My first contact with TIKIMATA was – what else – trough the internet. Some years ago I bougt the TIKI 38 plan number 44 from Mr. Bobrezky in Austria after having finished several Wharrams. My first one was the HITIA 17, followed by a TIKI 26 and finally a MELANESIA. So the TIKI 38 should be my final boat, my "Everest".

To get some information about this new designed boat I tried to get in contact with other 38 builders. I used the PCA yearbook to find out some folks building nearby. And I was successful! Among others I got in contact with Jürgen Roy from Augsburg, Germany. When he launched his boat named TIKIMATA I fetched the oppoprtunity to see a rady built TIKI 38 and drove to Isola/Slovenia to assist the launching. At this opportunity I made a little video abou this event. And I was very impressed how big a project like TIKIMATA is! Till to that time I had made the crossbeams, the masts and gaffs and the tillers. Jürgen made some changes, to the rigg, to the cabin roof etc. which caused a broken main mast a few miles away from Isola! ( he had used stiff metal rigging screws instead of flexible lashings and had put another pair of shrouds fixed in front of the mast not considering the possible movements of the two hulls)

I did not hesitate to sell him my new masts, sent them down to Italy to STELLA MARINA, where he had stopped for the repair. It was a pitty, that Jürgen did not alter the rigging that time (we were not sure if that was the reason that time), so a second broken Mast near Sicily/Italy was the result. 25 kts of wind, the mast started to oscilate till he broke. In a boat yard for wooden boats the mast was mended, the tabernacle got a dolphin stay underneath to make it stiffer for the vertical pressure of the mast who had broken it, puched trough!

Jürgen continued in autumn 2001 his planned jump to the Caribbean Islands when faith hit him again. But let tell the story himself with his own words:

(From a letter I received afterwards)

"…..because I wanted to leave the Mediterranean Sea in October by all means, I had to lie in to wait for better weather all the time to make some miles westwards. For at that time there was bad weather in the whole western Med. Mostly westerly winds. The tacking ability of Tikimata is too poor to make enough miles close hauled. Therefor I had to make some long day- and – night legs, which worked well and let me make good milage.

But on 10^th of October short after midnight a heavy thunderstorm hit me at CABO de GATA (SE corner of Spain, close to Almeria). Gusts up to 60 KTS and gigantic waves (no warning in the weather forecast)! I was just able to tear down the rest of the sails, before I outrode the gale going 7-8 KTS with no cm² of sails! Thanks god the gale blew me away from the rocky coast, so I did not have to use my sea anchor. This "dancing of the wiches" lasted for about four hours.

At sunrise I entered the harbour of Almeria, where people told me, that it had been the worst storm for years! There many rigg-damages occurred in the marina and there had been many "mayday" calls and distress casas from out on the sea. TIKIMATA herself was completely unharmed which made me rather courageous. After Michael from Augsburg had come to Almeria to join me on the way to the Canaries, I changed all shrouds to 6 mm wire with eyes and changed the rigging screws to lashings to be on the save side: I did not trust the terminals and the rigging screws any more.

After the forecast showed easterly winds for the next three days we made the 140 SM jump to GIBRALTAR in one rush. With easy to moderate wind TIKIMATA sailed phantastic!

On 18^th of October in the first daylight we left GIBRALTAR to use the tidal current and the rest of the easterly wind to pass the strait. But neither Wind nor current were as predicted, so we had to use the engine an passed trough till lunchtime.

Out on the ATLANTIC there also was a SW wind (force 6 –7) instead of the predicted and usual NW. With disgusting steep seas against the old swell. Nearly two days and two nights we had close hauled courses in this head wind with much longer legs to the west than to the east to be far enough off the MOROCCAN coast in case the wind changes to west. It was an extremely wet sailing and we had no dry pice of cloth any more and felt terrible cold. The steep and high waves hit against the rudders sideways so hard, that the starboard tiller broke during the night. The ship itself kept on going the course selfsteering so good, as if it had a windsteering device. We asked each other why we had sailed the whole time steering or going with the autohelm before all the time!

On the 20^th of October at sunrise wind and waves calmed down a little bit and we could fix the tiller with a "splint" of metal bolted to the tiller and lashed with rope. Than we turned dirctly SW, using the engine and the sails to escape the bad weather zone as fast as possible. All the time the weather report from the Canaries reported NW winds force 5-6 !!!

