“We Sailed Aboard the Tiki 38 that we had Built 25 Years Earlier!”
In MW201, Nelly and Dominique gave us a detailed account of the various multihulls that they had built—five in total. Last spring, they set sail for a week aboard the largest of their creations, a Tiki 38, in the San Blas archipelago in Panama. Although its livery has changed, the boat remains the same. It was an emotional moment....
Image
Image
Image
Image
1
/
1
Publié le
31/07/2025
Par
Gilles Ruffet
Numéro :
203
Parution :
Oct.
/
Nov.
2025
Where: San Blas archipelago, Panama
Multihull: Wharram Tiki 38
Facebook: Kaimiloa Canoes
Every time we approached a sailboat, we scrutinized the rigging, the shape of the hulls, and the lines of the boats, but no, we hadn’t arrived yet. Until finally, downwind of an island that we were heading around, we saw her and recognized her straight away: with their sloping masts, Wharrams stand out from all the other boats. It could only be her. Of course, Kaimiloa had changed her colors: from the yellow of Eric de Bisschop’s boat, she had become blue, but she still had her red sails. They are still the original sails. 25 years old! What a thrill... We put so much love into building her and thousands of hours of work. Annabelle has owned her for a year; she runs a charter business in San Blas with her partner, Anibal, a native of Guatemala. Anibal knows everything about the forest and can spot a crocodile in a river: he showed us one, not too far away.
There is no fresh water on the San Blas Islands and no watermaker on board Kaimiloa, so this was where we had to fill up. The rainy season had just begun, but we are not too bothered by the precipitation—when it rains, it doesn’t really cool the air temperature. The water is 84°F (29°C). To be able to swim while protecting our skin, which is not used to the sun, we sought shade under the nacelle, between the two hulls. We met a Kuna family who come every year to spend a few months on their land. Here, the land belongs to the women, not the men. Some Kuna trade with boats, offering molas, bracelets, and lobsters, while others take orders one day and, after stocking up at the small supermarket, deliver to the sailboats the next day. As for school, pirogues provide transportation for the children.
We spent a few days sailing from island to island, both of us enjoying the pleasure of sailing aboard this multihull that we had created. In a few months, Annabelle will do a little refurbishment of Kaimiloa before a new charter season here in San Blas. She then plans to set sail for the Panama Canal, head up to the Sea of Cortez, before making her first big crossing of the Pacific Ocean, with Polynesia in her sights. We found ourselves dreaming of Tahiti. It was almost as though we hadn’t yet had our fill of sailing on this Wharram that we had built.
