Upgrades & improvements
Overview
Built in Finland by Fiskers AB and designed by Hans Groop; Finnsailers were designed for the North Sea. They were heavily constructed of solid fiberglass, with heavy longitudinal stringers and structural hull grid. Most were built as ketch rigs; however, Kashmir is one of the rare sloop rigs. As opposed to other Finnsailer models, the 34 sails well to windward. With her more contemporary underbody, fin keel, and partial skeg rudder, she moves well in light winds.

The Finnsailer 34 was one model of several motorsailers built by the Fiskars yard during the 70s. In the early 80’s Fiskars sold the molds for the 34s to Nauticat, and the boat was built as the Nauticat 340 for a few years. Production was discontinued around 1982.

Kashmir was completely refit and largely remodeled from 2004 to 2019. The aim was to make the boat easy to single hand, and to prepare her for northern latitude sailing. The big changes were the addition of the hardtop pilothouse (with gullwing doors), swim platform, and rearrangement of the galley and main salon. The boat was essentially stripped to the hull and rebuilt with all new systems and gear. Hayden Gozzard of the Gozzard brothers did the major fiberglass work. Many other marine professionals assisted with the boat systems and woodwork. No expense was spared to make Kashmir the world-class vessel she is today.

Boat Description
Kashmir is a centre cockpit cutter rigged sloop with a relatively high freeboard, wide beam and large displacement for her length. The layout is typical of Northern European boats of the era, such as Hallberg Rassy and Vindo. The aft cabin is accessed through the wide and deep centre cockpit. The engine is accessed through a large hatch in the cockpit sole, and/or by removing the companionway stairs. She has a proper engine room.

At the bottom of the companionway the galley is to port and the nav station is to starboard. Forward of the salon the head is located to starboard, a hanging locker to port and an offset double cabin is forward.

There is abundant storage in a forward sail locker and an aft lazarette. There are two long and deep cockpit lockers. Under the helmsman seat is the life raft storage, port and starboard there are two line bins recessed in the coamings and there is open fiddled storage on both sides of the cockpit dashboard. Under floor storage is available in the forward, aft, passageway and salon floors. There are continuous outboard lockers in the forward cabin and salon and hanging locker storage in the passageway opposite the head. The aft berths have storage below as does the salon and forward cabin.

The boat is distinguished by its deep center cockpit with a custom dashboard and binnacle, abundant storage and hard fiberglass pilothouse with glass windshield and complete canvas enclosure. Removable gull wing doors allow access to the cockpit port and starboard. Kashmir has a short 18” bowsprit and self tacking (removable) staysail; a feature well ahead of its time.

Kashmir sleeps 5, with potentially another berth in the cockpit on a port side infill panel; she has 6’1” headroom in the salon and 5’ 10” headroom in the pilothouse.

The galley has been rebuilt providing a secure ‘U’ shape. Counters are Corian with deep fiddles. There is abundant storage outboard, aft and below the counters and propane stove. There is both a Frigoboat top-loading water cooled condenser ‘Coastal Mk. II’ freezer, and an Isotherm front-loading refrigerator (12V with air cooled condenser). The double bowl sink has a soap dispenser, pressurized water and manual foot pumps for both sea water and fresh water.

There is a dedicated galley electrical sub panel with propane and refrigeration/freezer and lighting controls.
The head has a shower; Jabsco manual marine toilet which leads to a 35 gallon SS holding tank under the forward berth; single sink, Corian countertop, mirror and storage cabinet.  All black water goes into the holding tank. From there, effluent may be evacuated via a deck plate and pump out, or via a manual pump overboard. There is no Y valve.

Kashmir has a Refleks diesel heater which feeds fan coils through a glycol loop. The system can also be run off heat from the engine. Heat is supplied to all cabins including the pilothouse via ductwork. The heater is fed from a dedicated 2 ½ gallon fuel tank with sight gauge. There is a non electrical safety shut off valve fitted.

The electrical system has been completely renewed. There are two engine alternators (50 and 140 amp with Balmar 618 programable regulator) which charge the engine start battery and the 620 amp hr SOK lithium house bank (new 2023). 850 watts of solar are connected to Victron controllers. There is a dedicated high amperage panel that handles all large amperage loads (winches, windlass, house panel) and all charging sources. The house panel has 24 breakers. There is a dedicated always-on panel that handles bilge pumps and the stereo. All lighting is LED. The 110 volt system has a galvanic isolator (ProMariner 30 amp with remote readout), an 1,800 watt inverter (Xantrex PROsine with remote) connected to all the ships 110 volt system. There are two Victron battery chargers; one for the engine battery and one for the lithium house bank.

Kashmir has been set up for single-handed sailing. Halyards, sheets and reefing lines are led aft to banks of rope clutches to electric primary (46) winches and manual secondary winches (30). Anchoring is controlled from the cockpit with a chain counter. There is a complete set of Raymarine sailing instruments, 12” chart plotter, radar, Icom AIS and a 7” B&G forward sonar with chart plotter. Kashmir’s main has 3 reef points and an upgraded Tides mast track, 130% genoa and storm trysail from Kingston Sail Loft (2016). There is a recent oversized Harken furler. She also has a staysail and storm staysail and an anchoring riding sail. The autopilot is a Raymarine linear drive directly connected to the steering quadrant. There is an emergency steering tiller stored in the Port cockpit locker.

Hull and Deck
The original teak deck and balsa core was removed and replaced with new balsa core and marine plywood around the chain plates. New Kiwi Grip non skid was applied to new fiberglassed decks. The cockpit coaming was modified for the installation of electric winches. The rudder was opened and inspected and rebuilt. Chain plate knees were reinforced, and the chain plates inspected and reinstalled with new bolts. The keel bolts were inspected, tightened and coated against rust. The hull was stripped to bare fiberglass. There were no signs of blisters. Three layers of Kevlar were vacuum bagged to the hull from amidships forward, the hull was faired and four layers of Interprotect were applied along with three coats of Micron CSC (updated annually).

The forward anchor locker was modified and the anchor chain leads directly to a new chain locker below the forward berth, allowing for a new forward deck locker. A new lazarette at the stern deck was built (new Bowmar aluminum hatch) as was a new propane locker under the starboard cockpit coaming. New structural knees were built to support new Aikins and Hoyle davits. All hatches were replaced with new Lewmar hatches. Handrails were custom built for the pilothouse and new cleats and new stations and lifelines installed.

The bowsprit was removed and reinforced and a new swim platform constructed. The cockpit sole was rebuilt and two solid fiberglass standpipes added along with the existing two cockpit drains. All new thru hulls were installed. A new rub rail was installed, and the hull was professionally painted.
The interior was redone with new upholstery, headliner and lighting.