Category: Uncategorized
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La Sirena #29 – the Little Ship
La Sirena is a 1980 Rafiki 35, hull number 29 – is a traditional heavy-displacement, full-keel cruising sailboat designed by Canadian naval architect Stan Huntingford and built in Taiwan. She comes from a very different philosophy of yacht design from most modern production sailboats. The Rafiki 35 wasn’t designed primarily around marina accommodation, light-air speed…
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Ready – as it needs to be
Today I finally got La Sirena’s bilge pumps sorted— the last of the ‘critical jobs’ I’m very glad to cross off the list. There are two Johnson pumps aboard, rated at 900 and 2,200 gallons per hour. I rewired both pumps and their float switches, replacing one of the float switches along the way. Both…
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Inside La Sirena
1980 Rafiki 35 • Master equipment inventory • Updated October 2026 From the dock, La Sirena looks like a traditional cruising sailboat: teak decks, a sheltered cockpit, and a rig built around getting somewhere under sail. Below that familiar outline is a collection of systems that make her a home as well as a means…
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Rails, simple, maintenance
Another little job checked off the list today. I decided to use Epifanes high-gloss varnish to seal La Sirena’s toerails for the season. This definitely wasn’t a full restoration job — no stripping everything back to bare wood, hours of sanding and ten coats of varnish. That can wait. Instead, I gave the wood a…