Yard Week 1
Savannah, GA
Denis Sullivan arrived into tidal estuary shipyard, Thunderbolt Marine on Monday morning after a quick overnight sail from Charleston. Thunderbolt Marine is a world-class shipyard tucked up the river near Savannah that can handle any vessel from a 150 ft fishing boat, 100 million dollar super yacht or a wooden schooner such as Denis Sullivan. The ship is here not to get hauled out as that was done last year, but more to undertake projects that require a very calm and secure floating dock and shore side facilities such as a crane, machine and welding shop etc. This year it was decided to focus on the bow of the vessel and inspect and repair any planking or frames and also remove the jibboom, bowsprit, and windless to be overhauled ashore. The small but motivated crew fired into these jobs first thing Tuesday morning. The first major work to be done was to downrig and remove the entire head rig in order to service the components but also open up access to the bow deck planking for the shipwright. At the first morning muster we discussed safety procedures, best practices, and we went over the order of operations as components had to be removed in a certain sequence. All large tools were brought up on deck and the crew started in on loosening the many turnbuckles and shackles that connect the jibboom and bowsprit to the hull. Many of these turnbuckles had not been removed for many years and made backing them off quite the job. A prescription of PB blaster, followed by several minutes of heat provided by our small handheld propane torches, then perhaps a few blows by the hammer to break the seal so to speak, then the largest wrenches or spikes and heaved on by two crew. Repeat as necessary. Some were more stubborn than others but they all eventually came off.
After day 1 of attacking turnbuckles and shackles we were ready for an our first lift and the shipyards sweet little 30 ton crane swung by a plucked our first spar off, the jibboom. More down rigging and removing components and the bowsprit came off the next day. And finally we had the windless ready to hoist by the following day. So 3 straight days of wielding torches, large wrenches, chain falls, sledgehammers and heaving and cranking all day. Morning stretching became necessary quickly. The crew did a great job staying on task and working smartly and carefully as many times we had to be in awkward positions with heavy tools and loose components. The large and stable ‘paint float’ provided by the shipyard was critical to allow us to work close in on the bow.
By the end of the week we had jibboom, bowsprit, and windless all neatly arranged in our little workspace a few hundred yards away from the boat next to a container. Here is where they will stay for the next few weeks as they get scraped, sanded, inspected and many coats of varnish or paint applied in the perfect spring weather of Savannah. Low humidity, sunny every day it seems, not too hot (yet) and light winds. Really about as good as it gets for working and coatings.
And all around us the buzzing shipyard keeps going with a few more 150 foot super yachts pulling in next to us with the Denis Sullivan crew putting in the good work needed to preserve a wooden sailing vessel.
- Capt. Mike Moreland
