Shipwright Augusto Gerbasi reflects on the wet season in the shipyard in Costa Rica - where the wooden cargo schooner CEIBA is being built

This piece is solid Gaupinol (Hymenaea courabril, Jatoba) and will secure Ceiba’s anchor chain. This complicated piece of joinery is notched into the deadwoods and top deck beams. This piece was cut out over a year ago and has been sitting in the ship waiting to be put up!

Video: Raising the Samson Post

Cargo hatch openings were made using traditional timber frame joinery to ensure structural integrity during cargo loading and unloading. Removable floor timbers are used during loading and a watertight cover secures the lower cargo holds. This provides extra security for the cargo and more floor space for the upper cargo hold.

Gallery: Cargo Hatches

Tween deck beams support the interior floor of Ceiba. The floor divides the lower cargo holds from upper holds. They have been in progress for over a year and are now fully installed.

Video: Tween Deck Beams
Gallery: Tween Deck Beams

Fairing of the interior of the ship has been a continuous process for over a year. Interior fairing is important because it ensures the tightness of the interior planking. Having interior flooring not only gives strength to the entire ship but will be make moving cargo much easier.

Video: Fairing
Gallery: Fairing

Manu, a shipbuilder from Belgium, joined SAILCARGO in October 2020, and since then he has been an important member of the team responsible for raising, assembling and fairing the last stern half frames. Three months after and with almost all the frames in place, Manu gives us an insight into his days at the shipyard.

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After bringing all of the largest interior timbers inside the ship the last frames were installed. Once everything was inside we raised the stern half frames. These half frames are raised one side at a time and connected over the deadwood. Now that the framing is complete interior decks and planking can begin.

Video: Finishing Framing - An update on Past Works
Gallery: Finishing Framing

We have installed the bilge riders. We steamed the long pieces using a wood-fired low-pressure water boiler designed and constructed by Jeroen Visser from the Netherlands.

IG TV: Steam-Bending Bilge Riders

Shipbuilder Elly joined our team in October 2019 and has spent most of her time working on Ceiba’s framing stage and in the wood workshop. In this blog she explains the process of making coaks and trunnels after eleven months at the shipyard.

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This article is our “Introduction to Rigging”. Polish shipwright Artur is design the rigging for our vessel Ceiba and gives some insight into the first steps of this lengthy process.

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Photographer Jeremy Starn writes about his experience taking and sharing pictures at the shipyard. He talks about what it’s like to photograph in the tropics and at a jungle shipyard. Using a few photos as examples, he recalls stories of different images and how they came about.

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The deadwoods are the aftermost massive timbers that create the backbone portions of our ship Ceiba. They are strategically positioned in an interlocking pattern to offer support for the stern half frames, rudder, transom, and propellers. There are twelve deadwoods in total, counting the stern post knee.

Gallery: Stern Deadwoods

The keelson has been put up and bolted into place. The massive bolts hold the keelson, frames, and the keel together. Fastening the keelson included drilling and bolting thirty holes, one for every full frame.

The vertical elements at the stern of the ship, extending from keel to deck, will be installed shortly. With our strong team, we are able to hoist all of the pieces by hand, as we did with the stem. Keep an eye on our social media channels (Instagram is best!) to see live-content while the assembly is taking place.

Video: Raising the Stern Post
Gallery: The Stern Post

To properly build our ship, the order in which things are done is critical. This journal entry is aimed at giving you a deeper insight into what is happening in the weeks to come; complete with technical information, terms and diagrams.

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British/Mexican shipwright Pablo Cruz Gilmour dives into his experiences building Ceiba’s frames, working with a variety of local hardwoods and how they are sourced. Technical and informal, this post is full of all the hands-on information woodworkers are so eager to know.

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Just one year ago we laid Ceiba’s keel. It feels like yesterday, but the impressive size this ship has grown, and clearly shows the time that has passed since this day. We celebrated this day with a talent show inside of Ceiba and with a special video release.

Video: 2019 Year In Review

While we're far from being halfway through the whole Ceiba build, we have reached a symbolic halfway mark for the framing process. From now on the bevel of the next frames turn to the aft.

Blog: What a Good Week at the Yard
Video: Assembling Ceiba's Frames

Our projects founders, Lynx and Danielle, went on a special sourcing mission which took them all the way to Haida Gwaii, near Alaska. The reason that they traveled to this northern island was to meet with the people who will source the masts of Ceiba, and to see the forests and trees first-hand.

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