diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/vm-kind-smoke.yml b/.gitea/workflows/vm-kind-smoke.yml
index 3928846..188e28b 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/vm-kind-smoke.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/vm-kind-smoke.yml
@@ -150,5 +150,25 @@ jobs:
             exit "$status"
           }
           trap diagnose_and_cleanup EXIT
-          /tmp/kind create cluster --name smoke --wait 180s --retain
+          # Nested Kata + Docker + kind cold starts can take longer than
+          # kubeadm's one-minute API-call default even after the static pods
+          # have been accepted. Give the API server enough time to become
+          # responsive before kubeadm creates its initial RBAC objects.
+          cat >/tmp/kind-config.yml <<'EOF'
+          kind: Cluster
+          apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
+          nodes:
+            - role: control-plane
+              kubeadmConfigPatches:
+                - |
+                  apiVersion: kubeadm.k8s.io/v1beta4
+                  kind: InitConfiguration
+                  timeouts:
+                    kubernetesAPICall: 5m0s
+          EOF
+          /tmp/kind create cluster \
+            --name smoke \
+            --config /tmp/kind-config.yml \
+            --wait 300s \
+            --retain
           /tmp/kind get clusters | grep -Fx smoke