The tragic Iraqi invasion caused a setback in the progress of the Baghlah project. For many reasons, groundwork for the permanent berth of Al Hashemi-II could not be resumed until the second half of 1995.

It was estimated that about 3000 cu.m. (108000 cu.ft.) of wood would be need to build shape up Al Hashemi-II. In the beginning of 1996, Husain Marafie flew to Cameroon and Ivory Coast to arrange the collection of the exotic woods he had selected for the construction. To ensure the quality of wood, he chose to witness the felling of trees and arrangements for the consignment. For masts, yards and spars, Oregon pine logs were imported from USA.

Mohammed Al Maskati, Husain Marafie's long term friend and mentor, nicknamed 'Abu Mubarak', an exceptionally experienced seaman and nokhada, volunteered to assume the office of Project Advisor. A man in his eighties, Abu Mubarak remains as a prominent link between the age of sail and the modern Kuwait. His prolonged seafaring career resulted in a close acquaintance with the traditional shipwrights of Calicut, a wooden shipbuilding center on the Malabar coast of Southern India. It was his counsel that encouraged Husain Marafie to consider building the Mohammed-II, his maiden endeavor at Calicut. Abu Mubarak was Project Advisor to Marafie's two shipbuilding enterprises carried out at Calicut. He assisted Husain Marafie, to a great extent, in selecting the best qualified craftsmen to make his present dream a reality.

It was in 1985 that Husain Marafie started planning how to achieve his unique ambition of constructing a baghlah of an awesome size. His idea was to construct and berth the ship on land. 6000 sq.m. of land was reclaimed from the sea and leased from the Municipality in order to prepare a promontory concrete berth for Al Hashemi-II.

"Time and tide wait for no man", During the foundation works of Al Hashemi-II the workers had to literally depend on both, finding time between tides, since the work could be done only during ebb tides. Slowly and steadily the foundation in the sea progressed during the second half of the 80's. In the meantime, Marafie's days were busy as collected information about the baghlah. He also experimented with modern technology that could be applied in the baghlah yard; found suitable timber; accumulated experienced traditional shipwrights; established a smithy, foundry, lathe and workshops to shape and manufacture various components and accessories. Marafie's intensive involvement in the construction of his other two dhows, and the great amount of scholarship he had undertaken in the traditional maritime architecture, simply assisted him in this complex enterprise.

Master shipwright V.K.Narayanan hails from Beypore, a renowned traditional shipbuilding center in Kerala, South India. Having celebrated his golden jubilee career as a traditional timber shipbuilder, he also has the reputation as a successful helmsman for the construction of hundreds of dhows.