A New Aft Deck for the Swift

By: Sam Vaale, Operations Manager
This past summer was busy with work in full swing on the Pacific Swift’s afterdeck rebuild – a project that has been a long time in the making! A few years ago, many generous donors came together to fund the purchase of the necessary timber. Now that that timber has had time to dry out in our shop over the past few years, we have moved on to the next phase of this massive undertaking: replacing the aft deck. Keep reading to see how the project has been going!


June began with the construction of a shed over the aft half of the ship to completely enclose the structure being replaced. After the deck had been covered over, the initial removal of the hardware began and the original steel was sent off to the foundry for replacement in bronze.


The cap rails and bulkwarks were cleared off the deck to allow an uninhibited view of the sheer – the upper curve of the deck from bow to stern – and an initial view of the “fairness” of the deck before complete removal of all decking

and the aft cabin deckhouse. A fair line along the deck or hull of a boat is one that curves smoothly, with no odd bumps, hollows, or other abnormalities. This is important for ship construction because a fair line on deck will improve water shedding and minimize pooling, and a fair line along the hull makes for less resistance in the water. Determining a line which has these characteristics to build to was critical at this stage to create a smooth and uniform surface once the deck was completed.

Simultaneously, all of the engine room systems were dismantled to allow the structure around it to be completely renewed. After removing the deck, another round of checking the fairness (“fairing”) occurred and a plan was developed to allow us to maintain the shape of the boat while replacing the structure in a way that improved the strength and rigidity of the deck as a whole. This including replacing the original deck beams with single pieces, longitudinally bolting the structure to create more rigidity and using split ring fastenings to increase the sheer strength of the fastening at the end of the beams.


Piece by piece, old material was removed and new material replaced it; deck beams were fabricated at our shop from measurements taken once the deck was removed and then brought down to the boat and installed to maintain the shape of the vessel during the reconstruction.




The cockpit proved a big challenge as we redesigned the joinery and timber sizing to improve water shedding and create better structural support for the deck. As of this publishing (October 2021), the final full length deck beams have been installed and the fairing of the deck beams is beginning in preparation for the deck to be laid. All of the decking material is being prepared in the shop and will shortly be finding a new home on the afterdeck of the Pacific Swift, soon to be tread upon by hundreds of youth every year. Seeing this project move forward is very exciting, and we're grateful for the improvements we can make to allow for another 30 years of sail training to occur on board the Swift.


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