Winter maintenance on the Lady Mayland:
Halfway through unbending the jib on this cold December morning, I suddenly couldn't find my coffee mug. I wandered the deck, and then the dock.. and then I finally found it.
The task shown in this photo is the unbending (removal) of the jib, which is partially held on by tarred nylon cords tied around metal rings (hanks) that are strung onto the jib stay. The cord is looped though metal grommets on the luff (leading edge) of the sail and then through the metal hanks. To unbend the jib, you just cut away the cord and unfastened the shackles on the head, tack, and clew and try not to let it fall in the water.
After the fall sailing season, the boats are docked over in Fells Point by the main campus for winter maintenance. This involves inspecting, repairing, and stowing the running rigging and sails. There's also scraping, sanding, and painting of anything that needs it. Blocks (pulleys) are disassembled, inspected, and replaced or rebuilt. The engines, two 85hp 4-cyl Cummins diesels, are overhauled and winterized. Did I mention the scraping, sanding, painting? Brightwork (varnish) is touched up, or sometimes redone completely. All standing rigging is inspected, shackles are re-moused, and stays are treated. The list is long and so are the work days. The maintenance period is about three months long and there never seems to enough time to get everything done
Pictured above are some single and double reeved blocks from the Sigsbee, a reconstructed skipjack built with salvaged parts from her namesake. These blocks have had their straps, sheaves, pins, keepers, and beckets removed and tagged. The shells, the wooden housings, are scraped and sanded and are hungry here for painting. The pins and sheaves are cleaned and regreased before reassembly in the shells.
