Mast Hoops; Consider the lowly but frustrating Split Key Rings-

 Split Key Rings! Those frustrating little fingernail torture tools- Who out there really enjoys engaging with those  things?   We're forced to it with the acquisition of an new key, or disposing of one and the distasteful to dreaded experience of prying, pinching,  and coaxing open just enough space to slip the key eye into it, and force it twice around the circumference of that sinister circle before finally freeing it? Sometimes, there's even a little blood spilt.

Stay with me here,, I"m actually going somewhere with this.. 

Now, what if you found yourself having to slip that key ring, not thru the  little eye of a key, but around a dowel almost the same size as the diameter of that cursed split key ring?!  Impossible you say?  Tell that to Mikell Evatt, or Tony Marchesani, Todd Cole, Dave Brennan, or any number of other schooner sailors. They can show you exactly how it's done.  

That's exactly what Volunteers took on last Saturday, and continued this past Saturday, when they stretched and twisted off a total twenty-seven 23-inch diameter wooden mast hoops from both fore and main masts.  Think humongous split key rings that need to slip off and back onto a mast-something nearly as large as their ring circumference.

What for, you ask?  Those mast hoops serve a critical purpose as an early version of a sail track on a mast, lashed to the luff edge of a sail and sliding up and down along the mast. They take on the sun's UV and an enormous amount of strain , being constructed of 8 feet of thin oak batten stripping, steamed and coiled into four-ply hoops, held together with screws around its circumference. Being wood, subject to wear, they require maintenance, the application of boiled linseed oil to seal and preserve the wood from moisture.  

So, periodically, Schooner sailors must  down rig all the mast-hoops to rejuvenate them by first, scraping off grime and UV damage to bare wood, then applying two liberal coats of boiled linseed oil . That's the bragging point for any schooner sailor's "rite of passage" their experienceing

Mikell Evatt (left) and Tony Marchesani
teaming on removing the six bronze bolts
holding together the tightly wound mast hoops.

 the classical mundane-but essential - along with the exciting. 

Saturday morning, Dave Brennen, and Tony Marchesani, mustered loosely in the darkness of the Saloon (skylight covered with tarp due to windows removed for replacement.) Tony organized  around the primary task of taking off the remaining fifteen mast hoops from the foremast, then sanding to wood, all 27 hoops(fore and mainmast), preparing for taking on two coats of boiled linseed oil before being sprung back onto the mast and made fast with bronze thru bolts.  

While David searched for tools and sandpaper,  Danny Johnson, Mikell Evatt, and Wayne Burdick  came onboard.  Danny brought with him a new volunteer, Jim Leonard, who pitched in on sanding hoops as they came off the foremast. 

Wayne Burdick, back to us, and Jim,
studying the
 remnants of the old awning

Wayne Burdick split off from the rest with his own project; creating a technical drawing of a new midship's awning to replace the massive frayed, ripped and torn sunbrella fabric that has shaded the midship's deck for the past six years, surviving two hurricanes and countless tropical storms and and rain squalls. It's poor state, drew Capt Heath to rule that a replacement was needed rather than an attempt at Repair-by-Volunteer.

Mikell Evatt extracting
a tight fitting bolt while
 Tony steadies the hoop.

It was a pretty cold morning with an onshore breeze of course, temperature's in low 50's. Work was initially slow in momentum searching for the right sockets drives  and other tools to remove each of the six long bronze bolts fastening each hoop together.   Tony took up a collection from five volunteers  for lunch, and passed on to Hunter who hiked up to Harris Teeter to provision for what would be a big Mack and Cheese Lunch, prepared largely in the dark using the ship's generator since shore power was apparently inadequate to handle both power tool operation on deck and the ship's electrically powered galley stove/oven. Having taken all the measurements and dimensions from the old awning, Wayne departed to finish up his rendering in the more appropriate environs of a work-study.  

Jim trying to reshape an "unstrung" hoop
 in preparation for sanding it.

By early afternoon the remaining volunteers secured tools and materials, after having dismantled all 15 mast hoops from the foremast, and sanded 2/3 of the total of 24 serviceable mast hoops in preparation for applying two coats of boiled linseed oil before re-installing on the masts.