Kaimiloa

“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....

Kaimiloa

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Published 01/08/2025

By Gilles Ruffet

Issue: 203

Published: oct. / nov. 2025

Discover this issue

Who: Nelly and Dominique, Annabelle & Anibal
Where: San Blas archipelago, Panama
Multihull: Wharram Tiki 38
Facebook: Kaimiloa Canoes

We spent a few weeks in paradise. Our journey began with a short stay in Panama City, just to recover from jet lag and acclimatize to the equatorial heat. We enjoyed our walks in the neo-colonial old town. We chose to stay in a small family guesthouse, a stone’s throw from the business district. As all good sailors should, we went to visit the new Panama Canal, with its locks designed to accommodate ships 51.25 meters (168 feet) wide, compared to the old canal’s 33 m (108 ft). Since we weren’t transiting the canal in our catamaran, we went to watch a few sailboats pass through, followed by a huge container ship in the lock. Then we headed for the San Blas archipelago. It was a bit of an adventure. First, we took a shared 4x4 taxi along a winding mountain road—fortunately, it had been “freshly” paved. When we reached the port—a simple jetty—we boarded a large pirogue powered by a powerful motor. The maritime adventure began: for two short hours, we crossed the archipelago at full speed.
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.