Kuaka is a Jacobs Bros Lavranos 43. She was built in Cape Town in 1991 to a custom design by Angelo Lavranos. There are two sisterships – one built by Jacobs Bros (Infidien ex Southern Terrier) and a second built more recently in British Columbia (Barefoot).
Kuaka is a round-bilged aluminum boat, built with 5083 and 5086 aluminum between 4.5mm and 12mm thick. The crew at Jacobs Bros did an absolutely beautiful job building her, and various yards have done a nice job with weld repairs / upgrades (the dodger was added later). These include Howdy Bailey in VA and Goldstar Marine / ACI Boats in Port Townsend.
Over the past 3+ decades she has been through at least 5 owners and 4 names (Mykie V, Quicksticks, Silver Queen, Kuaka). We think that she likes being named Kuaka! It is the Maori name for the Bar Tailed Godwit- which (humans think) holds the record for the longest non-stop flight, about 8400 miles from Alaska to New Zealand.
We became the stewards of Kuaka in Homer, AK in the middle of the Covid pandemic. A fairly quick trip back to Seattle was a great way to learn the boat, and develop a list of project.
On the technical side… Kuaka is 43′ long, 13.5′ beam, and draws about 6.5′. Her design weight is 23,500 lbs and she actually weighs about 30,000 lbs. She is powered (when happy) by sails, but sometimes relies on a 57 hp Yanmar 4JH57 from 2018. Sail area with our current primary setup of working jib (on a furler), main and staysail is 980 square feet. We also carry a gennaker / code zero, a large asymmetrical spinnaker, a smaller staysail, a storm jib, and a storm trysail.
12 volt and 120 volt wiring diagram
network and instruments wiring diagram