May 21 to May 27, 2018

The deck house panels with the portholes have been removed, revealing more information on their past. We’re still investigating the deck house’s original appearance.

It’s time to give the new stem it’s first dry fit, to fill the gaping hole where the old one was removed.

It still needs the bevels and the boxes cut for the frame ends, but we needed to check if the overall shape was on track.

The hood ends (above) had to be prized apart to fit the stem into position.

The back section of the stem fits well. It still needs a nosing attached to complete the stem profile, but we were relieved to see how well it fits before going any further.

The stem is back on its frame and Ben is fine tuning the rolling bevel where the hood ends fit tightly against the stem.

Lewis Hockaday (above) and Nico Calderoni (below) work at one of the most complicated junctions on the boat. The top of the stern and the end of the horn timber is where the hull transitions into the rudder and continues out to create the counter. There are many curves converging here, and the futtocks are particularly difficult to fit.

May 13 to 19

English shipwright Jonathan Alcock started this week and got to work on restoring the main deck house. He is a talented designer, a great asset for a joiner.

The skylights on the side of the deck house were not original and were probably added in the 1950s. Their removal was the first step of the restoration.

Ben adds the last laminates to the stem section.

The web frames came in sections and the lower section in the bilge needed some remedial work. Sawamura and Paul (above) discuss the options, before deciding to replace this piece entirely.

The word in the workshop is that Jon (above) has the best job, as he doesn’t have to clamber about on scaffolding. Restoring the deckhouse is satisfying, but far from easy, however. It’s delicate work and the joinery must be accurate. The house was originally built without any glue and is only held with tenons and pegs. This made it strong, flexible, and restorable. If the joints had been glued, dismantling would have been impossible and much would have been lost.

The forward panel of the main deck house had portholes. These always looked out of place, and we soon discovered that they were added at some point. It would take some detective work to find the original arrangement.

The interior of the deck house roof was painted white and looked very tatty. Exploratory cleaning resulted in an exciting discovery: some very fine teak under the paint. Care was taken to remove the planking for stripping, cleaning and re-using.

Richard punches a fastener home (above). The heads of the bronze fasteners are given a couple wraps of oakum (below) and bedded in white lead when they are driven home.

May 7 to May 13, 2018

The first stage of the lamination of the stem . . .

. . . and more layers as the process continues.

Paul and Keiji are checking the fairness of the frames where they are boxed into the stem. We used ribbands and stiff batons to fair the back of the frames in preparation for the next strake.

Richard is drilling out some fasteners higher up on the hull. The rectangular hole to his right is where the engine exhaust exited the hull. The plank that filled this hole was the shortest plant possible and the shortest plank on the boat. It was clear that the exhaust port was changed at some point in the past, and the solution was to cut the old plank and fit a short piece. We were utterly amazed to find that there were no fastenings in the plank, so we gave it a sharp tug and out it came. It was held in position with only caulking and luck. It was at the water line, so someone had great faith in the caulking. And, to be fair, it had kept the water out. Needless to say, this practice is definitely not recommended and this is one plank that would be replaced.

Pascal is helping Ben with the stem laminations.

The glue is very sensitive to atmospheric conditions, so we installed a combined hydrometer and thermometer to monitor air moisture content and temperature.

We placed oil heaters below the jig to raise the ambient temperature. The gentle, dry heat produced by oil heaters are ideal for this type of work as they can be left running safely for long periods of time.

The main mast step has been soaked in linseed oil with red lead added, giving it this orange color. It is of English elm and almost unrecognizable lying upside down. The cut outs accommodate the shape of the boat, frames, floors and bevels, allowing it to fit snugly into the hull. We’re not sure if it’s original, since it would have to have been removed when the lower stem section was replaced in the past, but it’s likely so.

May 1 to May 5, 2018

These large pieces of iroko have been re-sawn at Matsui, a local lumber mill for use in the new stem section.

Ben is starting the laminating process for the stem section using the iroko with staggered scarph joints.

Keiji Kawashima is cutting some of the hundreds of bungs we’ll use from pieces of old teak decking (above and below). We tried to use as much of the old decking as possible for minimum waste.