Wednesday, August 14 , 2019

The production and installation of the cover boards are proceeding smoothly.
Steadily, every day, long teak planks are sawn, adjusted and dry fitted to the ship.

Paul and other members of the team are setting out the heights for the main house sole, or floor. This has to be done carefully, as we will be using the original parts and the stairway.

Thursday, August 15 , 2019

Ian continues his piping work, which means working in the tightest corners and conditions.

Hashimoto continues his work on the cylindrical hatch. The new one will replicate the original, which was badly cracked, but without its iron fastenings.

Cleaning up the joins on the main deckhouse.

Ben continues to split his time between working on attaching the hardware to the mast and checking the condition of the engine system.

Friday, August 16 , 2019

The same three craftsmen continue with making the cover boards. All the teak planks have now been used.

Monday, August 19 , 2019

Work on the stairs (above) and the skylight (below) is ongoing, but varnish is being applied to keep it clean prior to installation. We’re in what is usually the hottest part of the summer but the days have cooled off a little. Some of the team were able to escape work over the weekend and enjoy a fireworks festival held nearby.

Tuesday, August 20 , 2019

(Above) Glue is mixed and spread along the deck edge to bond the cover board to the sub deck. This glue alone would be strong enough but we are also using bronze wood screws as this is the best way to hold the teak while the glue cures.

Hashimoto is stripping old shellac from a door frame with alcohol.

Wednesday, August 21 , 2019 

The coverboard is bonded to the sub-deck. Taping the stanchions helps keep the glue away from them as they will be varnished and dried glue will be difficult to remove.

Today, Lewis, Mattis and Richard are fitting the coverboards over the stanchions….

epair work on the interior fittings varies in size and materials. When new materials are necessary, teak is replaced with teak, mahogany with mahogany and poplar with poplar.

Wednesday, August 7 , 2019

Lewis and Richard began sanding the surface of the subdeck. Batons (long straight sticks that bend evenly) are used to check for high and low spots.

The floor has been fitted, though some panels will be lifted to access the pipe work when necessary. Stairs have been installed (below), which has improved access to the interior.

Chuck and Nat are winding the wire for the standing rigging. Chuck says that after 3 days, he needs a day spent on other work in order for his fingers to recover.

Monday August 12, 2019

The holes from the screws used to attach the subdeck were filled with epoxy this morning. After all the surfaces are smooth and even, the teak deck will be installed.

All the exposed edges of plywood, such as that for the circular sail locker hatch (top) are lined with teak which is epoxied in place. This prevents water penetrating into the end grain of the plywood. Plywood’s weakness is that water will travel in all directions as the grain in each layer of the plywood alternates at 90º.

Tuesday, August 13 , 2019 

Lewis, Richard, and Mattis are working on the coverboards. The teak for the coverboards is a valuable piece of wood about 7 meters long that was purchased last year, and Paul has been planning to use it for this since then.

Ian is working on the piping under the floor.

More interior walls, which are not in bad shape for their 90 years of age, but not quite good enough for restoration.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Preparing the interior floor, or sole, which will be laid in two phases. These 19mm plywood panels are cut, fitted and then painted before being installed. The painted side will face down toward the bilge so it can be kept clean and bright.

Sole bearers are the beams that support the flooring, and they are also painted. These are the bearers that span the tank area.

The subdeck (above) has been laid. The underside of the subdeck was lined with Canadian cedar to imitate a traditionally laid deck. The subdeck itself is 19mm plywood from Bruynzeel, Holland, which is one of the world’s best manufacturers of quality plywood. When the top layer of teak planking is laid, the deck will consist of three layers, resulting in a very strong structure.

The engineering-related parts have been grouped and labeled, prior to installment.

Friday, August 2, 2019

Mattis is installing the portholes.

Work on the inboard flooring continues. We had a meeting with a steelmaker today to discuss how to strap the tanks down using steel bands attached to the ship’s wooden frames and bearers that cary the tanks.

The priming of the bottom of the hull is done, and will eventually be painted red as before.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Hashimoto is repairing the window frames of the main deckhouse. Most of the original parts are of good quality and can be restored and used. The teak planking that forms the outer layer of the cabin top will be replaced, however—not because of rot or damage—but years of sanding has left the planking thin and uneven.

Mattis’ porthole restoration is proceeding. He’s working very methodically, making slight adjustments to make it perfect.

Tuesday, August 6 , 2019

Work on the piping has begun, and Paul was using a laser beam to establish datums for level and vertical measurements.

