Clockwise from left: that wonderful first coat of varnish over a perfectly prepared timber hull; the moment Ester was cradled ashore in northern Sweden after 74 years on the seabed; the extraordinary first sighting that greeted her rescuers watching onscreen from a remotely operated vehicle as Ester’s bows appear in the dim silty deep; while the shroud tangs on the mast have obviously corroded the mast hoops in bent wood remain in place; new wood blocks by Colin Frake in the UK, leather-covered to protect the varnishwork
the floating flying saucers of that late Victorian era had become mythical in our modern awareness. The odd naval archi- tect (I don’t mean that personally) might mention fin and bulbs and light displace- ment and allude to them in that ‘there’s- nothing-new-under-the-sun’ sense, and there is more online if you know where to look. Or even if you know to look. But there’s been nothing really, to jog our interest, ’til now. And Bo knows that’s why Ester is such
an important boat. Recreating her innova- tive design piece by piece, working out how the ideas of her design genius Gunnar Mellgren could be translated into the physical article – aided by the dimensions and composition of the all-but-dissolved boat herself: this is one of his life’s great achievements. And as he relates the serendipity of it he has the tone of the seer, as though this challenge was already written, for him to complete. I first came across his lovely light-but-
engaging awareness of the supernatural at that first Fife Regatta in 1998 where, not knowing me, he invited me sailing on Magda IV. Early in the first race he quietly put the gaff cutter through a head-to-wind (and tide) manoeuvre to round a buoy. It consternated those of us who were crewing that day. But Bo just looked up
cheerfully and remarked: ‘I think William Fife is here himself at the helm today.’ During the three-and-a-half-year restora-
tion of Ester Bo tried to tap into the think- ing of Gunnar Mellgren: ‘He was an undoubted genius. He was tank-testing hull designs in water tanks in the basement of his house before 1910. He only designed 30 or 40 boats; his main job was running the Swedish Match Company. ‘Of course it’s impossible to know
exactly how he came up with each aspect of Ester’s design, but I found myself realis- ing that every single thing in the boat is individually designed and thought out. You see it and think “OK, what was Mellgren thinking?” And as I got into the project I found myself growing into his head – to think the same way he was. It could take some time or it might be quite obvious but there is thought behind everything. ‘It’s all to do with maintaining strength
while saving weight. So with that guiding principle and often talking it through with the team, or reaching out to experts in industry, we discovered how he was able to do things.’ Last month we covered the hull. The
deck design is no less impressive… With a central king-plank and covering
boards there are just six deck planks across her 10ft 1in (3.08m) beam. They are just
15mm thick but around 19in (480mm) wide. Wider planks are stronger than thinner ones, according to Bo, who says the planks being cut directly from a tree have tremendous strength, plus this is how she was built. But they are so thin that without adequate support they would crack as soon as you start walking on them. When they began Ester’s restoration the
first job was fitting 30 new close-grain pine deck beams, shaped rather than steamed, which attached to the 30 steel ‘angle iron’ hull frames. After the hull was finished work on the deck began and the first job was to beef up the existing deck beams with another 30. These are 28mm wide and up to 48mm thick, tapered at both ends. Of course. This created a latitudinal lattice of
beams across the deck at 10in (254mm) centres. But Mellgren needed more support, so between the deck beams and the deck plank seams there is a 60mm-wide, 12mm- thick pine batten which is notched into the top of the deck beams. These run the length of the boat giving extra support where it is needed under the plank seams. The planks were all screwed in place
with each stainless steel screw going through the plank and batten into the beam itself. The three-way arrangement creates a deck that is lightweight but
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