ONE OF A KIND
The second of our two-part series follows Mah Jong from her restoration to her maiden voyage, and the classic yawl sails every bit as good as she looks.
installed bilge stringers with long scarfs that ran from stem to sternpost. The work was painstaking and required moving backward and forward with a long batten to ensure the stringers landed solidly on each frame before being fastened in place. The result was the installation of members 50 feet long, passed through the end of the barn 20 feet off the ground and into the boat. With this accomplished, the installation of bulkheads and the interior ceiling over the frames went smoothly, and the interior started to take shape.
In the new interior, there were nine bunks, each with a modicum of privacy if not a true sense of personal space. At each bunk were shelves with fiddles, reading lights and discreet USB ports, plus as much room as possible for the personal devices we all schlep around to keep ourselves connected and happy.
The shelves, trim, moldings, cabinets, doors, drawers and any surface that was not to be painted were made from teak, although in this day and age finding yacht-quality teak is like looking for dodo eggs. The dismantled original boat became a rummage pile for finding teak stock. As six decades’ worth of varnish was removed from the original cabinet doors, small scenes of Chinese life appeared in pewter, engraved and inlayed into the teak panels. The images of Chinese junks, pagodas, fishermen with cane poles and characters of the Chinese alphabet were incorporated into the new cabinetry and doors. Hinge and latch mortises and screw holes were filled and planed. The original bronze latches and hinges were fished from the diesel baths, cleaned and reused. Nothing was wasted. If it wasn’t shavings and sawdust on the floor, it was screw-hole bung stock.
As the interior progressed, the plywood subdeck overhead was puzzled together. When the mosaic of scarphed panels had become one continuous surface, patterning and fabricating began for the covering boards that went over the beam ends at the sheer, all the way around the boat. This, too, was to be done in teak. Long pieces of thick, wide stock were needed so the curve of the rail could be cut to fit, as well as to complete the aft deck at the transom, where the covering board rolled up to the eventual height of the bulwarks that would support the caprail around the boat.
Decades ago, Gannon and a small collection of insightful woodenboat freaks had found the opportunity to purchase a sizable stock of high-quality teak, some of it in large dimensions. The pieces were stored in barns and lofts around the island. No better need would present itself than the restoration of Mah Jong, so Gannon searched out the stock needed for the heavy teak taffrails around the transom and covering boards. The pieces were fitted and joined, defining the deck at the sheer, and the large pieces were carefully carved around the aft deck and transom.
As the Mugwump shed’s large front doors were opened to allow the first tendrils of spring 2016 to slant in and over the winter’s work, Gannon took advantage of the natural light to lay out and cut the dovetails of the scuttle for the foredeck, the large hatch that would go amidships forward of the house and the butterfly hatch that would adorn the forward cabin house over the salon. Arched slide hatches were splined together over clamp molds. All of this, too, was awarded stock from the preserved island caches.
Ilderton had decided on teak decks, so new teak stock, measured and planed, arrived in long bundles. A layer of Bituthene membrane
was stretched and stuck down to the plywood subdeck. Some years ago, when Gannon was building his own yacht, he had used this modern miracle house-construction material under his own teak deck as an experimental improvisation to counter the age-old conundrum of leaky decks. In the seasons since, there had been no issues, so the technique was integrated into Mah Jong’s deck.
King planks were fastened down the centerline of the boat. Grubs and hatch bases were screwed under the spots where the cabin house and hatches would land. The decks were laid following the shape of the hull against the covering boards, from outermost to the center, until the deck was covered in teak. A new teak deck is a rare thing of beauty.
As another spring commissioning season bled into another sailing summer, the crew on Mah Jong expanded. There was wiring, plumbing and mechanical work, plus painters laying on coats in the lessaccessible places (before they became inaccessible). At times, there were as many as a dozen workers. Caulkers banged cotton into the seams. A crew glued and pounded wedge-shaped splines into the plank seams to be planed and faired. Visiting Norwegian seafaring friends worked out the anchor windlass and chain delivery into the locker, then mounted and installed the heavy bronze binnacle base that would house the steering and anchor the mainsheet and winch.
As the teak bulkheads were fabricated for the forward part of the cockpit and the after end of the house, Gannon laid out and cut the dovetails for the forward end of the house, where it joined the house side and ran full length along the cockpit to become the coaming that curved sweetly around on the aft deck forward of and incorporating the lazarette hatch.
Into the fall of 2016, the large timbers were framed, giving the rounded shape that transitioned from cabin sides to the top. This was done in angelique, as the timbers required were larger than anything in the teak stock. The joints were complex and visible. They had to be perfect. And they were. The cabin roof beams spanned the top with heavy framing to support the butterfly hatch. Then the cabin top was glassed over with a heavy mesh of Dynel. Finally, a heavy eyebrow trim was installed at the transition of the cabin sides and top.
The Change Order
By the end of winter 2016’s storage season, with the shop closed and the wood stove stoked for coffee breaks, Gannon and his family took off for a cruise to warmer climes. The major part of Mah Jong’s woodwork was completed, with final details and the punch list inevitably to come in a rush at the project’s end.
The crew handled remaining wiring and plumbing challenges, worked out the steering system and planned for the navigation systems and wiring for both masts. Wires were run for all the interior lights and USB ports. The engine was aligned and mounted, and the exhaust and electrical controls were connected. All this and more was wired into the AC/DC panel cabinet, mounted in the navigation area. It was a huge body of work.
On deck, the rail stanchions were laid out and installed, and a new bronze pushpit was fabricated. The original pulpit was still workable with a bit of modification. The stanchions were good, but the bases had to be modified (and in some cases reworked) to accommodate the new layout. Gannon & Benjamin’s bronze-welding