Allen Bosely's Comments

Hi Allen, yes I'll be your friend Tacenui Mae is maybe the only built from scratch Tanenui/Tiki hybrid which Hanneke is referring it can be done. My Tanenui hulls have had their freeboard raised which in turn gives bigger wider internal volume and adds length, my boat is 29 feet or almost 9 metres in length. Her original builder grafted Tiki style fore / cabin tops/ after decks exactly mirroring a Tiki 30 he had made a heavy duty aluminium tube at the bows which supports a central wooden walk on gangway and bow anchor roller, a netting is attached to this alloy cross tube beam between hull decks this holds the anchor and coiled chain/rope. She had just two main GRP Tiki 26 beams which whilst technically strong enough almost one third of after hulls had no beam support the last owner engineered a major upgrade key to this was two additional wooden cross beams one in between the alloy bow beam and first GRP main beam this beam also supports the Tiki style alloy mast she has wing main sail, the other wooden beam is about 3 feet forward from the rudder posts Hanneke sent me drawings for replacing the beam lashings but I ignored this idea and went for ratchet straps they are cheap very strong and most importantly easily tightened (impossible with lashings) Many Tiki 30's have ratchet straps. In addition to the wooden beams the previous owner built a large between hulls below deck locker this is between first wooden beam and the mast bearing GRP beam it is very useful and still I gives 2 ft plus wave clearance it does'nt slam at all. Between GRP beam 2 and after wooden beam a helmsmans cockpit has been built this has a Cuddy to protect from spray and houses instruments and engine controls outboard motor is mounted in front of helmsmans cuddy and is protected by freestanding engine box which doubles as cockpit table. Half moon shaped blisters have been added to both cabin tops they give full standing headroom in each hull yet look unobtrusive she is a much admired boat, her beam by the way is 15 ft . The Tanenui classic hull construction is too heavy as a trailer sailer mine weighs just over 2 tons a Tiki 30 is probably half that. Also I wouldn't bother with rope lashings for rigging stays stainless steel bottlecrews are much easier to tension properly . Hope this helps good luck Richard David

Hi Allen, I don't have any photos yet but will try on this I pad next time I'm in Exmouth (about twenty miles away) I'm guessing that Tacenui Mae's freeboard has been raised by around 5 or 6 inches this has increased her length and internal hull width. There was a standard Tanenui nearby which nobody believes is the basis of Tacenui Mae as that looks very small in comparison although both share the very sweet hull line. Incidentally, mine is currently on a boatyard beach right next to a Tiki 31 mine is at least 8" taller in the hulls and looks the bigger boat certainly has much bigger internal volume in the hulls.I don't know the reason why Tiki's have such little freeboard amidships (perhaps, it was to economise on sheets of plywood needed) I think ratchet straps are an essential improvement as with taller hulls the stresses on lashings at sea is much more than Tiki range, it is impossible for one person to tighten AND tie off lashings the last owner removed the ratchet straps and replaced with lashings, believe me on the delivery trip it was a bit scary how much the entire boat flexed the lashings became very loose and when at sea impossible to attend too wheras with ratchet straps it's simple to adjust tension. They are a very fast boat mine will sail for hours at over 13 knots . Good luck Richard

Hey friend :)