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After 33 days at sea, 135 miles east of Newport, winds 15-20.

Wow, well done is an understatement.

Rory finished and the following week turned around and sailed back to England

I have to get my Tiki 21 back in the water. The decks are completely gone and I'm agonizing over replacing them per design or trying to come up with some sort of trampoline.

My other boat is a beach cat and I really like trapolines.

Pete, do you think the required tramp tension would work well with the beam lashings on a Tiki? Solid decks are really nice for people who aren't used to cats.

No! I may have a way around that, but I'm no engineer and question my own

solution

.

As designed the deck components take up a lot of space when trailering, are prone to rot and a little on the heavy side.

Hence the quandry.

I know its expensive and a bit (perhaps very much) against the design philosophy, but what about using Airex or even honeycomb and glassing that both sides? Should come out lighter from about 6mm up IIRC. What's the thickness of the decking you have?
OTOH, if its all too prone to rot, perhaps the builder used substandard quality? ie non marine ply? Replacing that with proper material (drenched in epoxy, perhaps even sheathed) should help.

I bought the boat used and have no confidence that the decking was built to spec.

I will probably default to the builders specs and follow them scrupuluosly which requires epoxy/glass sheathing.

Another problem is related to the outboard motor cavitating. The bracket will either have to be lowered, moved from its aft position more to the center, or both.

I'd follow the designers spec too, just to be sure. For example Bruynzeel guarantees their material for twenty yeas, and that is without sheathing! A friend's mono hull was built out of that stuff, the boat recently celebrated its 50th birthday!

I'm not sure what I'd do with the outboard. I do not have enough experience to be able to help out there.

It's current position is a little too far aft, imo. The foot of the outboard strikes the rear cross bar so it can't be fully raised. Also, in any wave over two feet lifts the prop out of the water. The obvious thing is to move the mount a little more forward, which is what I will do.

A lot of Woods designs have an outboard

nacelle

as he calls it. No idea if Wharram has plans for those but maybe they are available? If not, perhaps send Richard Woods a note and he might send you some drawings to look at.

Hi all, We are Wharrams professional US builders. We typically will build our out board well int he center of the * as it allows for an installation with the motor at the correct elevation for minimal cavitation and still keep the motor head as far away from the spray as possible. On the first Tiki 30 we built the motor was mounted too low. It never cavitated but there was a lot of drive leg in the water and the motor head was constantly being douched. We recently replaced the motor with a slightly larger model with power tilt (way cool) and built a new motor mount and covering box. Noe it seems to be just prefect. The prop starts to cavitate but never quite does and the motor head is clear of the vast majority of splashes.
We build our * of Joubert okoume and/or Divinycell foam. We sheath both with fiberglass. If the beam attachments are properly built there is no problem attaching tramps.

Th above right photo is of our old motor box. Ther is storage uder the cushions for fuel,batteries, fenders,linesand rigging. The front locker has a provision for long stuff, boat hook, mop,fishing poles and spears.There is also a built in cooler under one cushion.
The left photo is of a slightly different **** built for a resort that uses it for day charters

That resort boat has got to be the most luxurious Tiki I have ever seen!