Spirit Volunteers team up and take on a "tall" project.

Ken and  Chuck  on the Orbitals, use a light touch on the Main Topmast,
 to carefully take off layers of  old varnish and scarred, weathered wood.

The 25 foot-long  tapered Douglas Fir spar had been derigged  from it's perch atop the main mast, the previous month and laid out on the dock to await  it's turn on the Mate's Maintenance Punch List. Now it was time. This past Saturday morning, three Volunteers answered the call,. Brushing aside the threatened weather forecast of another hot day, Ken Fonville, Chuck Waring, and Bryan Oliver took up orbital sanders and scrapers, and  teamed up to take on the task of the ship's Topmast.  12 years of weathering had left it scarred and stained, even given intermittant  respites of spot-painting and varnishing, it needed total strip-down to the wood and refinishing. The weather proved cooperative, sunny, but with a consistent seabreeze blowing across the dock to carry away the sawdust.  By 2 pm, the topmast  now exposed its laminated douglas fir grain, and was  ready for the next stage - a sequence of  sanding with four ever-finer grains  of sandpapers until the achieved silky surface will be void of weathering and scarring. 

Other Volunteers will certainly want  into this, and there's certainly opportunities for it.  Weather permitting, this coming week, at any time, if you have a couple of hours to spare, the crew will set  you up with a  power sander, and some guidance.   Just accept the invitation coming  out via email from Bryan, replying with a date and time you can come down to participate. We hope to start oiling and applying the first of 12 coats of varnish later this week.

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