After being cut to specification, each frame futtock is dry fitted in position: the final adjustments can be made before the futtock is fastened to the other frame.

Before fastening, all future wood-to-wood contacts are painted with anti-fungal paint, and later coated with putty mix. This putty, also known as linseed oil putty mix- is a homemade blend of linoilkit, pine tar, linseed oil, and hemp fibers. The putty is used to smooth the irregularities remaining between new and old frame futtocks and also act as a strong anti-fungal agent.

To fasten the frames together we use treenails: a long wooden nail made of dry oak and wedged on each side. The concept with treenails is to use the expanding properties of the wood to fasten pieces together. We use well-seasoned timber with a moisture content below 14% to make treenails of 25,4mm (1 inch) diameter. We then hammer them into a 25mm drilled hole, and finish by wedging each end. By using green timber for framing, our treenail will expand to stabilise at a higher moisture content, ensuring additional friction (measured timber moisture content in Hawila’s bilge is stable at about 18-20%). This technic has been used traditionally as a reliable fastening on all kind of ships and construction and from our experience, presents a longer lasting fastening solution than galvanised bolts in oak.

To produce the treenails, rectangular lengths of 26x26mm are cut from well-seasoned oak planks, following the grain and avoiding knots and cracks. The wood pieces are then planed, thicknessed, and the edge of the square pieces are cut with our Felder table saw and a homemade jig. The treenails are rounded to 25,4mm using a drill with welded metal support and a Veritas 1″ tenon cutter cut at the end.

Before inserting the nail, we coat the holes with pine tar to lubricate the insertion and act as anti-fungi.The new futtocks are now ready to be faired!

In a wooden sailing ship, the apron nd astem deadwoods are often difficult to access. The stem is the part of the ship located at the very front, the “near vertical” continuation of the “horizontal” keel.

The stem on Hawila is composed of two pieces : the outerstem -the above water part- and the forefoot -the curved junction between the outerstem and the keel-. Inside the ship, the stem is reinforced by deadwood pieces and the apron right behind the stem. The role of this structure is to add strength to the stem and make the connection between the stem, the keel, the keelson and the frames. Frames are bolted to those pieces and often deadwoods have assemblies above and below the keelson, making them hard to remove without removing planking, frames and keelson.

Leif and Marvin, two german boat builders, came especially to help us with the rebuilding of the entire apron and modifying the stem assembly. The only piece we chose to keep, is the actual stem, which is in a very good state of preservation.

First, Leif and Marvin had to remove the metal casing covering the forward keel/forefoot and take off the bolts that were holding the deadwoods to the stem, keel and keelson. After cleaning the surface, they used plywood templates to mirror the shape of the future deadwoods and apron. In a similar way as for framing, they chose the timber showing the best grain direction, ensuring strength to the piece.

Pieces are cut, planed, and placed in position one by one, helped with tackles and blocks to ease the lift. Once fitted, we lift them again and use anti-fungal paint and pine tar at each wood to wood surface. To finish, the pieces are clamped firmly before being bolted with galvanised 20mm steel bars, threaded in each end by our local blacksmith. Later, when the keelson will be sandwiched with the last overlying knee, 24mm bars will be used to bolt the pieces to the keel. And finally we will carve a new rabbet all the way on the keel and the stem.

Hawila was built as a motor sailor in 1935, and in the 80’s was heavily refitted with a larger rigging and a big bowsprit. Today this whole assembly seems too weak to withstand the forces of the foresails, and the crew had noticed a slight and slow move aft of the stem and bowsprit over the years while sailing. As a result we chose to increase the sizes of the deadwoods and apron and add a large overlapping knee to add more strength to the all assembly. Later in the process, this knee will be incorporated into the forward impact bulkhead to ensure even more stability over the years and the seas to come…

Thank you Leif and Marvin for your amazing and efficient work !

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

After two weeks of holidays break, we are all back at the shipyard! The carpenters of the framing team started their work right away on the many frames that need to be replaced.

Our frames are made of several oak futtocks. On Hawila, some of the futtocks are still in good shape -even after 85 years of use- and some have been replaced more recently. Therefore, we replace the ones showing rot or structural damages due to many years of service.

One by one, the fastenings are removed and the futtocks are taken out. The old surfaces are cleaned and planned to welcome a template that will be used to represent the new futtock. The plywood template is placed against the remaining frame and cut at the right dimensions. All the necessary measurements for the new frame are written on this plywood template (angles, length of the piece, frame number, location in the ship etc).The template is then used to find a suitable piece of oak from our timber supply, we also check to ensure that we have the desired grain in the wood ensuring strength. We then can mark the contour of the frame as well as the edge angles on the fresh timber piece before cutting.

We use a chainsaw mounted on a jig allowing us to change slowly the cut angles along the frame cut line. The chainsaw jig was welded by Sam using scrap metal from the yard, inspired from the jigs utilized by the ships Ceiba and Tally Ho. The cutting process is done by a team of two: one pulling the jig and following the cut line, the other adjusting the angle along the way. After that, the final frame surface is planed more precisely in the workshop according to the same angles reported on the template. The piece is now ready to reach its place in the ship where final adjustments are made.

Next chapter coming up soon!

Today in Aarhus, the sailing ships Lovis and Hawila were dancing on the Baltic sea.
60 sailors from 14 countries in Europe have come here sailing from Lübeck and called for CLIMATE ACTION NOW.
See us again in Copenhagen the 12th of September: https://www.facebook.com/events/2182717788504337/
and Malmö the 14th!

