Captain Bobby Returns-with answers.. and the Path forward

 This past Saturday, the 23d was another light Volunteer Day, not unexpected, due to the uncertainty in many minds regarding the immediate future of the Schooner. Absence of Ship's officers [ Capt Bobby off-cycle, and our new Mate, now departed likely not to return in favor of pursuing her academic goals] added to the uncertainty.

So it was refreshing, and encouraging as five Volunteers nevertheless mustered aboard Saturday morning on schedule. Focusing not so much on the questions, but what they could do to move the ball forward, Ken Fonville, Walter Barton, Lance Halderman, John Hart, and Mikell Evatt, gathered around Bryan Oliver who explained what he knew of the ship's situation, which wasn't much other than the schooner was in a "Pre-Shipyard" mode.  He then pulled out the Mate's punch list she had left in the Saloon.  Belaying Pins were all sanded, oiled and replaced in the rails last week.  A neatly piled stack of blocks, all sizes lay on the forecastle PFD deck box, waited to be sanded and scuffed-prepped for repainting.  

That was the the only challenge needed.  Without further direction, shipmates scattered to gather sanding blocks, papers and discs, divided up the stack and started scraping loose paint, smoothing off and scuffing the old paint to make them ready to take a fresh coat of paint. As each block was finished, it was relabeled and handed down below for consolidating into one berth for stowage. 

While Bryan frowned at the Punch list looking to prioritize it's remaining bits and pieces, the crew didn't wait but marched back up the gangway and gathered around "Dory", now cradled bottom-up in her own "limbo" status. Dory was waiting for hands to lay on a number of fixes to make her ready for launching again. Unfortunately, she had lain neglected for weeks after Volunteer Dallas Spencer had to step away from his initial successes using his skilled woodworking talents.   

As Bryan looked up, the group on the dock-minus Ken who needed to transition to another project back home,  were already at work, with scrapers and personal knives, scraping off month's old blue masking tape around the gunwales, once used to mask off the hull for rail varnishing.

Blue masking tape, several months old is notoriously super-adhesive, and brittle. A slow process for scraping off in bits and pieces.  By now it was noon, yet the crew showed no signs of slowing down. Bryan offered to fly to Harris Teeter bringing along a sandwich order for those interested.  He returned a 1/2 hour later with custom sandwiches and a jug of cold lemonade. 

By 1500, the gunwale was clean and ready to accept a new coat of varnish. All mustered off with Brya's promise to relay any news as soon as Capt Bobby arrived.

And Here it is!

Capt Bobby returned  Monday, and on Tuesday met with Bryan who had returned to begin fitting and installing the Dory's aft thwart and two oarlock mounting brackets.  Acknowledging that our new Mate Eva was decidedly off the roster and on her way to Iceland, Capt Bobby announced that our intended Shipyard agreement had been reached with  Stephens Towing Inc. on Yonges Island. 

https://www.stevens-towing.com/

The shipyard was making ready to receive Spirit of South Carolina after the Thanksgiving Weekend.

The long pole in the tent now would be the acquisition of sufficient crew(4-5 full-time) and contractors( shipwrights and riggers) to perform the needed work for this "Ten-Year Shipyard" project. The "Ten-Year" suffix refers to the USCG requirement that on traditionally rigged wooden ships, not more than every 10  years, the ship be totally down-rigged; spars(meaning "Masts") be un-stepped for close inspection of the spars, their mountings and framing. 

The Stephen's Yard is located on the Wadmalaw River south of Hollywood, approximately 17 mile drive from the Charleston Maritime Center. Captain Bobby and the Organization are actively working out the logistics, room and board for crew in the area, as well as hiring the skilled trades.   It's expected that Volunteers will be invited to fill in where able to augment full time crew in what promises to be a pretty busy Shipyard.  

As hiring details become known,  if interested, you are welcome to contact Capt Bobby Nobles directly as well as volunteer opportunities on SignUp Genius 

email:  bobby_nobles@yahoo.com

mobile:  619-549-9045

Many Thanks to Two Volunteers for Keeping our Momentum alive over the past two weeks.