We were cruising at a wind speed of around 20 KTS, jib and two reefs in the main and mizzen plus the engine. I retreated to my hull to have a rest. Michael on the helm did not understand what happened when a squall with about 40 KTS break the front mast (third time!!!) - he had no more time to furl the jib nor to let down the mainsail. We were able to recover everything exept the lower part of the mast, for all shrouds were undamaged. All that happened about 100 SM SW of GIBRALTAR . Only using the mizzen sail with two reefs we were able to reach GIBRALTAR in about 15 hours! We passed the strait with the tidal current in the morning and entered the very snobby and expensive marina of SOTTOGRANDE on October 21^st at 11 o´clock.

Clearing up the deck we found out, that the dolfine stay of the tabernacle did a very good job, it was only turned sideways. There had been no other damages.

The reason for the desaster for sure was a silly coincidence of several factors - we will for sure discuss this very intensive.

The Mediterran Sea in the mean time was flat like a mirror and there was no wind – we used the engine for the next 3 days along the whole COSTA DEL SOL with its overcrowded marinas till we found a berth in ALMERIA for the Winter at last ( around € 200 a month!) ……

So far Jürgens report. So it came that he offered me his ship for a price, where I could not say no. Together we built a new mast and tiller during the winter, this time from Hemlock, wider and thicker than in the plans. 150mm diameter/ 35mm . Albin Glaser (building a TKI 38) from Germany draw the construction plan. He, Peter Weigel (bought my TIKI 26 Papalgi, from Germany) and Jürgen, accompained by Helmut Rieder and Reinhold Schroeder (both Tiki 26 owners from Austria) went to Almeria in spring 2002 with a VW bus and the mast and repair material on the trailer. They "retro-built" the rigg according to plans (almost) and sailed the boat to CORFU. In the marina of GOUVIA it got a berth besides James Wharrams SPIRIT OF GAIA, where I took it over from Jürgen.

The parts I had already made for my project I offered to other builders via er.mail- addresses from the PCA yearbook. Beams, gaffs and tillers went to New Mexico /USA.(!) the standing rigg and some blocks went to Ireland, the plan went to an Austrian, who starts.

I had a beautiful sailing over the summer in the Ionian sea, not without minor troubles and little working here and there. For the winter TIKIMATA is in Cleopatra marina / PREVEZA, Greece, where some changes and repairs have to be done. The lashings of the rudder plates got loose, a indoor toilet and a waste water tank has to be installed, some paint worke has to be done and I want to make a stern ramp….

Because TIKIMATA was built in three (!) years, there must be some renovation done, for Juergen built in a real hurry. Some of the solutions such as the cockpit seats (the engine compartment covers) were finished by him provisional first. Though the structural work was done very carefully and made to confide in. The steering position cabin turned out to be very usefull in wet conditions both sailing or anchoring. It makes TIKIMATA look a little like a trawler and the big window aerea on both sides of the ship a little bit like a sightseeing boat. I will see to change the layout a little bit.

The technical equipment is more than complet. Not to say not Wharram – like:

2 outboard engines Suzuki 4-stroke (DF 15 ARL) - (rather sensitive things that need a lot of care) . Some of the parts are made really not sturdy enough for the everyday use. E.g. there are small nylon or plastic angles that connect the remote control wires with the gear lever. Both broke in the last two years during the use. And that is not funny as it may listen. Imagine you on the bridge trying to stop the ship approaching the quay – you shift the gear lever to the reverse position and further to the full throttle position but the ship does not stop. On the contrary – it accelerates foreward! One needs at least a minute to perceive what may be wrong.

There is a windgenerator (Air Marine 403) and two big solar paneels (Siemens Sunline MAP 100) which load one 240 Ah Gel-battery. With the energy from the alternators of the outboardes this is enough electricity to run a refrigerator (COOLMATIC 65/ Typ 8/VD) and the rest of the equipment without the need of a recharching from a wall socket from the land since launching!

The whole power management is done by a SOLARIX SIGMA 12/24V 20 Ah charger and monitored by a device called "DCC 4000 AH-counter" which tells me a) actual current (Volt)

b) the actual Amp. coming into or going out of the battery

c) the per cent of the actual battery capacity

further electronic equipment:

CLIPPER wind

Maghellan 310

Echo sounder Interphase "Probe"

Radar Simrad Anritsu LCD RA 772

Autohelm ST 4000

Freshwatermaker Power Surviver 40 E (not in use )

Radio: handheld TM 68