THE RESTORATION OF THE CLASSIC WOODEN EX WORKBOAT – ARIANA (TE KAWAU) – PART ONE 

Last week we ran a story from Sven Wiig on his wooden vessel – ARIANA, previously named GLENROWAN and TE KAWAU. Sven was looking for any intel on her past , as he undertook a rather epic restoration project. As I always do I asked for some regular updates and photos – well on Saturday the email inbox started to groan when Sven’s email arrived. Slightly different format today, but it suits the story – as told by the man himself.

THE NEW DECK

In May 2020 we bought ‘Ariana’. We knew she needed some work, there were obviously rotten bits here and there and the deck seemed a bit spongy in places but looking inside all seemed pretty sound and she had a brand new engine. How can we go wrong? The owner made me an offer I couldn’t refuse as he said he thought I was the right person to take her on and he wanted me to have her. So we bought her and had her transported down to Wellington and the same truck then took our old boat ‘Primadonna’ up to our good friends in Auckland. 

Ariana arrives in Wellington

We enjoyed Ariana for a year just cruising the harbour and taking friends and family out for picnics. A year later I had a break in work and decided now is the time. Ariana was hauled out at Evans Bay I had six weeks before the next job and I was going to have the boat back in the water before I had to leave town. No problem pull the old ply up put some new ply down, easy. That didn’t go to plan. Pulling up the old ply revealed, compost. A bodged previous repair had been letting in fresh water for many years. I enlisted a friend to give me a hand and we kept digging. We discovered the entire deck structure, sheer clamp, carlins, cabin coamings and bulwarks were all rotten. At this point I made a panicked call to my brother Olaf who is a qualified boatbuilder and asked for advise. ‘No worries, you got this, one piece of timber at a time.’ My partner was less encouraging advising me that the only way forward involved a chainsaw and a skip bin. She was right. I seriously considered this option. Couldn’t do it, I had been entrusted with Ariana and I was going to save her. To encourage my madness Olaf came down from Auckland and gave me a hand to start laminating up the first section of sheer clamp. I continued demolishing pieces of the boat. In between I made new bits to try and keep spirts up. I pulled out the old fish hold, still under the rear deck, to discover ballast in the form of river stones and rusty railway iron. The pile of debris grew, less and less of Ariana remained.

My friend Bede discovering the extent of the rot.

Rotten wood and ballast.

Six weeks passed and I had to go back to work. I had some shear clamp and carlins in place and I had a destroyed boat. Several months passed while I was away working and I returned with new energy. Realising I was never going to get it done alone I convinced two clever friends to give me a hand. Pete, Marc and I started replacing deck structure, framed up and new front cabin and replaced  planking where the rot extended into the top planks. Broken ribs were sistered with laminated white oak and riveted in place. We were making some good progress…

Front cabin framing underway.

Fiddly time consuming work.

New deck beams installed. 

Then the budget ran out and work ground to a halt. Months passed with me only finding the odd weekend here and there to move the project forward. Slowly I finished the deck structure and created a small dog box extension to the wheelhouse, above the old fish hold. One day this will be a cabin for my son. A year had past and finally I could start laying some plywood for the new deck. A job I had optimistically thought I would be doing nine months earlier.

However before I could lay the ply at the stern I decided I had better investigate the lazarette hold. Something wasn’t right back there. I wasn’t to find the full extent of the un-rightness of this area for some time, more of that later. First was to chip out all the concrete that had been poured into the bilge. Several days of extremely unpleasant work later I had removed the concrete to reveal and section of keel or deadwood near the cutlass bearing that was all punky. Degraded by electrolysis. The anodes and bonding wires had taken a toll. I cut back the punky wood until I found good solid timber. Sealed it with epoxy and went looking for some more Kauri. Some large Kauri beams were sourced and a section of keel patched in with new floors. 

Last of the concrete.

Keel patch coming together.

Moving on I built a hatch for the lazurette and laid the last of the plywood. Fibreglass was laid. She finally had a deck again and another year had passed. Two years into a six week project and I was maybe half way finished.

To Be Continued………

THE WINNER OF YESTERDAYS DES TOWNSON QUIZ RE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL DESIGNS – IS KEN MULGREW WITH THE ANSWER 74. As recorded in the Brian Peet book – Des Townson A Sailing Legacy.