainplate and replacement section of bulkhead we needed to laminate it back into Paikea.

Carbon Fibre Rotating Mast

During the Covid19 lockdowns when travel around Spain was prohibited, we spent our time repurposing an ex-America’s Cup yacht rig into a new rotating mast for Paikea. It was the perfect lockdown project. Information on the rotation spanner and stay connection points to the rotating mast are contained on our members’ site. The mast sits on the boat utilizing a cup and ball arrangement which can be seen here.

the new and the old masts side by side

Front Beam and Longeron

Probably one of our all-time favourite upgrades to date. More recycling and repurposing of off-cuts of mast from the America’s Cup challengers. This time it was to upgrade our front beam and install a longeron. Members can check out details here.

There are a series of videos where we show how we installed the carbon tubes and laminated them into place. These videos share important tips on how we made our new carbon front beam and including how we vacuum bag complex geometry, removing the vacuum bag from the front beam

new carbon beam and longeron

If you are interested in geeking out with some engineering speak, we made a video talking out load paths and what we were looking for when we started tearing apart the boat and installing the new carbon fibre front beam.

Martingale and seagull Striker

The seagull striker you can see attached to our carbon front beam is actually a broken carbon fibre TP52 spreader that we repurposed for the job. It is perfect as it is strong and aerodynamic. We then made our own solid carbon fibre strap from unidirectional fibre to make the martingale and then fit the martingale to Paikea.