| Triton One Design Class |
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Designed by Carl Alberg, this solid fiberglass beauty is a perfect coastal cruiser. Just over 700 boats were built on the east and west coasts. Specifications: LOA - 28' 6" LWL - 20' 6" Beam - 8' 4" Draft - 4' Lead Ballast - 3000 lbs. Total Displacement - 6930 lbs. Sail Area - 371 sq. ft. Original Auxiliary Power - Universal Atomic 4 (30 h.p.) |
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Makai (formerly Sprig) Tracking Makai's history through old NTA newletters gave me just enough background information about her for me to record in my journal. In March 1974, the owner was from Santa Monica, California. Sprig placed 52nd out of 560 boats in the Ensenada Race. The following year, the boat took 6th place in the National Championship Race. The next owner was from Corvallis, Oregon, in April 1977. New owners, partners from Boulder Creek, California, had plans of sailing Sprig out the gate and south to Mexico. After expenses for new rigging, mast fittings, and the mast and boom painted they put her up for sale mid 1992. Sprig became my new home in September 1992. It took another six months before I could relocate from southern California to northern California to start work on her. Meanwhile, I joined the National Triton Association and TODSF, registering her new name, Makai, (Hawaiian meaning go to sea). Background I'm a Navy brat. I also worked for the U.S. Coast Guard for a year. I loved being around ships and sailors. I developed a longing for owning my own boat when I lived on the coast in southern California. When the market dropped and boats became more affordable (by my standards), my dream suddenly became reality. There is no better way to learn about boats than to purchase an old, solid fiberglass cruiser and attempt a complete refit. The Triton was perfect. Makai was built in Sausalito, California, in 1960 by Aero Marine. Much of her original design was retained. My focus was to upgrade for single-handing, safety, and offshore cruising. Several upgrades from the previous owner's included: better usage of space with lock-in drawers, a bookcase, and access to hard-to-get-at spaces. A sanity saver: "Keep it simple, stupid." Refit I started with the hull, since the boat had not been hauled out and professionally surveyed at the time of purchase. In January 1993, during the lunch hour long professional survey, I took my own notes of what needed to be replaced, and then spent the next few months ordering and purchasing the parts needed for the first haul out. In May, with the help of a friend and my son, we attempted to refit everything below the waterline over the weekend. All gate valves were replaced with ball valves, including new hoses. The head was torn out and those ball valves capped. The bottom was so clean that it only needed to be sanded, and one bottom coat rolled on. Makai has never had blisters in the years I've owned her. That allowed me to go for much longer periods between haul outs for bottom work. The interior took approximately two years to complete due to the long, wet winters. During the good weather months, much sanding, painting, varnishing, wiring, etc. were tackled. The custom work involved more time in fitting out the head, navigation area, ladder, cabin windows, curtain rods, handrails, and a wood case for my sewing machine. The winter months were exclusively spent sewing everything a boat needed, ranging from cushion covers, to general storage bags down below, to main sail and tiller covers on deck. All preparation and painting of the deck was performed at the dock. The duration of this project lasted one year. The deck was completely stripped except the spinnaker winch pads. The sanding, cleaning, and painting began. I selected Interlux LPU paint for its advertised do-it-yourself usage. I rolled two coats of primer to fill in porous areas. The only porous areas I found were on the cabin top aft corners. Not bad for such an old boat. Then I proceeded to clean the surface as directed. When the time came for the top coats, I selected to do the non-skid last. I used 3" and 6" rollers, always conscious of not overlapping the wet edge, as that caused runs. Then followed with foam and bristled brushes for feathering out the wet area. The non-skid was rolled on and not feathered out. I painted three top coats (white) on the smooth areas and two top coats (gray) on the non-skid. The newly painted deck was an impressive sight. I wanted the new stainless to be as good looking. Starting with metal fabrication Jeff and I worked on design configurations to compliment the boat and function with my physique (5'1") until we got it right. The job involved a custom pushpit, pulpit, stanchions, gates, and dodger with side and aft handrails. The rest of the hardware was standard equipment for sailing. New self-tailing winches, traveler, handrails, vang, double lifelines, chocks, cleats, vents, bow roller, anchors, sheet organizers, rope clutches, pad eyes, self-steering, sail tracks, dodger cover, compass, depth sounder, knot meter, outhaul, etc. were put into place, sometimes several times. It was not always a smooth installation. My goal for the second haul out in June 1996 was to have everything below the toe rail painted within 30 days. The use of a decent sander made the preparation a lot easier. However, my arms were sore from sanding which prevented me from driving my car for several days. Svendsen's Boat Yard did the actual spraying of the topsides (the easy part) and did a splendid job. Once dry, Makai, San Francisco, graced the transom. A new paddle wheel was installed once I reglassed and drilled a smaller hole for the new model. The thickness of the hull amazed me. The rudder was stripped down to the bare wood and sealed with penetrating epoxy. Once again, I sanded the bottom and put one coat of bottom paint on. Grateful to return to my berth again, away from the dust and noise, I immediately set to work on how I would run all lines aft, upgrade the mast, boom, rigging, and sails. In March 1997, Makai was towed to the mast dock to inspect the rigging and unstep the mast. Once the rigging was removed, I had the rig shop make up new rigging while I touched up small areas of corrosion and replaced all halyards and blocks. The boom was transformed, with the help of the machine shop from roller furling to a fixed gooseneck. I set up a separate forward and aft reefing system, removed and polished all stainless, put the new rigging on and mounted a mast step prior to restepping the mast. Meanwhile, my sailmaker was in the process of sewing a new main and working jib (90%) for bay sailing. I purchased a new diesel engine, Yanmar (18 h.p.) at the boat show. A friend I nicknamed "McGyver" and his father, both boatbuilders, spent countless days patiently guiding me through the tedious details of the entire installation process from beginning to end. My work began with removing the exhaust system, the Atomic 4, and finally the original engine beds. I made a template, using the specs from the Yanmar manual, to use for the alignment of the new beds and engine. By the way, "McGyver's" nickname changed to "butthead". Makai was hauled out in June 1998. Pulled the prop, pulled the shaft, and the template was clamped into place. This was a lot easier to do with the boat out of the water. Using solid oak, I measured, cut, shaped, and sanded the new bed to fit against the hull. "Butthead" did the fiberglassing of the bed, as well as glassing in two blocks I prepared for the exhaust system. Once that was dry, the yard delivered the engine via forklift, to the boat. A perfect fit! I dropped the prop off to be repitched. The yard installed a longer shaft and repacked the stuffing box. After 30 days of living in the yard it was time to head home. After the boat sat in the water for several weeks, the boatyard completed the alignment. I continued on with the exhaust system, fuel output, fuel intake, return fuel line, and water intake. Finally, in late October I had a "start your engine" party. Several glitches had to be worked out for the successful run of the engine beyond 15 minutes. I went out for Makai's first sail with friend a few days after the Farallon race. It was pretty wild that day and it made for some excitement. I realized I needed to make some more changes, but overall I was pretty happy. Patrice Riley is a freelance author and photographer and currently living in Baja, Mexico, aboard MAKAI. |
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