 To put things in perspective;  

A week ago Saturday, a welcome surge of eight Volunteers took a sizeable chunk out of the schooner's Pre-shipyard maintenance Punchlist- projects that need to be completed in order to advance the projects best attacked in Shipyard. 

And, during that interim.  Volunteer Deckhand Todd Cole was recognized for surpassing 100 Volunteer Hours of service to the schooner-all the more notable, since Todd drives across the state from Georgia to get here. 

This past Saturday, the 16th,  Ken Fonville and Wayne Burdick teamed up, and just the two of them tackled the remainder of the belaying pin sanding and oiling.  Just the two of them, kept the momentum alive, at a time when questions are floating around. 

"Are we really, ever going to Shipyard?"

"What's after that?" 

 "Are we by ourselves again?"  

"Why bother?"

At least one of those has an answer. According to Capt Bobby;  Yes, we are going to Shipyard, pretty soon, although he did not have an exact date.  In fact, the Shipyard will be here in the Charleston area.  Unfortunately, that's all the detail I have until Capt Bobby returns on 24 November.

So, if nothing else drives our sense of purpose, in giving our time to this Lady, it's the simple fact, that we Volunteers are pretty much all she's got, for now, and into the foreseeable future.  

There is still a punch list of projects that need completing to insure a successful shipyard experience. 

 Sure hope you can help.  

SignupGenius   Click Here to SignUpGenius

   

Down-Rigging Now in Full as Volunteers Take down the Main Sail and Rigging

No doubt; this was gonna be an ambitious day of multiple achievements.  The Mate, Eva, had spelled out her plan the afternoon earlier, leaving the Punch-List in the Saloon for Volunteer Todd Cole who drove down from Atlanta for the weekend.  All was centered around derigging the Mainmast- the most complex web of running rigging, the heaviest massive sail, seemingly "miles" of cordage of all sizes.  The most massive blocks on the ship.  Thankfully, an additional four Volunteers answered Bryan Oliver's Friday morning plea for help.

  

So, Today, seven of us, Bryan Oliver, Walter Barton, Ryan Smith, Todd Cole, Lance Halderman, Jim Morrisette, Marty Bull, and Danny Johnson mustered on deck at 0900 to hear the Mate's guidance and priorities for the day:   

• Down rig all running rigging from the Mainmast, 
• unlace, gasket-up and deliver the mainsail down into the forecastle and stow in a berth(s)
• Stretch out and measure all ten lines of running rigging, re-coil and stow in the Forecastle.
• Down-rig all blocks, scuff and sand the cheeks, prep for repainting.
• Pull out as many belaying pins as possible, sand to remove the gray sun-damaged surface, and soak in a linseed oil/turpentine bath over night. 

Nothing I can say about the day would do justice to the effort that everyone threw into the task, so I'm listing the photo's captured earlier today to give you a flavor of the thing.

Lance, Todd Cole, Jim Morrisette, and Walter,
laying out and measuring, then re-coiling and labeling
 all ten lines of Mainsail rigging. We covered most of the face dock and finger dock.

Danny and Marty pull the 156 foot marling-hitched mail sail lacings
 off the boom before measuring, coiling, and stowing the line.

Hundreds of feet of running rigging
 laid out on the dock for inspection
 and measuring...

...Then coiled and nippered before being carried
 back aboard and stacked into forecastle berths.

Marty shouldering the middle of a 52-foot,
 3/4 ton anaconda of canvas, muscling it thru the forecastle
 into the waiting arms of shipmates stuffing into
 two adjacent berths.

Bryan Oliver hunkered in Berth 14
cramming piles of Mainsail into every corner.

"The Pit Crew"  Marty, Ryan,
 Lance, and Walter after punching the last bit
 of Mainsail into Forecastle berths 10 and 14.

