Spars Refinishing Project is under way. 

With this past weekend full of rain forecasts, the Volunteer Day was cancelled, and Spirit of South Carolina wouldn't see any hoped for weekend volunteer help in advancing the preparation of her gaffs and booms for varnishing.  Nevertheless, thanks to Tim Geoghegan and Bryan Oliver who showed up at the dock on the previous Friday, the crew could boast of getting ahead of schedule in prepping all that wood to a state ready for weathering  a weekend of rain.

Volunteer, Tim Geoghegan, on left starts
 sanding on the foresail gaff.   Capt Dan Cleveland, on right, works
on the surface of the Foresail boom.

Friday morning, Tim and Bryan joined crew members, Capt Dan, First Mate, Charlie and  Deckhand Matt with power sanders, scrapers, heat guns, and sanding blocks to complete the removal of all varnish, sand out stains and weathering, and fine sand the surfaces in preparation for oil sealing.  By early afternoon, all four spars had been stripped and sanded.  With rain forecast thru the weekend into the following week, that status would remain until dryer weather will permit wiping on the first of several coats of D.1 oil sealant.  

Monday, with fog and high humidity settling over the harbor, delayed for a day, starting the D.1 treatment. Instead, the crew set to uninstalling all the mast hoops on the fore and mainmasts, piling them on the dock, for sorting salvageable hoops from disreputable ones. 

Matt checks tension on his serving tool before
 adding a turn.

Today, the the warm dryer weather set the stage for next steps on the spars.  Crew first tacked down the four spars with  swipes of  mineral spirits, going over each spar repeatedly until the white rags finally came up clean without discoloration of residual sawdust.  As the spirits dried out of the wood surface, Matt and Bryan used the time to  team up to touch-up paint the hull topsides under the gangway, and continue serving with tarred seine twine, the spreader topping lifts stretched out on the dock.  After some training and coaching from Charlie, Matt and Bryan completed the service, and could boast of another marlinespike skill added to their repertoire.

Oiling of the spars will continue in the week, and transition to initial coats of varnish, likely by the weekend.  Volunteers will be needed Saturday to keep the project progressing on schedule.

Bryan taking tight turns of tarred seine twine
 around the wormed and parceled wire cable of a spreader lift.