Bonjour Marc,

How far along is your Hitia 17? I'm sitting through a New England Winter looking at Hitia Study plans. I plan to start building within a year.

-Brian

Marc -- I have a Tiki 31 well into a retro fit. The beam issue is a a sore point with me and the learning curve of having a boat in the water. I built my boat over ten yeas ago -- at the time I spent so much time trying to make it a maintenance free as I could -- silly me! I did not realize that is what a wooden boat is ... (maintenance). I was a bit disappointed when I found a bit of 'rot' in them after only a couple of years -- my big mistake was to rely on caulk to seal any fitting I attached to the beams. nothing works forever. I then removed the beams -- looked for any sign or rot -- replaced all portions I could find -- lots of penetrating epoxy -- epoxy coat primer and then two coats of paint. You would think that would be more than enough -- following year a found more rot -- different places -- it got worse to the point I decided I was going to do something about it. When I removed the beams I was surprised to find them so heavy it took two reasonably strong men to lift them off. I'd say 150 to 175 pounds. When I first built them I remember they where a handful -- but they put on a few pounds -- the new ones weigh around 50 pounds. I have to think they are at least as strong -- maybe stronger. I will go into further detail when I get back to the refit in a few weeks. I will tell you that I decided to keep with Wharram's same dimensions in order to make the existing parts work. My hope was to have everything back together by the end of June -- I may be a bit late -- but for sure this season. I am also redoing a lot of small things to make TIKI THOMCAT a more user friendly craft. Ever since being on board PEACE IV the center 'pod' impressed me -- I am building a similar unit for my boat. The 'lockers' on either side of the cockpit are a nice idea -- but really limit the full use of the space. I will now have a 17 foot wide cockpit! I hope all this turns out as I plan. One thing for certain -- I will be at least 500 pounds lighter. I have also decided to raise the masts 3 feet over the original -- I am too tired of beating my knees up -- and the extra clearance for the pod should make it a better handling boat.
If anyone has experience with Wharram's 'whipstaff' I would appreciate hearing from you. I think I may switch.

ciao,

Thom

Hi Marc,

sorry, haven't been at the building place lately. I was busy organizing the move to the new place. I will look and tell you if I have the same problem. Hope it is not too late then.

A+

Martin

Hi Martin,

no prob.

For me a good working session will be necessary to adjust the foredeck, with deckstringers they are quite stiff.

I'm going to consider adding intermediate bulkhead like in :

http://knol.google.com/k/construindo-um-catamaran-wharram-hitia-17-...