Sails of the centuries

Shipbuilder uses age-old techniques to make models of ancient wooden vessels

Cen Guohe is a fourth-generation shipbuilder. Since 1990, when his great-grandfather started Cen Family Shipbuilding Workshop, his family has specialized in traditional wooden sailing vessels.

The workshop, in Zhoushan, a city consisting of several islands off the coast of Zhejiang province, originally made fishing boats. Today, it is reviving old and local techniques by restoring ancient ships and making small- and large-scale replicas of historic vessels.

Cen, who studied shipbuilding as a child and is now director and chief designer for the family business, says building a classic sailing boat includes 47 complicated steps and requires high-level carpentry skills and artistic taste.

Among his clients is a British doctor, who in 2012 commissioned his team to craft a vessel based on an old-fashioned design that could be sailed around the globe.

After several rounds of discussions, they decided to make a working life-size replica of a typical ship in the fleet commanded by Zhang He, a Chinese admiral during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The vessel, 30.7-meter-long ship and weighing 300 metric tons, took four years and 10 million yuan ($1.5 million; 1.3 million euros) to complete.

1. Cen Guohe, right, with his father, Cen Quanfu. 2. A craftsman at Cen Family Shipbuilding Workshop draws up a blueprint for a scale model of a classic ship. If the model is successful, Cen says they will build a life-size version. 3. Every part of the ship, including the mast, deck and cabin, is scaled down to be a realistic replica. 4. Cen puts the finishing touches to a new model. Each model takes about two months to build. 5. An example of the intricate carving that can be found on the workshop's models. 7. The full-size replica of a ship from Zhang He's fleet, which took four years to complete. 8. The local museum in Zhoushan has a collection of more than 100 models made by Cen's family. Photos by Steven Shi / For China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 02/26/2016 page4)