8 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016
the heel of the rudder. It juts nearly straight up in the air
along the sternpost and then once more curves gracefully
towards the transom. Almost 30m long, it resembles the
spine of a dinosaur. “The idea of this project was to
incorporate modern building methods into an otherwise
original boat. We chose Sippo mahogany, which is better
suited for this than the oak originally used. It is built up
of three layers, each 6cm thick and 40cm wide.”
After that the steel frames and floors are made and
attached to the keel. All in all there 100 of them, 50 each
to a side. The yard had the lines plan and used a CNC
machine to cut moulds out of flat pieces of wood with
the correct offsets for every single frame. The stainless
steel frames were bent using a standard angle profile. “It
was much more complicated than when we did the
frames for Sphinx as this grade of stainless steel is much
harder and does not bend so well. We are quite pleased
with the result, although you can see a few imperfections
and dents here and there. But that, shall we say, shows
that it is real handwork,” says Stich.
The art of bending these frames lies not just in
copying the template, but also in making sure the side of
the frame to which the planking is attached is perfectly
flat and fits snugly. It is a question of bending millimetre
by millimetre and constantly checking against the
template. Extremely time consuming, but worth the
effort. “In the end the biggest gaps were less than 1mm
and the overall fairness quite exceptional,” says Stich.
The only part that wasn’t hand-made at the yard, but
was laser-cut, were the two ring frames. One at the mastand one just behind the cockpit, where the runners exert
enormous pressure on the hull. These are the only parts
of the yacht that were delivered and not made there.PLANKING UP
Once the steel structure is in place, a few sections of
planking spread out over the hull are temporarily
attached. The steel frames are then marked, the planking
removed again and holes for the bolts drilled through the
steel frames. These sections are then fitted once more
permanently. The hull itself is made of two types of
mahogany. Sippo for the lower planking because its
density is higher than the Khaya that was used for the
topsides. It was also felt that Khaya was more beautiful
than Sippo. All in all 40m^3 of mahogany were used for
the hull and keel. The wood was supplied by Matthias
Wagner from WOB Timber GmbH in Hamburg where
they managed to secure two logs of excellent quality.
Now all the remaining 150 wooden frames are
attached. They are made of laminated full length ash
and are built up of six, 8mm laminates, giving a
thickness of 48mm x 38mm, exactly as specified by the
Rule. The longest of these is over 4.50 metres long!
The deck stringer and the bilge stringer are made of
Oregon Pine. They are one continuous length fitted in
one go and bent into place during the fitting by brute
force and a lot of clamps. This isn’t as difficult as it
sounds as the radius is quite mild and the 145mm x
60mm plank can be bent reasonably easily.
All these scantlings are the absolute minimum requiredAbove: the
stunning interior
has been kept
unfurnished.
Facing page,
from top: sailing
with scaled-up
6-M mast; 100
steel frames are
set; attaching
mahogany
planks; deck
beams in
Oregon pine