Ian started working on underfloor piping today.

The Japanese team members are removing paint from old walls to get a clear look at the panels and see if any were salvageable. It was decided that it would be better to build all new panels, which will give us the added advantage of making the panels to size and making any changes with having to adapt the original ones. The original frames were made of poplar so we’ll make the new ones of poplar too.

We discovered that the panels within the frames were made of Masonite, an early form of hardboard that was a precursor to modern MDF (medium density fiberboard) that was a brand new product when the boat was made in 1927. Amazingly, some of these panels are in good shape and could be used again, but we decided to replace them with panels made of Tricoya. Tricoya has the appearance of MDF, but it’s completely impervious to water as it’s flat and grainless. It’s also a brand new product, so we feel there’s a certain symmetry to the choice.

The completed subdeck can be seen in full (above).

Nat (above) is working on the rigging wires in the mast tent.

Monday, July 15, 2019

 We started preparing for laying the teak deck today. Cleaning the entire inside of the tent and inside the ship. We’ll install the sole, or floor, this week so that we can proceed with the electrical wiring work.

We changed the height of the scaffolding so that a worker on the scaffold would have the height of the deck at his waist to allow painting.

And work on the subdeck picked up the pace.

Mast fittings are drying after receiving a coat of paint.

The wires that support the mast have arrived and Nat’s preparing to start work on them.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Takamiya is talking to Nico and Lewis about their work on the subdeck.

The sole bearers have joints in them where fore and aft beams meet beams athwartship, or across the width of the boat. They are half laps and a router is used to remove material and then the corners are squared off with a chisel.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Stainless steel brackets were custom made to carry the hot water tanks in the engine room. This is where the fuel tanks were originally but they are now in the main bilge.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Almost all the teak that will be used for the deck planks has arrived from the UK. While work continued on the sub-deck, Paul went to check on the teak from a local source that will be used for the coverboard and king planks (wide boards that run along the centerline).

Mattis has been working on the sole bearers since yesterday with Kawashima.

At Matsui, a local lumberyard, we had the teak material we bought last year cut for coverboards, king planks, capping rails, washboards, bulwarks and more. While we were there, we cut several pieces. Depending on the grain of the timber and what was revealed during sawing, we would sometimes cut one piece of teak into two separate items. The machines that Matsui uses are very old but still working perfectly. Large sections are placed on an iron bed which runs on rails and drawn through a large bandsaw.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Nico sets out the king plank for the cedar deck lining.

Kawashima and more sole bearers.

Paul and Ben praised the work Hashimoto has done on the deckhouse.

Monday, July 8, 2019

There are two teams—Lewis and Nico, and Richard and Michael—working on the plywood subdeck. They’ve made a table on the deck where they can cut the sheets of plywood.

Chuck is also on the deck, making measurements for the masts and rigging.

Back in the engine room, with Richard.  We are now working with steelmakers to manufacture mounting platforms for the pumps. Everything is at an angle and must be fitted level.

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

A cedar lining is being bonded to the underside of the sub-deck to mimic the planking that would be visible if the deck was laid traditionally.

Work continues on the sole bearers. There are many of them and they all have to be level and at the correct height. The sole is level from the engine room to the main saloon where it changes to a slight angle and rises to the bow.

Ben and Ian are discussing the fairing and the centerline at the stem. The bobstay (the part of the rigging that counteracts the upward tension on the bowsprit) must be fitted dead center on the stem. So the fairing must be very carefully or the leading edge of the stem will not be at the center of the boat.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Lewis and Nico are applying a coat of undercoat to the cedar lining of the sub-deck, a task that is much easier done now than when it is the ceiling after installation. The tape is to keep paint off of the places where the sub-deck will be bonded to the beams.

Leo is preparing long boards for fairing the hull. He pastes sandpaper on a long thin boards, which other team members are using on the hull (below).

Thursday, July 11, 2019

The deck is seeing a constant parade of shipwrights, carpenters, engineers, and steelmakers working on various parts of the boat.

Paul engraved the words “CERTIFIED BOATSWAIN’S STORE. 98/100 TONS” on a sail locker beam, tracing the letters from the original carving.  The boatswain (today’s “bosun”) is responsible for the sails and the rigging.

Nat is in the mast workshop, painting mast fittings.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Nico and Lewis are still working on the cedar lining of the subdeck.

While Paul and Ian are discussing fairing the hood ends of the planking into the stern chock. The hood ends are where the ends of the hull planks run into the stem.

Cynara is definitely beginning to take shape.