Adventuress maintainance

Reid & I spent Sunday working on Schooner Adventuress. I had the opportunity to sail on her a couple years ago, and when I moved to Port Townsend, I was looking forward to the opportunity to connect with them again.

They do maintainance work over the winter, and invite folks to volunteer for a "work weekend" each month. We went to help in January. Reid found another kid & the two of them played. I watched the kids & sorted the fasteners (huge collection!).

This time I spent the morning scuffing the varnish on the deckhouse, in preparation for a new coat. They were getting ready to sway up the main boom, and Reid helped tie some lines on for the purpose. He learned the marlinspike hitch and put it to good work.

The afternoon was spent with spars. The main boom and main- and fore-topmasts were stowed on deck, being the most unwieldy (least wieldy?). We swayed up the main boom, with folks pulling on lines in 8 directions to keep it under control.

Once it was secured, we were sent to "spar land" (a storage space far away) to get the other 4 large spars - main gaff, fore gaff, fore boom, and "club" (which I'd call the jib boom, but what do I know?) . They had a dolly made of the rear axel + wheels of a car w/ a small superstructure. A spar was hauled out of the shed (up to 8 people to lift them) and balanced on the dolly; a second spar placed next to it. We then walked the spars to the dock, and carried them down the dock to the boat. My shoulder has a sore, red area from bearing the weight.

Once the spars were placed on deck, we cleaned up and called it a day. The crew of Adventuress will sway up the remaining spars on their own, they being much smaller than the main boom.