Description
Kainui has recently been recommissioned by Tyler Kellen in Maine, and has reached the Bahamas (March 2022) on her latest adventure. Here she is seen with her rig newly stepped and looking really beautiful after the extensive earlier rebuild by Steve Garrand.
Kainui was one of the earlier Cheoy Lee built Vertues to be delivered to the West Coast of the American continent. Arriving in British Columbia, she was sailed locally by her first owner, Brian Lowe. Bought by Peter Kinsey, she then made a series of long passages, totalling 13,000 miles, out into the south Pacific and back to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Her third owner, Russell Heath then sailed her around the greater part of the globe before stopping at Belfast, Maine, on the East Coast of the USA, where she remained……. until recently! She was beautifully and sensitively refitted in the ownership of Steve Garrand who replaced her old coachroof with a new, short, low one, similar to those of the pre-war Vertues.
Kainui ashore on the grid for a scrub and antifoul. Note kedge anchor ready but no propellor: this looks like a serious cruising sailboat. Under the new ownership of Russell Heath she was sailed 37,000 miles across the Pacific and Indian oceans, Mediterranean sea, and finally, westwards again, across the Atlantic to Maine on the east coast of the USA.
Kainui under way in her earlier days.
Kainui under construction at the Cheoy Lee Shipyard, Kowloon.
Kainui being delivered as deck cargo to her first home in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Specification
- Laurent Giles design No: 387
- Builder: Cheoy Lee, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
- Launch Date: 1960
- Hull Material: Teak on Ipol
- Deck: Canvas over ply
- Engine: Yes
- Ballast keel material: Iron
- Doghouse: Originally long but believed removed.
- Cockpit: Short
- Berths: Probably three
- Rig: Masthead bermudan sloop with inner forestay
- Mast: Sitka spruce
- Heads'ls: Genoa and jibs
- Backstay arrangement:
- Home Port:
- Current Owner: Tyler Kellen
- Contact details:
- Email address:
- Other comments: An extremely well-travelled Vertue with a long and varied history.