From the 31st of August to the 14th of September 2019 Hawila will sail alongside the 34m german schooner Lovis. Onboard the two vessels, groups of environmental and climate activists from Germany, Poland, Sweden and Denmark working together in a project called Turning The Tide. We will set sail from Lübeck, heading first towards Århus, then Copenhagen, to finish in Malmö. Actions are being planned in each city around the theme of Climate Justice.

“Taking Hawila out of the water is like bringing a fish out of the ocean. She resists the crane, benefits from a push by the wind, to escape her cage. Is brought back, and finally surrenders to the metal teeth of the slip, to come up on land, inert.
We can then lay our curious eyes on her hidden face, masked by algae and other shells.

We spent 11 days on the slipway of Gilleleje, Hawila hoisted high up, enjoying this castle view over the whole fisherman town of North Sealand.

Only light work and inspection was planned this year, as we have saved up resources for a larger work effort, that should take place next year in the winter/spring with up to 3 months on the slipway. This year our ambition was to secure the vessel hull for navigating the Baltic, until October, as well as inspecting her to devise an accurate, large refit plan for the coming year.

Collectively, we were 15 people laboring away. The whole Hawila crew, aided by carpenters under the supervision of Yann, a shipwright from Brittany, France. Lots of caulking and small wood repairs were carried out. Additionally, more than a hundred copper plates were fastened to the hull. We held off on scheduled larger planking work for next year. We also enjoyed the opportunity of having her up, to fix our leaking gearbox shaft seal, and adding an experimental shaft sprocket, which will allow us to produce energy while sailing.

Now Hawila is back to her element, the bilges totally dry, the biggest reward for our efforts. Thanks to the great team, that worked continuously, we did more than I had planned, to a higher standard and for less resources, making this beauty’s hull ready for the coming summer!

Now we have sailed to Helsingør, to finish the work on the rig and above the water line on decks and cabins at the HAL16 workshop. By early June she should be ready to hoist the sails for another season!”

Captain Samuel

Join Hawila this summer for a 25 days round trip to Estonia from Copenhagen, departure the 28th of June 2018!

We will stop by Gotland for a festival week in Visby, before reaching Tallinn for the European Global Ecovillage Conference where we will host workshops. Hawila will then be back in Copenhagen latest the 21st of July.

Good ship, great food and beautiful people onboard!

Baltic Sailing Voyage to European Ecovillage Conference

Non-profit community sailing tour with Hawila crew: Copenhagen – Gotland – Tallinn – Copenhagen

28 JUNE – 21 JULY 2018

Summer 2018 Hawila will sail across the Baltic Sea starting from Copenhagen, stopping by Gotland and going all the way to Estonia where the European Global Ecovillage Conference will take place. We invite you to sail onboard Hawila and join the international group of enthusiasts from different communities, green and social initiatives. The voyage will take 25 people together with a professional crew and include a number of workshops, activities and knowledge exchange during the sailing.

Voyage

The sailing starts in Copenhagen, Denmark, comes to Swedish island of Gotland and continues to Tallinn, Estonia, stays there for a while during the Conference and goes back straight to Denmark. You can join the whole voyage or a part of it. The whole journey will last about 25 days, 28 June – 21 July. During the voyage the vessel will be propelled only by wind, so expected arrival and departure date may vary due to the weather conditions. We expect all participants to take some part in sailing routines and physical work.

On its way to Estonia, Hawila will stop in Visby, on the island of Gotland, for a couple of days to join the famous Almedalen week where we will host workshops and projections onboard. Hawila will then head towards Tallinn to bring most of the participants to the Ecovillages Conference.  The vessel will be docked in Tallinn for approximately 5-8 days before heading back to Copenhagen near the 14-16th of July.

Hawila

Hawila is a Norwegian 34 m long two-masted wooden ship, built in 1935. After its long and adventurous story the ship was left in disrepair in Copenhagen harbour. The Swedish state Maritime museum gave Hawila the status of cultural-historical value vessel in 2002. In 2014, Hawila was found by a group of friends and the vessel was donated to the newly created non-profit organization Hawila Project. After a large community-led refit Hawila it started to sail again in 2017.

Now Hawila Project wants to step out further and connect with other Baltic communities to share goods and cultures, exchange and learn from each other. The non-profit aims to involve children, and to educate them in the process of production (farming), processing (sailing) and distribution (community).

Almedalen Week In Visby
On the way to Estonia Hawila will stop for a couple of days on the beautiful island of Gotland which at that time will be hosting Almedalen Week (Almedalsveckan) which annually takes place on Gotland and brings many thousands of politically and socially involved people and activists.

The European Ecovillage Conference 2018
The final destination of the trip is European Ecovillage Conference 10-14th of July with over 500 of practitioners and researchers from ecovillages and sustainable communities.  There will be presentations, lectures, co-creation sessions, an Sustainable Technology Expo, dance, yoga and ceremonies, as well as a special programme celebrating Estonia ́s 100th anniversary. You are vety welcome to join the Conference too, for the application see the Conference website.

Organized by

Baltic Ecovillage Network

Hawila Project

NGO Relearn Suderbyn

Dear Hawila family, 

It has been a while since there has been any news from us. Finally, after 3 years of hard work and exploring a lot of unknowns we gleefully set sails with Hawila. The summer was a very big moment for us in the evolution in the project. We have been quiet these last months because we have been using this time to digest and appreciate the hard work and have some time for individual projects/life outside of Hawila. We would like to wish you all a happy new year and welcome you into this new year with a collage of video images, thoughts from us and reflections on the future of the project. Currently we are working on projects for this summer and a route for sailing. Thanks to who worked on the video and the music. Original music recorded on board Hawila!

Thanks to everyone for the hard work, support and commitment.