How do you balance a ship on a wall? Just ask David!

Peter had a grin on his face the whole time the crew was building the giant head a few weeks ago. Now that grin has been replaced by an even bigger smile as he begins work on the sailing ship which will protrude from the tower of the North Star suite. Guests who stay in this luxurious suite will sleep in the ornate stern of the ship.

The ship started as a concept drawing, then became a scale model (it was at this stage that we worked out many of the ornate details). Those steps were relatively easy and quick. However, it took a few tries before we sorted out the ship's engineering - apparently, safely balancing the full sized hull of a ship on top of a eight foot tall concrete wall is no easy task. Thankfully, our structural engineer, David Lee sorted out all of the math; imagine those calculations! It sure is good to have an engineer who gets what we do! 

With the design work safely behind us we have begun the actual construction of the ship. We first cut out the thick steel plates which will define the waterline of the ship. Above this line will be the walls of the ship and below will be the floor of the suite and the lower hull. At the moment however, the ship is upside down. There is a tremendous amount of fitting, cutting and welding in this stage. Everything has to one hand fit one piece at a time because each piece is unique to allow for the curved and tapering shape of the hull. Once this main structure is finished, we will hand forth body of the hull with a pencil rod armature. Then, we will hand sculpt the timbers and planks using fibreglass reinforced concrete. This is what guests will see. All of the carefully fit and welded steel structure will be hidden inside, never to be seen again.