January 9,2021

Cynara’s doors are all original and are being fitted back into their original frames. As the ship lost its shape over the years, doors sometimes stuck shut or refused to close. Those doors would then be cut or have their edges planed so they would still function. In some cases, the alterations were quite extreme. The door in the photo was missing a lot of material from the lock side, as it had been planed down to repair a distorted frame. To straighten this edge for the now square frame, the mortice lock needed to be fitted deeper into the door. This required slightly changing the position of the handle and key hole. Old mahogany salvaged from other parts were used and new holes cut in the correct position. The handle rose and escutcheon, when fitted, will cover most of the repair but using old mahogany means that there will be a good color match. In the end, the repair should not be too visible.

Wada applies a final coat of varnish to the deck tables

The end of the day, with Mt. Fuji on the horizon.

January 10,2021

Hashimoto installed flush ring pulls for lifting hatches in the passageway sole, allowing access to the bilge area.

January 11

Saito installed non-slip material to protect the tableware from rattling and getting scratched in the saloon cupboards.

Tatsumi was checking the cupboard doors in the galley.

The engine room bulkhead is exposed behind the main deck house steps, and teak is used to close the gap behind the steps. Paul is installing soundproofing in the space between to muffle any potential engine noise into the deck house. The sound proofing is hidden behind the steps that lead out to the deck.

January 4,2021

Kawashima is making final adjustments to the drawers under an aft cabin bunk.

Tatsumi and Hashimoto are working together to prepare the original guest cabin doors for refitting. Here they are making a pattern of the frame to check against the door in the workshop.

Pascal is examining the old frame of the rudder pointer at the helm, which is a brass frame with a Perspex cover. The frame was crudely made and asymmetrical. We decided that being such a great original feature in such a prominent position, it deserved better, so Pascal is making a new bronze frame with a glass cover.

January 6 ,2021                  

Paul started installing the door of the shower room, after hanging some vinyl to control the dust from spreading to the finished cabin.

Tatsumi and Pascal are working on the plumbing for the sink unit in the crew head.

January 7,2021

Wada and Koiwai are preparing the underside of the deck table for varnishing.

Kawashima and Tatsumi continue to install doors, which means cutting and fitting locks, keeps and handles for every cabin door. A real gale was blowing today, making it difficult to do detailed work as the ship pitched and rolled in the swell.

December 26,2020

Kawashima made this slatted floor for the shower room.

Paul is installing the gimballed dining table in the saloon. The base is all original, and has been restored. We desperately wanted to save the original table top, but unfortunately, the damage was beyond repairing. The new top exactly copied the original using some nicely figured mahogany. We had to remove some material from the underside to accommodate parts of the gimbal mechanism.

Wada, Koiwai and Saito are varnishing the steering gear box, while Koiwai is applying a coat of hard wax oil to the door threshold under the pocket door to the head.

December 27,2020

 Kawashima is checking the drawers and locks that fit under the beds. These are all original and have been carefully restored. New runners have been fitted, but the drawers don’t always fit perfectly into the 95-year-old frames, and need careful fitting.

Tatsumi is making a door for the washroom cabinet.

Hashimoto made a drawer for the aft starboard cabin. It’s for the cabinet at the bunk end.

The completed table in the saloon. The base of the table is secured to the sole with bolts that pass through the feet of the table base into metal plates inserted into the sole. The mahogany box hung below the table conceals around 40kg of lead, which lowers the center of gravity. When the yacht heels, the table stays level. The extra weight lower down adds resistance to that items on the table don’t affect the balance. The table can be locked in any position.

The painting team varnished the deck house top, leaving a mirror finish (below).

December 21,2020

Tatsumi is installing latches and handles on the pocket doors that connect the staterooms to the heads. The doors are only 30 millimeters thick, with only a few millimeters of clearance on each side, so the handles were difficult to find. That’s unusually thin for a door, particularly for a pocket door. We finally found these handles at Timmage Marine in the UK.

The painters and the joiners need good communication so that painting does not delay fitting and vice versa. To reach some of the narrow places, they have to cut the brush handles.

Some of the harbor staff came to help with polishing.

December 21,2020

Kawashima finished installing the drawers for the chests in each cabin. One of the units was original, three were newly built.

Hashimoto installed ball catches on the cupboard doors in the saloon.

Pascal is wrapping up the plumbing work for the toilets and sinks.

Tatsumi finished installing the opaque glass doors in the deckhouse. The doors allow access to the opening windows on the sides of the deck house, while allowing light and air into the cabins below. The glass allows light into the deck house interior while the opacity preserves privacy for the cabins.

Wada and Usui are varnishing the cupboards in the galley.

December 12

Hashimoto is fitting fiddles on a drawer unit in the starboard guest cabin.

Wada is putting another coat of varnish on one of the two deck tables. This is a job saved for rainy days or days when applying finish in Cynara’s interior can’t be done because of work being done there.

December 13

Hashimoto is making progress on the galley, with the frame for the microwave oven (below) ready to fit when the varnishing is finished.

In the captain’s cabin, Kawashima has finished with the hull lining, and is fitting wooden bungs to hide the screw holes.

Saito is doing touch-up varnish work on the prow.

December 16

Hashimoto has climbed into the hanging locker in the crew’s cabin to install the wooden trunking that will house the air conditioning pipe. A vent will be fitted in the locker top.

Kawashima has almost completed the chests of drawers in the aft cabins.

Each drawer needs a keep cut into the frame for the drawer lock.

Paul and Tatsumi are discussing the layout of the faucet handles in the crew quarter’s washroom. This small space will house a sink, a shower and a toilet, so every centimeter counts.

Fujita, one of the crew members, dropped by to help with the varnishing.

December 17

Sail Training

Weather: Cloudy

Wind conditions: West northwest 2-6 knots

Schedule: Preparation for sailing, Sail setting, Crew position training (8 crew), Sailing in low wind conditions with 7 sails, Tack training