Malakii

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Malakii is a 1973 Morgan 302, a 30 foot sloop rigged fiberglass monohull sailboat. She's been around the block, but is pretty well built and should sail for many more years.

Some Specifications

Here's what she looked like when I purchased her in Guatemala in the fall of 2002.

Sail Inventory

When I purchased Malakii, she came with too many sails, and not enough sails. The main is in fair condition, and the #2 jib is a great general purpose sail for down here. So those two are the ones I use most of the time. Too many sails, because of limited room to store them. There's a #4 jib which is ill fitted, blown out, and too flimsy. There's an extra (old) main. (Correction, June 2004 -- I never spread it out until the next year to check it out. it is actually a big #1 genoa, but blown out.) Not enough, because she needs a big 150% genoa. She has a big light air spinnaker which I'm not sure how to fly by myself. Maybe next year I'll give it a whirl. There is a storm jib, but unfortunately it has to be shackled on at the bow, since some bozo former owner mounted the anchor winch on top of the sail track on the foredeck, and the car which is supposed to be at the aft end of the track to mount the storm jib is in front of the windlass. Another project for another day. What I really should do is get rid of all the headsails except the spinnaker and storm jib, and replace them with a 150% roller furling genoa. Fat chance...

Ground Tackle

When I purchased her, Malakii had four anchors:

The 15 lb CQR is inadequate, so I looked for a 30 lb Bruce or CQR. I couldn't find one, so finally bought big bertha, a 55 lb fisherman to use as a storm anchor. It's inconvenient as heck, but great for peace of mind in a blow. I'm still looking for a CQR to replace the small one I have.

I've also added an anchor for the dinghy, a 9 lb folding grappel with ten feet of 1/4" chain and 50 feet of 3/8" rode.

When all is said and done, I'd like Malakii's ground tackle to look like this:

Modifications

I did a number of modifications to the cockpit before setting off. Here's a photo of the current cockpit, although the wooden frame for the bimini is no longer there. Some of the changes I made include:

As well as fixing a zillion things such as leaks, cracked welds, faulty wiring, faulty plumbing, and worn or poorly spliced thimbles in the anchor rodes. I purchased a bunch of missing items like jerry jugs for diesel and dinghy gas, cargo nets for the vee berth, and missing cooking utensils.

I made a longer boat hook (the 4' one on the boat was rather comical), adjusted the halyards so they wouldn't continue to destroy the sheaves in the blocks at the base of the mast, and repaired the spare autopilot servo motor. I added stops to the traveler so the cars don't run off the end of the track. I moved the main sheet attachment point back on the boom to where it belongs. I also redid much of the wiring in the boat, ripping out some of the 110v volt stuff, ripping out unused dead wires, and putting in an additional fuse panel to replace individual switches. I tore out the old bilge blower which was needed for the original gas engine, but not for a diesel.

Finally, the night before I left Guatemala, I painted the registration numbers on the topsides forward.

There should be more photos here when I have time. But most of what she looks like now can be seen in the photos of the sailing trips with Brian and Bob and Ian and Trudy and Mel.


This page last updated on 2013-10-23.