MON TIKI Swims!
It was a perfect shirt-sleeve October day here in Montauk today. Even if MON TIKI had gone straight to the bottom I don’t think that could have ruined it. But MON TIKI didn’t sink. She swims! How nice is it to be on the water again!
The count-down to launching MON TIKI begins!
The surveyor was by today, impressed with the build, but a little puzzled at how to arrive at and justify a valuation. Insurance value is typically arrived at by looking at comparable boats, but MON TIKI is a one-of-a-kind vessel. But I’m sure he’ll get it sorted out. After all, he’s working for me (that’s…
Building Mon Tiki the Old Fashioned Way
by Kelly Ann Krieger The art involved in designing and building a seaworthy vessel is always impressive. But the skill it takes to build a seaworthy vessel completely by hand, using only natural, sustainable, eco-friendly materials, is rare and demonstrates an “old world” tradition matched with superior craftsmanship by today’s standards. It was a voyage…
Giving MON TIKI Her Mahogany Decks!
For me this deck is what makes MON TIKI special. At 38 feet and 8,500lbs displacement, MON TIKI is a relatively modest vessel. (For comparison, our previous boat, a Catalina 38 monohull, weighed in at just under 16,000lbs.) But there’s nothing modest about the nearly 300 square feet of deck space she boasts. MON TIKI’s…
Mon Tiki Sets Sail Soon
By Kitty Merrill The lightning strike provided the spark. Running a modest sailboat charter out of Montauk with his wife Amelia, David Ryan began to realize the market called for a larger vessel. His boat could carry six passengers and he was turning business away when disaster hit . . . in the form of…
MON TIKI comes to Montauk!
Moving MON TIKI from our potato barn boat shop in Bridgehampton to the shipyard in Montauk Marine Basin took all of Thursday and most of Friday. But once we got there, and will the help of the yard crew and a fork lift, it only took a short while to get the akas dropped into…
Manufacturing Jobs
Wood and aluminum have similar strength to weight ratios. The greater thickness per given weight makes wood stiffer and more damage resistant in smaller scantlings. Aluminum is (with proper corrosion protection) lower maintenance and can be manufactured in longer lengths than are available in clear lumber. Both wood and aluminum can be machined with ordinary…
Moving Day!
Today was moving day at the boat shop: This is the port hull getting strapped onto its dollies: We made a plywood railroad: One hull completely out of the barn (my wife was pressed into service for the move): Both hulls roughly positioned: Happy skipper: On technology, a reminder: Mon Tiki is the first lashed-hulled…
Getting Closer!
Last week we got the hulls up on dollies, and then got the hulls far enough apart to dry-fit the akas. This boat is going to be big!
Four Weeks of Boat-Building in Four Minutes
March in the boat-shop in a four minute slideshow, narrated by Captain David Ryan: