Color me confused

Last night's working session proved particularly productive.  With Monomoy No. 3 in the shop, we removed two complete floors, 8 and 17, and began cleaning up the planking interior faces for laying in new material this Saturday.  We're now down to the absolute bones of the boat - digging around deeper than a TSA agent screening a guy with frazzled wires hanging out of his pocket.  And in the process we're learning even more about the boat's construction and history.  No, we didn't find any dates scrawled between her planking, but it might as well have been.

As we began unscrewing and prying up the spongy old floors and poking around for other symptoms of dry rot, we broke out the trusty heat guns and started scraping back layers of paint.  And in the myriad colors bursting out under the scrapers, we were actually able to find some interesting tidbits that might help us validate the little we know of her documented past.

A boat that's shiny and clean, a dockyard crew that's tired and worn

As I sit down to write this rare Sunday post, I turn on the TV and the show on right now is called "I'm Pregnant... and in Jail". Now I remember why I don't watch TV often. But I digress - I'm tired.

The NHS Dockyard crew just finished painting out the Monomoy interior - gunwale to bilge. She's shiny and clean looking for the first time in years - and the sight is highly motivating. Surface preparation alone took more than three weeks - stripping off the old paint, power washing the remnants then wiping down with some pretty noxious chemicals. Thanks to the crew, who virtually lived in respirators. Of course we finally got to see the product of all that preparation - in the fact that the interior of the boat is now completely and indelibly encased in a solid shell of epoxy-based paint. Awesome.

The only problem is that the paint above the thwarts ended up being a lighter khaki color rather than the "spar" color it was supposed to be. Minor details - we're not touching it for a long time, so I'll learn to love it.

Now, new business.

Next weekend, I'm calling in ALL HANDS to assist with the stripping and varnishing of all the wood in the boat. Her thwarts, bow and stern platforms, risers, oars, bilge boards, stretchers, mast... everything. Bring your sanders and plenty of sanding pads - and let's knock out the last major event in her restoration. Free food, drinks and lodging at the Dockyard, on me. Call or email for details.

Give me some time, though - I need a shower, a beer and a nice relaxing King of the Hill moment staring at that gorgeous paint.

Will

One milestone met, three to go.

Yesterday the product of the great mast-a-thon successfully passed testing - with flying colors - and was stepped in the Monomoy. The step needed a little shimming - it was 3/32" too far aft - but that was easily remedied. A busy but productive week is over, and a critical milestone met. Congratulations to the spar team - you guys rocked out this week and you've already seen some of the fruits of that labor.

But don't rest now, folks, we still have three more to go. A summary of the work, and the schedule to do it on, is as follows:

Power cleaning of the non-skid deck (in prep for painting) is scheduled for March 20.

MILESTONE #2: Re-finishing. All 11 oars (including the steering oar) and the thwarts need to be totally stripped, varnished, the oars re-leathered and the woodwork and hull attachments caulked. The bulk of this work will occur weekday evenings at the dockyard and next weekend. Completion date March 26.

MILESTONE #3: Interior Painting. The entire interior of the Monomoy needs to be prepped and painted spar and blue-gray. This work will occur the weekend of March 27-28. Completion date (allowing for touch-ups) March 31.

First launch of the season, April 2. Sailing rig not required. April 3, at Nauticus for the conclusion of the Real Pirates exhibit. SIDE NOTE: I realize this is Easter weekend - actually we just realized that this past weekend. Consequently, we will wrap up operations on Saturday no later than 1600.

MILESTONE #4: Rigging. Cutting, set up and fine-tuning of the Monomoy rigging, including all redundant equipment (mast fish and wouldings, emergency rigging, etc).

Painting of the "racing stripes" (navy blue and yellow-gold gunwale stripes) will take place on April 10.

Shakedown sail and training for crossing the Chesapeake will take place on April 24.

Busy times ahead - keep the noses to the grindstone and before you know it, we'll be on the beach in Kiptopeke.

