We can categorize our time on Paikea into 3 distinct phases. The first couple of years was a family adventure with 3 young children. Our plan at that stage was to fly to Europe, buy a boat and sail it back home to the South Pacific. We weren’t much into vlogging any of that – especially not for YouTube. Fast forward to 2020 and the Global Pandemic. We got stuck at a very special boatyard in Valencia, Spain. It was the old Swedish America’s Cup Base “Victory Challenge”. We tossed up whether we should leave Paikea and fly back to New Zealand but we didn’t have a house to go back to – everything was tied up in Paikea so we hunkered down in Spain and decided to focus on a rather unique gift that had been deposited in our laps – A CARBON FIBRE MAST. That was the beginning of a pretty unique refit which has so far included the introduction of a carbon rotating rig, carbon front beam and longeron, new sail inventory, carbon steering wheels, carbon/nomex aft cabin rooftop, new rudder blades, transom extensions and a YouTube channel documenting all our hard work.
The next step was to take our pimped up catamaran and cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean… where the only bit of the rudder that Shayne did not replace failed. We ended up 800nm from land with only one rudder as the stainless steel rudder post we had glued the new blades to failed. It was not a show stopped however, as the best thing about catamarans is they have 2 rudders and we were able to modify our sail setup to deal with the one rudder new norm. Our one rudder issue soon paled into the background as we discovered the chainplates were moving. We were in danger of more serious problems if we continued to sail without addressing this new problem. So. We spent 2 seasons in the Caribbean working on some cool race boats and making new carbon chainplates and a completely new design rudder with a carbon rudder stock.
This brings us to the 3rd phase in our Paikea story as Shayne was offered the position of rigger for the French America’s Cup challenger. It meant sailing Paikea back to Spain and spending some time in Barcelona for the America’s Cup. An early finish with the Frenchies, gave way to a better gig project managing the rebuild of the minimaxi 72 Balthasar which lined the coffers ready for our current refit. This time, we are replacing all the timber floors and furniture on Paikea. We think we should be able to remove at least 1 tonne of weight from the interior refit. Which means Paikea should be sitting about where Lock Crowther originally designed her to be. It will mean more comfort for us on board, reinforcement of floor and other areas of the boat and improved sailing performance.
We started in our aft stateroom cabin. The first step was to install those carbon door frames that we had been carrying around for so long. Then we had to think about cleaning up the services. There were so many holes in the bulkhead with wires and hoses. We wanted to think about how to run everything so that it looked clean and was easily accessible.
Next was working out how to make the room comfortable. We extended the bed platform so we could fit a queen-size mattress. We used polyester resin as that is what the rest of Paikea is built from however, we used some advanced techniques to get the quality finish we were after.
Next we needed to address those awful holes in the bulkhead. We inserted foam and glassed over the holes we no longer needed and cut holes in the new position. We then 3D printed plugs to use so that the new holes we made were reinforced correctly. We spent 2 videos going over how we did this.
Once we had sorted the running of the services in the aft cabin, we could move back to the bunk construction. We still needed storage for clothes and this time we decided to make the furniture structural. It took a lot of time to figure out how we were going to do it and I am still doubtful we will fit all our clothes under there but at least we made a decision.
Now that we have the shelving in place, we can upgrade that floor! First is to install a proper half-bulkhead in the bilge. Originally, this was only a plywood bulkhead under the floor here. It was not laminated in place, and this had caused problems that resulted in that great big crack that we had to fix in Barcelona. Shayne had already repaired the exterior part of this damage years ago. We have this video, Repairing Damage to the Hull.
Once we have installed the half bulkhead and painted the bilge, it is time to make the floor. We make the floor hatch first and then use it as a plug to make an integrated glass lip in the floor.
Now we can install the floor. It weighs a quarter of the weight of the original so we were super happy on Paikea when we go that in. We can now confirm that we are on the right track to tackle floors and timber furniture if we want to get some weight out of the boat.