The Noka Under Construction

SELECT TECH DETAILS OF THE FIRST KODIAK CRUISER... SHOWN HERE UNDER CONSTRUCTION SEVERAL DECADES AGO...

Thanks to reader Chris Redman for finding and sending this photo of me standing on the deck of the first Kodiak Cruiser in Port Stanley, Ontario…

This stout Kodiak Cruiser ™ had a displacement of 15 long tons on a 33-foot LWL, a turtleback weather deck, with a bow well for sail and anchor handling, and a proper wheelhouse set over a water-tight, self-bailing well amidship.

Her hull-side portlights were fixed and built of bullet-proof 3/4” acrylic, with ventilation of her interior supplied by two centerline hatches and four 6” diameter, 15” high rotatable, water-trapped cowl vents (two forward, and two aft of the pilothouse. Those cowl vents brought in so much air that, even in a light breeze, they often had to be damped down using their internal mushroom vents, which also served as water-shedding baffles.

Her turtleback deck and careful placement of vents and hatches provided reserve positive stability past a 115-degree angle of heel.

A short bowsprit enabled her cutter rig to set a high-clew Yankee jib above her fore stays’l, which slightly overlapped her mast and produced, when properly trimmed, a powerful sail plan that helped make up for her relatively high displacement/length ratio. The jib could be handled from the bow well, which was surrounded by a hard railing. And the slightly overlapping forestays’l was self-tacking in most winds, without a club.

Her stayed mast was deck-mounted in a 4-foot high welded aluminum tabernacle that significantly stiffened it against Euler long-column deflection. At the same time, a full wishbone boom eliminated the need for a vang and guided the main down into a rope cradle, hung from the wishbone, as it was lowered.

Aft of the wheelhouse on deck, there was an outside control center, to which all the running lines ran. The port deck box housed a pair of 20-lb, remotely fail-safe controlled propane tanks for the galley stove.

The wheelhouse was set over a water-tight, self-bailing well — snug, but eminently workable. In the wheelhouse itself, the main deck formed a seat from which a line-of-sight out the windows was possible. A chart table/stowage box hinged down for use by the watch crew.

Belowdecks

Aft of the wheelhouse, she was arranged with a Great Cabin aft, which encompassed a large dining table with folding leaves and large settees port and starboard, set up two steps on a raised platform, under which was her Westerbeke 4-107 diesel propulsion engine. Thick sound and vibration insulation, full flexible mounting, and a two-stage water-lift muffling system kept the engine quiet enough to make the space habitable underway, even under power alone. (Outside, the engine was so quiet, when idling and maneuvering into a marina slip, that she frequently sent dock hands into panics, thinking her engine had died.)

Forward of the dining area to port (but still aft of the wheelhouse on her lower deck), there was a compact U-shaped galley with a microwave oven mounted over a pivoted three-burner propane-fired stove on one side, opposite a compact double sink. This galley was on the port side of her aft companionway steps. To starboard of those steps was a small but serviceable day head. And in the middle, next to the companionway steps, was an enameled, cast-iron fireplace/coal stove.

Forward of the wheelhouse, there was a pair of “twin” sleeping cabins, one to port, one to starboard, with a sole to deckhead compartment in between, which housed vertical fuel and water tanks with sufficient capacity for 1,800 n.m. (at 6 knots) under power in calm winds and seas.

A Yacht for All Reasons and All Seasons

My wife, Susan, and I spent more than seven years living and cruising aboard Noka. We sold her when we decided that it was time to raise a family, as she (Noka) was too much vessel for casual day — or even weekend — sailing. And we felt she (Noka) deserved more than sitting around tied to a dock.

Although selling her and moving on was, even in retrospect, the “right” thing to do, we miss her to this day. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, unlike with some of my other designs and builds, I lost touch after she left our dock in the command of her new owner. I am confident, however, that she served him as well as she served us.

— Phil Friedman

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