Mast Stowed

With the help of a local forester, and his Unimog, Shamrock's main mast was final lifted off onto the quay and lowered onto a couple of launching trollies borrowed from Cotehele Quay Gig Club. As the load areas of these trollies pivot around their wheels it was then a simple (four handed manpower) matter of towing the mast into the boat shed. Finally, with the aid of a hydraulic jack, wooden blocks and wedges, the mast was raised onto the awaiting trestles.

Now the job of removing all the old varnish and paint can start, also Shaune can check the fit of the four new saddle segments, he was muttering something about the mast not being round or oval for that matter.

Shamrock's temporary winter covers have been fitted, she has been pumped out and salted ready to be left to the elements over the Christmas holiday period.

Storm Preparation

During last winter a number of Shamrock's mooring lines snapped during the various storms, luckily not all in the same storm. As a result of this the old natural fibre mooring ropes are gradually being replaced with man made nylon rope which will last a lot longer, have a bit of stretch and shouldn't get fungus growing on them. Shamrock purists need not get alarmed as her rigging ropes are still hemp and these are renewed with hemp ropes when required (quite regularly).

Temporary winter covers are being prepared for the openings left when the after deckhouse and forward companionway hatch are removed to the boat shed. These covers will also need to allow for the ventilation of the forward and after cabins.

Shamrock Hoopla

As Shamrock's main mast is due to be moved into the boat shed, her workboat has been moved to the quay boat yard and covered for the winter. This leaves enough room in the shed for both the mizzen and main masts to be left out on trestles with ample room to work on them in comfort. Also in preparation for the move the main masts saddle (collar that supports the boom) and sail hoops have been removed, less bits to get in the way. All four wooden sections of the saddle are showing signs of rot and will need to be renewed before the spring, also the hoops will need sanding and a coat of varnish.

Most of Shamrock's rigging bottlescrews have been scraped and wire brushed clean of old paint and bitumen ready for a fresh coat of paint and finally greasing.

Getting Organised

One of the problems the crew has is identifying what rigging blocks go where during the rigging of Shamrock in the spring. The blocks are labeled during the de-rigging of Shamrock but these tend to get lost or replaced on the wrong block when they are removed during the winter maintenance process of cleaning, greasing, painting and varnishing. This year three sections of boat shed upper shelf have been allocated to main, mizzen and stay sails where the respective sails and rigging ropes are stored along with their blocks which are hung below the shelf. The blocks will now be a lot easier to locate and if the labels do end up on the wrong block at least we will know to which area of the rigging they belong.

A start has been made on the stripping of all the varnish and paint from the mizzen. Nancy Belle which is now on the boat shed slipway has been scrubbed out and the paint inside the hull looks OK for another season. Outboard, her bottom and sides will need a rub down and another coat of paint though.

Lowering Shamrock's Main Mast

Lowering Shamrock's main mast takes quite a bit of preparation the first of which is the removal of all her rigging and as many blocks as possible, the process is then to:

• Fit a wire strop to the top of the main mast.
• Blocks and tackles are attached between the forward stays (wires that support the mast) and bulwark stanchions, these steady the mast during the lowering.
• A block and tackle is fitted between the forward mainstay and its fixing point on the cap of the stem (bow) along with a safety rope.
• A temporary pivot pin is fitted through the tabernacle and mast, then the holding bolt and main pin are removed.
• As the mizzen mast is used in the lowering this has to be prepared by rigging of the starboard stays as a forward and after stay, fitting a snatch-block to the top of the mast and a wooden block to the mizzen tabernacle, this supports the main mast once it has been lowered.
• The initial lower is started by heaving on a rope attached to the top of mast and once gravity takes over is controlled by the mainstay and side stays blocks and tackles ensuring that the mast falls to the starboard side of the mizzen.
• Lowering is stopped once the mast has dropped below the top of the mizzen to allow the deck winch cable to be passed through a block attached to the bow, through the snatch-block at the top of the mizzen and finally attached to the wire strop at the top of the main mast.
• Using the power (human) of the deck winch the cable slack is taken up, mainstay block and tackle released and the mast finally lowered to its resting place on the mizzen tabernacle.

Not a bad days work.

Shamrock's crew accept no responsibility for errors or omissions in this article.

Stripped masts.

Preparing for the final drop. 

Both masts down.

End Of Season

With the end of the season and after the noise and the crowds of last week this week has seen the boat shed back to its normal quiet self with only a few visitors strolling through.

The serious business of de-rigging Shamrock is now well under way with the removal of all her sails, sail covers, booms, gaffs, bowsprit, light boxes and anything else that is easily removed. She is also being prepared for the lowering of her mast next week. The weather has been kind enabling the sails to be aired before being removed and stored for the winter and the only the sail covers needing to be hung up in the boat shed to dry. The booms, gaffs and bowsprit are still in remarkably good condition and will not require much maintenance over the winter months, which is more than can be said for some of the rigging blocks.

Is this the worlds largest hammock?

Broomsticks Ready

Over one hundred broomsticks were prepared ready for the Halloween half-term “Fun Broomstick Decorating” day and the boat shed ended up being invaded by lots of creative children and adults. By the end of the day there was only a few of the, shall we say ‘shabby’, examples of broomsticks left and lots of highly decorated ones in evidence all over the Cotehele estate.
The whole week of activities resulted in a very noisy boat shed and extra visitors to Shamrock. Witches and warlocks needed to park their broomsticks on the quay before being allowed onboard. There was one claimed sighting of Harry Potter, but we're not convinced.

Two squadrons of broomsticks ready for decorating.

Boat shed ready.