A test of patience – July 2023

Patience is required from everyone involved. Just a year ago, it looked as if MARABU would be handed over to its new owner on June 8, 2023 floating and in a festive ceremony. Now it wasn’t quite enough. But the date has been set and the celebrations will go ahead anyway. For the guests, the impressive ship in the shipyard hall seems to be even more exciting. They admire the underwater hull, pester the boatbuilders with questions, climb up to the “second floor” at deck level, explore the cabin from the inside and from the outside through the still open cabin roof. This gives them an insight into boatbuilding and MARABU that will hardly ever be seen again.

In the meantime, the middle layer of plywood has been almost completely laid on the substructure and the boat builders are working on the first teak strips for the decking. But why is it taking so long? After all, new builds of a comparable size are completed at the Martin shipyard in 1 – 2 years.

In the first phase between 2017 and 2018, master boatbuilder Axel worked largely alone on MARABU. Any further downtime would have further worsened the condition of the once proud yacht, so the restoration without an investor filled small gaps in the shipyard’s full order books. After a break in construction and the coronavirus pandemic, work resumed at the end of 2021 with a new owner and more staff.

However, a restoration requires much more attention from the boatbuilders than a new build. A great deal of dexterity is required to both dismantle and rebuild at the same time. Time and again, the hull has to be elaborately braced with new struts. Consistent climatic conditions such as temperature and humidity in the hall also play a decisive role. In winter, for example, heating elements close to the hull are turned down and those further away are heated more to ensure even heat distribution around the MARABU.

The effort and patience involved finally paid off. All load-bearing parts are now fully restored. Axel can proudly report to the astonished guests that the hull of MARABU is now exactly plumb and in the same “top shape” as when it was delivered to Abeking & Rasmussen in 1935.

Once the beam has been glued, the finishing touches have to be added. The new piece is inserted crosswise between the two sides of the hull. The frames of the future deck hatches must also be fitted between the deck beams in the same way. Further longitudinal struts provide additional stability, particularly in the area of the fittings.

Just like the hull, the deck should also be strong: the curves span evenly in all directions without “mountains” or “valleys”. This is checked again and again with millimeter precision using a straightedge.

Once the deck made of marine plywood has also been precisely fitted, Axel and his colleagues dismantle the entire construction in order to paint all the individual parts several times. Only after these seemingly endless individual steps have been completed can everything be finally put together.