A welcome transition from the lifting,

 pushing/pulling just hours before,

Departing to meet his wife, Todd eschews the almost vertical gangway, to 

Bryan and Lance get to sit down for next task of sanding down some of the five large blocks and 19 grimy belaying pins  for soaking and recoating in a linseed oil/turpentine bath.

Lance, Walter, Marty, Ryan, Jim, and Todd all converge on the 19 belaying pins pulled out of the pinrails, sanding off grime and gray sun damage to a wood surface ready to soak up linseed oil.

Weekdays as well as weekends are available on Signup Genius to advance the down-rigging effort to completion. Volunteers can view and sign up for 1-2 hours weekday afternoons, or longer on Saturdays. 

Volunteers Mustering on Saturday receive New Directions and New Priorites

Friday afternoon, the 1st of November, I had a hunch that something was up.  The schooner was deserted when I came onto the dock. The gangway was suspended a good 10 feet above the deck to keep it clear of the caprail as high tide, so I decided to just toss the packet I'd brought with me down into the forecastle hatch.  Then I noticed it.  A huge mass of canvas roughly folded up on the port side of the foremast. Looking forward towards the headrig, the jibstay was bare.  No text or voicemail messages from the Mate, Eva, to fill in the big blank in the mental picture I was trying to paint of what the heck was going on.  Oh, well, I would surely know soon enough tomorrow morning when Volunteers mustered for our regular Saturday Volunteer Day. 

Saturday at  0900, nine of us came down the gangway to muster around Eva who was waiting for us.  Without waiting for my dramatic gesticulating towards the canvas pile, Eva announced that we would be "Downrigging the Ship."  The context needed no explanation. Sometime in the future, sooner than later, the schooner must be delivered to a Shipyard for it's ten-year interval inspection and scheduled maintenance.  The most significant component, being a total downrigging-including unstepping the masts, to look deeply for signs of deterioration, anywhere.

As a distraction;  All gathered on port rail
 to send off SSV Denis Sullivan, bound south

And, so, our new priority of work aboard would be to prepare the schooner for shipyard; taking down, taking off, inventorying, stowing, repairing, pre-inspecting anything that would save us time, and therefore money spent in space rental, shipyard labor, etc.  

Eva gave us our instructions for the day; down rig the rest of the headrig-Jumbo, halyards, lifts, downhauls, booms, blocks and tackles; lay out and measure and log all lines for possible replacements.

and then,,

Do it again for the foresail.

Tony Marchesani, Walter Barton, and Ken Fonville grabbed up already coiled headrigging lines, and brought them onto the dock for laying out and measuring.  Lance Halderman, Adam Reed, Sam Slablotsky and brother, Levy, teamed up with Eva flake-fold the jib, then Jumbo sail, roll, tie-down, then stow them below in one of the forecastle berths. Next task, start cutting lashings on the foresail.

Foresail neatly rolled on the deck,
Eva orchestrates the foresail boom downrigging. 

Meanwhile, Bryan stole away with two new Volunteers, Racheal Peterson, and Nolan  to conduct their orientation on deck and below.  As more lines were spilled down onto the decks from their tackles, idle hands coiled them, and immediately stuck large masking tape tabs on the coils, labeling them with markers. 

Jumbo Boom, Foresail gaff

As lunch time approached, all the canvas, jib, jumbo, and foresail had been flaked, rolled, and stowed below in the Forecastle. A few volunteers bowed out for other weekend chores, four elected to share costs for some Harris Teeter Sandwiches, and the pace slowed to a stop, for a few moments. Then then the Mate estimated sufficient non-constructive time had passed, and called out Muster on Deck;  this time to down-rig the foresail-boom and gaff. By 1400, all spars, canvas, and running rigging, had been labeled, coiled and stowed below.  Spars laid out under the port rail for lashing down later.          

Next time; The mainmast rigging.

And after that,, well, the Mate has a plan, I"m sure of it.. and all the while, the front office is hunting up shipyards with availability, traditional wooden shipwright talent,,  and capacity.