A new plank on Hawila!

The first week of December, we began the planking process by moving all our timber over from our shipyard to the slipway and parallelly removing the old planks on port and starboard side. We quickly built scaffolding around the ship, set up the steam box and constructed a portable workshop tent. Starting with the bow, we removed nine planks on each side, some of which dated back to Hawila's original construction in 1935. Remarkably, much of this nearly 90-year-old timber still showed incredible strength. Meanwhile, we've been fairing the new frames installed during the 2022-2023 phase of the rebuild, and we are nearly done! The oak we are using was sustainably sourced from state-managed Danish forests in 2020 and 2021. After air drying at our shipyard for several years, it has now been moved to the slipway, ready to bring Hawila one step closer to being back in the water. In the coming months, we'll expand the planking work to the midship and aft sections, aiming to replace a total of 350 meters of planking, most of it below the waterline. After the removal of the planks, we had two teams work on each side on fairing the futtock frames. This is important for fitting the new plank in correctly and a real pleasure to work on new frame material. Niko then proceeded with templating the first plank on port side, while some more fairing was going on on starboard side. Then this week, our team gathered on a cold but beautiful, sunny day to put the first plank into our steam box. After 5 hours of steaming, the fibre was flexible enough for the plank to be put in in new place. This process requires good team coordination as we have to work fast before the wood has cooled down and hardened again. Everything worked out smoothly and the first plank found its place onto our hull. Again we are incredibly grateful for the help of Holbæk Gamle Havns Beddinger and our fantastic team of volunteers, who every day defy the Danish winter and give their utmost best! Video by Karoline Hill, www.karolinehill.com Music: Cumbia City - An Jone