Memorial Day Weekend Volunteer Day finishes up Hurricane Season Down-rig.

Dave Brennan and Frank Thigpen
 watch Keshaun Holmes
working loose the port side wildcat.

On Memorial Weekend Saturday 8 Volunteers came aboard to finish up the planned down-rig tasks for hurricane season, and start some new maintenance projects.

Bryan divided up the projects.  Frank Thigpen and Mikell Evatt would provide deck support while Charlie Porzelt climbed aloft to send down the remaining main sail throat and peak halyard tackles.  Calvin Milam went dockside with his two "cheese boards"-perforated hatch covers for ventilation, and their third/last coat of white epoxy paint.  

Bryan joined Danny Johnson in cutting out and rigging up some additional chafing gear from old fire hose, to bend on to the tripled-up dock lines. Shortly afterwards, Mikell Evatt cleaned out,, literally, the rope locker.  

After  cleaning up and greasing
the components, John Hart
starts reassembly of the
starboard drum of the windlass.

The last group grabbed grease guns, ground cloth's, mallets, assorted socket and allen wrenches and went forward.  This was much of the same group, who, the previous Saturday had miraculously managed to stuff the "gi-mongus" main sail down the forecastle hatch and into two adjacent berths for storage. With new confidence they could take on anything,  John Hart,  David Brennan and Keshaun Holmes took on the challenge to  completely disassemble the bronze windlass, clean and grease it, then reassemble without any parts left over.  They came awfully close, but were unable to completely remove the portside drum due to the flared end of the windlass axle.  

Dave Brennan recognized for surpassing 50 Volunteer service hours.

Volunteers completed their projects in time for Hunter's lunch of grilled cheese burgers, and home-made potato salad.  While gathered together, Bryan took the opportunity to announce Dave Brennan's achievement of  attaining over 50 hours of volunteer time aboard. Bryan presented David with his "Jibsail Volunteer" pin. 

Chief Mate deliver's good and bad news.

As lunch concluded  Chief mate/Acting Captain Charlie, delivered the latest up date on Spirit's status.

Progress was being made in repairing the ship's engines.  Replacement electrical components for engines, and navigation were ordered and in progress of being shipped.  Charlie estimated the ship would not be capable of powering off the dock until after mid-July.  

At the same time, the ship's dockside liability insurance policy was being dropped for the time being, meaning that there could be no visitors coming aboard, and volunteers could come aboard only at their own risk.  Potentially a blow to Volunteer attendance numbers,, but the impact remains to be seen.   

This does not change the fact that, once the schooner is again functional, she will require a haulout inspection before she can sail for her COI(Certificate of Inspection. Haulout would likely be in Savannah (Thunderbolt Shipyard).  It will require a minimum of 8-10 crew to deliver her to Savannah and return.  It will require a minimum 8-10 crew to sail her for COI . 

Volunteer deckhands "Wet" the Anchor

As Two volunteers departed for other responsibilities following lunch,  the rest, secured all tools and materials back into storage, then mustered on the starboard anchor.

  Charlie  explained the different situations where crew would be routinely required to stage the anchor for deployment.  Next, he demonstrated the procedure for "catting" the anchor, then safely releasing it off the cathead to drop into the water, and finally,, he and the crew executed the whole procedure, climaxing with dropping the anchor about nine feet, then manning the  windlass to haul it back up, snagging the stock ring with the anchor burton  to haul up close to the cathead. Once "catted" a deckhand bent on the large burton hook to snag fluke bridle that would haul up the flukes to be fished-lashed over the cap rail.  


 

Yawlboat Charles Sneed to be re-launched this Sunday

 A few of us Volunteers from Spirit of South Carolina, have been regularly donating two hours every Thursday for the past several months on restoring the yawlboat Charles Sneed.  Her story has already been shared in an earlier blog posting.   [Introducing the Yawl boat "Charles Sneed"]

No other name is so inextricably linked to the story of Spirit of South Carolina, starting with the vision of her purpose, her construction and her early successes. In a fitting tribute to the yawlboat's namesake, Charles Sneed, Edwin Gardner composed a  poem marking the occasion. 

Rob Dunlap takes it from here:

"This poem below was crafted by the late Edwin Gardner, the true leader of the resurgence of traditional oar-on-gunwale pilot gig rowing in Charleston in the mid 1990's. He and a few others of us felt the need for the SPIRIT of SOUTH CAROLINA to have a yawl as nearly all American nineteenth and early twentieth century schooners carried. The poem tells the tale of the yawl and to some extent the schooner and accurately reflects the true vision of Charles S. Sneed. It was certainly Charlie who hatched the idea of the SPIRIT and started things moving in 2000. Thus the dedication of the yawl to him.

This Sunday, the 30th, The Lowcountry Maritime School, will relaunch her at the Sea Island Yacht Club in Rockville. at 1030 hrs.Volunteers who helped restore her are invited to participate.

MAIN (sail) EVENT marks the high point in Down-Rigging for Hurricane Season.

There's a lot to tell after a two-week vacuum of news and information. For the the dead air, I blame myself; more on that later, but,

First, the News!

On the previous Saturday, 15 May began the most significant project for Spirit of South Carolina to-date.. down rigging for the hurricane season.  Since she is likely to be dock-bound into the summer, this project is our best investment of our effort for her. 

 Down-rigging of a tall ship is actually not that unusual.   In fact,, their traditional rigging and construction are designed to be easily(relatively) disassembled and reassembled.   From the Chesapeake northward, traditional sailing ships habitually down-rig for their off- season, and use the time to maintain all that hardware that would normally be inaccessible while underway.    We can use this same opportunity with Spirit of South Carolina for the same advantage.

Volunteers clear the down-rigged jib
back to the waist to be swung onto the dock.

