planks with shark-liver oil
19th strake goes in
14th June 2009
Luca Belfioretti, Site Manager
It is getting very hot on the construction site now: in the last few weeks the temperature has reached 52C
We start work very early, often at 6am, and stop at 2pm, but it still gets very hot between 10am and 2pm. At the moment, we are very excited because the shell of Jewel of Muscat is nearly complete: we are now putting on the 19th strake. This means there are only two more strakes to go after that. Soon the planking will be finished and our boat will be a beautiful grown up lady. She is looking even more beautiful now because we are painting her with fish oil and she has a wonderful shine and a beautiful golden-brown colour.
But there is still much work to do on the ship. Before we put in the last 2 strakes we have to fit the beams in the hull to stiffen and make the hull shell really strong, and to support the decks. This will be difficult because these are big pieces of teak – their weight averages 200kg, depending of the length of course! Lifting them into place will take a lot of planning. Then we have to lift them in and out again several times while we make the fit just right.
In the meantime, we have to prepare the pillars in order to give more support to the beams. We need to finish the framing and we need set up the planks for the decks and prepare all the spars. But we are confident now – we have all learned so much about how to work with this wood since we started putting on the first strakes.