Will

Racing Stripes

I've just recieved approval for my paint plan for the Monomoy. We're going to be dolling her right up for the 2010 season. All interior wood work is being sanded down and re-varnished, new paint inside all around AND the addition of da dada DA- racing stripes! The plain white hull is getting a fresh jolt with the addition of a navy blue gunwale stripe and golden yellow pinstriping. Back in my days on the Training Ship Empire State, we had a white hull with a blue "racing stripe" on the bow. Of course, later on they painted the whole hull blue. But I've always loved that racing stripe and wanted to paint one on this boat. The colors pay homage to the Navy, and to the Military Sealift Command, whose famous blue and gold stack stripes are their primary distinguishing insignia.

The interior of the boat is being painted per 1907 US Navy regulations, famous for use by the Great White Fleet. The interior bulwarks will be "spar" - a khaki color - while the deck will be "blue-gray". The propulsion oars will likewise be painted spar, while the steering oar will remain varnished. The gunwales and steering yoke will be finished with boat soup - a pine tar mixture - that blackens and preserves the wood. Odd side note - recently visited the "Real Pirates" exhibit at Nauticus and several of the artifacts recovered from the sunken pirate ship Whydah still reek of pine tar! Now THAT is preservation!

The working schedule for all of this - for those who missed it - will be as follows:

March 27-28 - Interior stripping and varnishing - MAX. PARTICIPATION REQUIRED
April 10-11 - Painting of the "Racing Stripe"

Hope to see you there!
Will

There's nothing like boat soup to start your Friday off right

Even as the Monomoy sits freezing and thawing on her trailer out in the weather, she speaks. Out on the water, you can tell the boat always wants to go fast, turns quicker if you ask her nicely and is one tough chick when it comes to those high breaking swells. But even sitting still on her trailer in Norfolk, her personality still shines through.

Now it might be an odd notion for a landsman to consider a boat as a living thing, but regardless of the method by which it is constructed, it is. The various little nuances in performance, durability and longevity that differ in boats of the same class are great reminders of this. She seems to respond to you, ever so subtly, and remind you that any seagoing venture is a partnership between sailors and their boat. Take care of her, and she'll take care of you. One hand for the ship and one for yourself. And so on and so forth. This is a recognized phenomenon among mariners, often discounted by the land-locked.

The Monomoy likes to remind me that she wants to go fast. The water dripping off her cover landed squarely on her trailer chocks, causing them to rot and crack when the water in them froze. This might seem ordinary for a winter of freezes and thaws, but there was no rhyme or reason to the flow of water to the chocks - on both sides; they arent under the lowest part of the sheer. The boat wants the chocks off.

This morning I treated her to a fresh bucket of boat soup - that odorous concoction of pine tar, linseed oil, turpentine, beeswax, japan dryer and tung oil. It's an age old mixture for which there are literally hundreds of recipies (all using more or less the same ingredients) that is proven to prevent rot, mildew, mold and keep water out of just about any solid substance. We apply it regularly to the Monomoy's teak gunwales, which are more than 60 years old. The soup soaks in and darkens the wood, leaving it smelling perfectly 'salty'. Less than 10 minutes after the first coat, which is applied with a rag or a sponge, water beads are seen forming on what was (seemingly) perfectly dry wood - all of it moisture that had worked its way inside. When wiped down after three or four coats have exhausted the pot, the gunwales have a distincitve sheen unmatched by any modern finish. Repeat at regular intervals, and the Monomoy is one happy boat, and pretty too.

When the weather warms sufficiently we have new paint for her interior ready and waiting in stores. The coat of 'spar' we applied last November will be overpainted with at least two more, and the tank tops will be pressure washed and painted 'blue-gray'. All in all she'll look much better than her last dressing in International Orange. Her new mast - being manufactured in the bird's mouth technique - is waiting to be assembled, and her rigging is on the stretch in the rigging cage. All we need is warm weather.

So for now I'll keep lathering her up with boat soup every other week, airing her out on dry days and knocking the icicles off when it turns wet and cold. And of course, I still have four to six weeks of finger fight club left tabling and roping the sail.

Will