 Two Saturdays ago, Chief Mate, Charlie laid out the plan at Volunteer Muster.  The primary  end-state would be to have removed everything above the deck that would catch heavy winds of a named storm and cause damage or be damaged;   The most obvious components to start on would be the ships sails and spars; jib, jumbo, Fore and Mainsail, and all gaffs and booms.  For Volunteers aboard a year ago, the experience of swaying those huge spars back aboard and up-rigging after their dock maintenance stirred a mixture of excitement and a little bit of apprehension. After all, it would be a complicated operation requiring EVERYONE'S participation and lots of teamwork. Follow this link for a flashback to late February 2020: Up-Rigging her Spars Feb 2020.blogspot.com/2020/03/final-push-to-up-rig-spirit-of-south.html

Volunteers cutting away the jumbo
 luff hank lashings

So, Charlie started the work at the bow, on the head rig; the jib and jumbo-with her boom.  For most volunteers, in disassembling the rigs, it was their first chance to deep dive into the intricacies of how those sails and tackles are rigged, operated, and supported. 

After inspecting for  wear and damage,
 crew flakes and rolls the jib for storage.
 The jumbo waits its turn in the background

 

By end of day on that Saturday, volunteers completed the down-rig and storage below of all line and tackles.  They had cut loose the jib and jumbo, hauled them by dock cart to the large grassy Liberty Square to be laid out and inspected before being flaked, rolled, returned to dock  and stuffed into  adjacent berths in the forecastle.  

This past Saturday volunteers mustered up for the Main(sail) event-the largest and most complex rig on the vessel.  

Due to her size, the  main sail would require a larger scale team effort. 11 separate lines and tackle systems would be taken off, labeled, and secured below. Another four separate tackle systems would be rigged up to take the load as the sail and spars were swung down to the deck. 

Thankfully, 11 volunteers mustered in the morning, plus an additional 3 New Volunteers;  enough to safely finish the project. 

Dave Brennon and John 
feeding the mainsail down
 the forecastle hatch

Jonathan Bautista, Nate Mack
and Jake Harrington muscle part
 of the Mainsail into a berth
in the forecastle

The mainsail down-rig, inspection, rolling and stowage took the entire morning.   

As everyone broke for a much deserved hot lunch of chicken enchiladas, black bean frijoles, and Spanish rice prepped by Sea Chef Hunter, Charlie took a poll to determine the manpower available to unship and set the  gaff and main boom down to the deck. 

Hunter counts heads before going
 ashore to provision for lunch.

Rob Harrington muscles the
 starboard main boom lift wire
and tackles into a rough coil
  for stowage.

Seven volunteers remained on deck for the afternoon to see through, the final phases of the mainmast down-rig.  The 50-foot long main boom proved predictably, the main challenge due to sheer size, weight, and available 50-foot linear space on deck for securing,  The final work came in untangling, overhauling and two-blocking tackles, coiling and storing wire boom lift lines. 

By four pm the deck was once again secure, and remaining volunteers dropped to the deck or into the chairs with some cold refreshment.

The down-rig project isn't yet over, but the most challenging phase is past with the main sail rig safely on the deck. The Foresail rig is left intact for the time being in the chance that her repairs may suddenly accelerate and there would be opportunity to cast off in the summer for a shake down cruise, docking drills or COI preparation.

  A Footnote:   Blogging so far has been a one-person operation.  I'm sure there's plenty of Spirit of South Carolina followers who'd be interested in editing and contributing content to this blog, help keep it fresh and worth coming back too.  If you're one of them, please kick me an email and we can talk about it. 

Again, Volunteers brush aside iffy weather forecasts to lay onto a wide range of ship needs.

If you'd been happening by the face dock at the Maritime Saturday morning, you'd have to be amazed at the picture in front of you.

  It would've at least piqued  your curiosity as to what was going on,, not a scene normally  present on any modern-day wharf. Tiny beings suspended precariously in a slight web of ropes and lines, obviously busy at work doing something,,, but what?  

New Volunteer Lexi Fine
walks her tightrope (the forestay)
while coating the jibstay

If you were there, you were privileged to witness a special bunch.  Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers at work, in a traditional sailing ship world, learning and practicing the 300 year-old skills of mariners before them, all in the aim of  taking care of their ship.   

You would likely not have known that the tiny form seemingly suspended in air between the foremast and bowsprit was Lexi Fine, actually a brand new volunteer, on deck for the first time, taking on the challenge to tackle a job in an unlikely spot.. way up on the jib stay on a bosun's chair with at paint brush and bucket. Others, like father/son team of Rob and Jake Harrington  and Apprentice Deckhand, Jonathan Bautista,  high up in the shrouds brushing on black paint to preserve the wire standing rigging.  

Maybe less noticeable until you walked closer, you'd have seen others on deck like Calvin Milam, carefully laying on an umpteenth coat of varnish on the cap rail.  A half hour later, you'd have observed another small group, likely Apprentice Deckhand Jason Patnaude, Danny Johnson, and Old Salt, Joe Gorman split off with the Chief mate to measure out long lengths of nylon line and start an on-the-job learning session to splice an eye in the end of the line thru the weighted canvas bag for a new heaving line. 

These happy few are a subset of a steadily growing corps of volunteers who have signed on to steward a special, totally unique component of Charleston's Maritime History.  The only operational traditional wooden sailing ship on the east coast south of the Chesapeake, right here in Charleston.  They are preserving for the city, and South Carolina, a culture of seamanship, and maritime heritage that once made Charleston famous.   

Jonathan Bautista, conquering the heights
 with his tools to protect
 the mainmast shrouds from
salt and sea moisture.

Jake Harrington steadies himself
on the foremast shrouds
to brush on a preservative coat
 of paint on the wire