Spirit of South Carolina is Settling into the Shipyard Environment ; Volunteers Face Two Projects and some fun on the Dock.

 Well!  It's been just five days since Spirit of South Carolina departed for Steven's Towing on Yonges Island. As of today, she's been lifted out of the water and secured on huge block pilings, waiting for good power-washing of her hull to clear away barnacles and other crusty stuff, and to better expose any compromises to her bottom, specifically, rot, or teredo (shipworms) that plague wooden hulls in southern waters. 

Traditional wooden ship Shipwrights will likely be consulted for their advice on resolving issues, ranging from small, scraping out and sealing, to cutting out and filling with a "dutchman" a wood piece custom designed to fill the gap, or finally pulling whole-sale, rotted/damaged planks and replacing with new.  

Other issues, electrical, mechanical, rigging, plumbing, carpentry on deck and below, may be assessed and remediations scheduled for on deck, or waiting  until she returns to the water. One significant project in 10-Year Shipyards will be the down-rigging and removal of her masts and headrig; a Coast Guard requirement every 10 years-hence the name.

Typically, in the Tall-Ship- world, volunteers, when available, would swarm the deck to advance much of these projects, supervised by shipwright and rigging professionals. See the ShipYard Photo Album by clicking on the tab above. The project scheduling and supporting labor needs are still in planning. 

The Shipyard is a serious industrial site which follows the OSHA rules for safety. Everyone(including volunteers) crossing from the front office into the Yard must be wearing an approved Hard Hat, and steel-towed shoes. The Volunteer Grant funded by US Boating America (Sail and Power Squadron) is funding the purchase of approx five hard hats for volunteer use once the go-ahead is made to come aboard. We will need to coordinate the funding and transportation to and from the Shipyard, which is about an hour's drive from the Maritime Center.

For your curiosity, and getting a sense of what goes on, I composed a photo-album of our schooner's past shipyard activity, from Newport in 2015(a 10-Year Shipyard), skipping one in Belfast Maine,2017, then Thunderbolt-Savannah, 2019 and 2022.  This current Shipyard Project will mark her second 10-year cycle.  It's in the Banner Heading of Topics at top of this page.

Finishing UP Two Projects on the Dock

Now that Spirit of South Carolina has left the dock,, The mess of Yokohama Fender arrangement has been exposed. Now is our chance to fix the mess once and for all. With help of Walter Barton's smallboat, a few tools and hardware we can restring the pole and chain assembly to center the yokohamas on the pilings without slipping off due to changing tides. Given calm seas and clear weather, the effort should take no more than two hours.

The second project can go concurrently,, or not.. being the straightening up the dock area itself,,, carting off to trash some, storing away others for salvage or sail, the moving and securing of our gangway off the tourist heavy area and closer to the fenced-up hardware area.  

Finally,, for fun, it's  time to launch the dory and give her some exercise,, set her sail.  Interested Volunteers should signup for a time, to gather for an orientation to ensure safe boat handling, accounting for and good stewards of her rig. With advance notice Volunteers may take her out any day, any time between 0800 to 1800. 

Sign Up Here.

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