June, 2017

This month Cynara was moved into the purpose-built shed for her restoration. She was jacked up on a cradle and railway tracks were built (above) that ran from her location approximately 90 meters across the marina into the shed. It took about one week to prepare the tracks, as there were a number of issues. The cradle had to be lengthened and strengthened. There was almost a one-meter drop between her location and the floor of the shed, so the tracks had to be laid level to prevent the boat from running away downhill.

The cradle was placed on bogies that rolled along the rails, and pulled by tifor winches (or come-alongs) on her trip to the shed. Including the time spent on relaying the rails to negotiate a dog-leg in the route, which was needed to get Cynara centered in the shed, it took over a week to make the journey.

Once inside, the first job was to set her down so that she was level, to plumb the boat and get the hull safely shored. The moving cradle was left in place for the moment, and paint removal started up again.

The passageway hatch in the middle of being dismantled. This ingenuous arrangement allows light into the passageway below and air into the cabins on either side. The hatch will be restored, although the stained-pine partition in the center will be remade in teak.

All of the hatches were removed after Cynara was inside the tent and there were no longer worries about rain entering the interior (though there were some minor leaking issues as first, as can be seen from the wet patches on the deck).

The deckhouse was the last to go. Instead of being dismantled in place, it was lifted whole from its location using chain blocks and tackles. All three of the shipwrights on hand, plus rigger Chuck—who happened to be around—got involved to ensure a safe journey from deck to the floor.

Nico Calderoni, an Italian shipwright who had recently joined the team from his base in Mallorca, removes some of the extraneous fittings from the deckhouse before it is moved to the joinery tent.

Earlier in the month, all the removable parts like locker doors, shelves and drawers (above) were removed, labeled and stored for later restoration.

In the aft starboard cabin (above) the paneling was removed to get a better view of the hull interior. In this configuration, the bunk was long enough to sleep two.  On the left is the riveted steel engine room bulkhead.

This bilge pump is original, and was still intact though unused, probably since electric pumps became available. It was operated by hand from the deck, using a leather plunger inside a copper tube to draw water out of the bilge and discharge it from the hull. There were two of these on Cynara. Also visible is the top of one of the two steel web frames that span the ship from port to starboard.

It was interesting to compare the carefully routed wiring from the original build (above) with the wiring that had been added in later refits (below).

The main mast hole was obviously in need of serious work.

The deck cleats are being labelled, catalogued and stored. They are original bronze cleats and will be restored as well as used to cast extras.

By the end of the month, the deck had been cleared, and areas of the hull had been scraped of paint. The bronze steering gear and quadrant has been removed and the rudder tube is being teased from its position by pulling it up through the deck (above).  It was particularly stubborn and required considerable force to get it moving after so many years in place, but it had to come out.

January, 2017

The proposal by the British shipwrights was accepted by Riviera CEO Noboru Watanabe. On January 23, Cynara was lifted from the bay waters off Seabornia Marina and placed on the dock in preparation for her restoration.

May 2017

The shipwrights arrived in April with their work caught out for them. The first job was to clear the interior. That meant everything from emptying the lockers and draining the bilge to emptying the tanks. Then began the deliberate and methodical dismantling, which required cataloguing every item that was removed.

The tent to house Cynara was still under construction, so the focus was on items that wouldn’t open her up to the elements—the rudder (above) for example, the capping rails and bulwarks (below) and the bowsprit (bottom).

For the moment, she was only being held up by timber and scaffold shores (above), and access was by ladder. Once indoors we could do a more complete job of buttressing her and getting to work on correcting the shape of her hull.

A crane was used to remove the Yanmar diesel engine, which was sent off for repair.

The interior parts, carefully marked and catalogued, were removed and placed under the finished tent while the boat was being readied to move into place.

November, December, 2016

In 2016, the ketch Cynara had reached the remarkable age of 89. Although she had a number of refits, fixes and “upgrades” over the years, she was definitely showing it. Though she was still afloat, she hadn’t sailed in some years.

Noboru Watanabe, CEO of the Riviera Group, asked the shipwrights Paul Harvey and Ben Hobbs, who were based in Mallorca, to inspect her inside and out, and put together a project plan for her restoration. If accepted, the restoration work would take place at Riviera’s Seabornia Marina on the coast of the Miura Peninsula, a short distance south of Tokyo.

From her bowsprit to her battered stern (below) the years had taken their toll.

A close look at the keel showed a distinct hog (above), meaning the fore and aft sections had begun to sag and the keel was no longer straight. The deckhouse (though) was in comparatively good shape, though plans showed that various changes had been made over the years, such as the addition of three portholes at the front.

The skylights on either side and the storage box were not on the original plans (an ice box went where the storage box is). These were added at a later date, possibly the 1950s, during a refit by Camper and Nicholsons, the shipyard that built her in 1927.

The teak at the stern was cracked and the cleats were lusterless. It was quite obvious that the rigging hadn’t been used for a long time.

The binnacle had clearly seen better days.

The masts and spars, too, had survived, but barely. A pronounced asymmetry was obvious with even a cursory glance (above), and the main boom end (below) had some serious rot issues.

The topmast had a large section that had rotted away that had been covered by a brass plate.

At some point in time, Cynara’s original hawse pipes had been replaced with bow rollers, probably in the 1960s. Replacing the hawse pipes, which may have corroded, would have been a difficult and expensive job, and the rollers were a quick and less expensive solution.

The interior had also suffered, but a close look revealed the potential of this project. There was much of value here. Despite the obvious issues—the grime and dust and battle scars—the interior was remarkably original and the furniture was in reasonable shape for its age.

Not much was salvageable from the crew’s cabin, though, which was a shambles. It was hard to imagine that this had once been in good enough condition to house the crew for weeks on end, as Cynara made her way from England across the Atlantic and the Pacific to Japan in 1972.

The galley looked great—state of the art, if you like the idea of being stuck in a 1950s family television sit-com.

The saloon’s once-classic appearance and the beauty of the original mahogany used in most of the interior was faintly visible behind the grime and dust and surface damage. The beautiful detail of the light fixtures (below) could also be seen if one could imagine them restored and polished to their former brilliance, and fitted with a proper lampshade.

Pity the captain who would be expected to bunk here.

The owner’s cabin had artwork on the walls (above) and a gold-painted mirror over the sink.

The heads, needless to say, were going to take some work.

The artwork over the bunk in the starboard aft guest cabin for two was pretty much the only thing in decent shape. There had been a lot of fresh water damage.

The graceful curves in the handrails of the stairway up to the deckhouse were elegant and clearly original. Each of the aft guest cabins had their own sink.

The Yanmar diesel engine in the engine room was of fairly recent lineage, but it would need to be sent out for an overhaul.

So that’s a quick tour of Cynara, above and below deck in December, 2016. While there was lots of potential, it was obvious that she would have to be dismantled and every piece looked at closely before decisions could be made on what was restorable and what was not. Mr. Watanabe asked the two British shipwrights, Paul and Ben, for a plan, with hopes that work could start as soon as possible the next year.