The Archimedes project in traditional boatbuilding

By ROBIN BAILEY

An email to Auckland website developer Bryce Taylor at Marinelink in 2001 was the first step in an unusual exercise in traditional boatbuilding.

The inquiry was from an international businessman and his wife who wanted a Chinese junk-rigged oceangoing cruiser in steel and timber.

Taylor did some thinking and recommended the Pine Harbour yard of Johnson Yachts International. He was familiar with the extent of boatbuilder Graham Johnson's work and the client couple took his advice. Early in the piece they also agreed to change to a more conventional - but equally traditional - gaff rig before the contract was signed.

The result is Archimedes, a 45ft (14.5m) double-ended gaff-rigged cutter with solid wooden masts and spars. The yacht was designed by American Jay Benford, a man with some unusual ideas who has built a big following in the United States.

The design brief included a stipulation that the yacht had to be able to survive a 360-degree rollover, as the maiden blue-water voyage is planned to be from New Zealand to England via Cape Horn.

The heavy-duty safety aspect is such that watertight bulkheads have been installed, so that if the hull is compromised that section of the yacht can be isolated.

Lots of specific and, in these days of composite construction materials, increasingly rare skills were needed for the Archimedes project.

Says Johnson: "Our job involved combining the most modern techniques with some from our maritime past. The hull, decks and pilothouse are built from computer-controlled plasma-cut steel.

"Then came the specific knowledge of plate rolling in forming the hull. For the wooden spars, and the design and construction of custom-cast bronze fittings and portholes, we went back to the past."

For another important feature of the yacht, Johnson is grateful to have been able to call on the services of National Maritime Museum ropework expert Wally Cook, who was responsible for the hundreds of complicated rope splices and feature knots around the vessel. His creations include the bowsprit netting that instantly brings to mind the age when sail was paramount.

Johnson came to the Archimedes project after a career that began in 1960 at Orams Marine in Whangarei, where he began his apprenticeship. Subsequently he worked on almost every type of yacht and commercial vessel in both steel and wood.

By the time Marinelink's Taylor entered the picture the boatbuilder had created a wide range of cruising yachts. These included a Herreshoff ketch, a catamaran or two from the board of Roger Hill, an Alan Wright displacement motor yacht, several Ganley steel yachts and a 57ft (17m) topsail schooner.

Johnson was ready for the challenge presented by Archimedes and the result is a yacht that meets both the design criteria and the clients' requirements. So much so that they are negotiating to commission a 65-footer (20m) in similarly traditional style from the Pine Harbour yard.


Johnson Yachts