Editor is on Vacation: Expect an update on 8 May

In the meantime, catch up on what two volunteers accomplished coming down on their own over the weekend of April 21-23

 Saturday afternoon on  April 21,  Charlie Mason, our professional Merchant Marine Mariner used his long weekend to drive down and tackle some items on the punch list.  

On his arrival around 1 PM, parking his car with a shipyard pass issued by Hunter, Charlie found a berth for the next 3 nights, then checked out the Punchlist from the book case in the Saloon.  With additional notes from Coordinator Bryan Oliver, in a quick email, Charlie settled on restoring a scarf section of the starboard forward capraild that was starting to suffer significant UV damage and peeling.  

Charlie's serious surface sanding ,
prepping this portion for seven swabs of D1.

With a selection of sandpaper grits, sanding blocks, a scraper to two, Charlie set to work.  By close of business, he had taken to bare wood a 14-foot section of the caprail, prepping it to take on 8 coats of D-2 Preservative/sealant, the first step of a follow-on 12-coat of D2 varnish, 

On Sunday, Coast Guard Cutterman and Volunteer alumni Andrew Shook came aboard.  The two of them teamed up to complete the D1 step on the caprail, than tackle the tougher project on the punchlist,, the re-storing of all the paraphagnalia  piled in the cockpit, back into the now-cleaned up lazarette. To appreciate it,you'd have to see the pile Tony Marchesani and Bryan Oliver created three weeks earlier.. (see the blog enty for April 13).

A well-ordered cockpit. Thanks to Charlie and Andrews  reorganization of the lazarette.

Taking a minute at day's end to study the lines of the pilot schooner Virginia. replicating

 a pilot boat of newer design technology  launched over 30 years after the 

pilot schooner Frances Elizabeth, Spirit of South Carolina's namesake.

Virginia's deck is ten feet longer than Spirit's because she is rigged as a "Knock-about". That is she has no bowsprit;  All her jibs and jumbo's are rigged to the bow; thereby no need to go out over the bow to douse/tie down the headrig.  Additionally her hull below waterline reflects advances in design, strength technology and shifts in aesthetics.