06/11/2026
June 9th, 2026
Another year rolls over, it has been over a year since the passing of the late Captain Sinbad. This marks Meka IIs 59th birthday, a remarkable age for any boat!
A lot has happened in the last year so let's go over it -
Meka II was out of the water for over 6 months! The last time she was out for that long and longer was back in the 90s! She's currently at Bock Marine where Sinbads Grandson (Captain Christian) has been organizing himself and getting her to working order.
When she first came to Bock in June of 25', she had no inboard generator working, no engine working, when it rained, she tended to leak, and of course... LOTS OF ROT!
Christian and since scarfed in new quarter deck planks from where rot had taken over, replaced a massive chunk of the deckhouse and the stern quarter haus corner... and more!
When weather got chilly and outside work was getting harder to do, we started to switch to inside jobs. The biggest on the list - the Detroit 353 Diesel Engine. As previously stated, she wasn't running when Meka II came to Bock. We found that she wasn't getting air from an emergency valve being shut closed, we were suffocating her. We opened it and she came to life!
There was a small chance that Meka II might have had her engine taken out if we didn't find that problem, but we ran through the diagnostics and were able to fix the issue!
We went ahead and replaced the exhaust gasket, cleaned up the exhaust pipe and added new heat wrap around it. We took the exhaust manifold off incase we needed to take her out, and to look down the valves to see the shape they were in. Everything looked how it was suppose to!
With the engine taken care of, we move into march, the weather starts to feel better and Christian is able to work outside a little more. It's around this time the quarter deck planking is scarfed in. This includes white oak along with 4 layers of fiberglass, all faired down and painted over.
Christian then finishes projects that rolled over into this year, this includes the deckhouse and part of the gunmount. The gunmount was ALSO rotten!
By the end of April, Christian starts work on the cockpit, the cockpit was in bad shape, she had bits of rot, the plywood was starting to bubble, it was dirtier than anything, and... you guessed it, the storage compartments were staring to ROT! We dug out as much rot as we could but ultimately will have to be replaced at a later date. She's structurally fine and we stopped anymore water intruding. She has been epoxy coated inside, so all the dry rot turned hard and added additional strength. The layered 2 coats of flex seal to the entire inside of the compartment, this will help with water run off. (there is a hole towards the back of the compartments for water to escape).
The Helm and gear box was filled with epoxy where plywood had rotted/ delaminated. All sanded and faired and then coated with paint.
From May - Present (June) Meka II has been under a massive paint job, from the decks to the varnish... ALL needs going over. So far we have all the varnish done, the decks, boswain locker and paint locker, scuttlebutt (cooler), bow sprit, the forward mast, and the yards/yardarms painted. The sides are what we are currently working on, we have a work barge in the water to help us paint her topsides....
A lot has happened! A lot more needs to be done! But she's almost sea worthy once more! Hopefully in the coming weeks, we will begin sea trials.... Happy Birthday Meka II 🎉🎂⛵️
