Hawila was built in 1935 as a coastal sailing cargo vessel, planked in 50mm oak with length up to 6m. Planks were fastened using treenails going through the frame and wedged on both sides, the seams were then caulked with hemp, and later filled with pitch.
The last month we replaced more than 260m of the old Hawila’s planks, some of them in still good shape of preservation and still holding strong to their treenails! On those oak planks we replaced, we chose to increase plank thickness from 50mm to 65mm, with length of 11 to 14m, this in order to add more strength and durability to the vessel. The Danish oak we used was planted 200 years ago, and air dried outside for 2 years before being fastened to Hawila. In addition, we increased the thickness of the galbord to 85mm, nearly twice the original thickness.
In this short video, we present a sum-up of the processes used to replace a planks.
Stay tuned, more video will follow!