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.

Steam Box

In preparation for handing over half of the boat shed for use during Halloween half-term "Fun on the quay" events, the rather large wood pile in the boat shed has been sorted and the majority of it moved to a new store. At the bottom of the pile a large old metal tube was found, removed and broken up, with the aid of a large "Birmingham" screwdriver, ready for disposal. This was originally a metal lamp post that had been converted, with the addition of a couple of emersion heater elements, to be used as a 'steam box' for softening wooden planks during the restoration of Shamrock. It was well used judging by the amount of scale found inside and after the restoration ended up being moved into the boat shed, once it had been built, never to be used again.

Halloween half-term fun on Cotehele quay
Monday 27th to Friday 31st October 11am - 3pm.
Monday & Thursday - pumpkin-carving.
Tuesday - mask-making.
Wednesday - broomstick-decorating.
Friday – monster-making.

Winter Rain

With the arrival of the first of the winter's rains Shamrock's decks are taking up again (swelling) and she is remaining remarkably dry below deck for the time of year. This is also partly due to her new cargo hold vents.

Winter Working

Along with the plan to get both masts and all of Shamrock's rigging into the boat shed for winter maintenance the list of dry day jobs onboard Shamrock is also growing.

• Sections of the rear hatch coaming need replacing.
• Bulwarks and wash-strakes repaired, stripped and painted.
• Complete caulking the decks.   

These jobs are due to run over into next summer. One more job that will need to be done over the winter months is the rubbing down and painting of Nancy Belle's hull.

Boat Shed

With the removal of the shelving from the top of the old paint locker the perfect place was created to display the model of Shamrock and someone also had the idea of enhancing it with a few old rigging blocks.

Caption Competition

While looking through this summers photos the crew member Barry came across this photo taken during the fitting of Nancy Belle's new engine. It seems to be made for a caption competition so feel free to add one in the comments. The best one will printed with the photo and added to the boat sheds photo collage.

A suggestion from the crew:-

Who left that there?

Mass Boarding

Wednesday was a bit busier than normal when 80 plus pupils, staff and helpers from Liskeard’s St. Martin’s Primary School visited Cotehele. They all managed to visit Shamrock, doing so in groups of about fifteen, and unusually she was not referred to as a pirate ship. One lad did ask if we kept the cannons in the hold as he was about to go below, sorry but we did disappoint him.

King of the Hill

With the end of the season comes the “King of the Hill” cycling event, a cycling competition. Competitors take a gentle ride up the steep hill, which is timed, from Cotehele Quay up towards Cotehele House. This is due to take place on Saturday 18th October and is becoming an annual event. As usual Shaun has been volunteered to make the trophies, there is a rumour that these unusual trophies are becoming sought after in the cycling world!

With Peter preparing to take his boat “Shanti” out of the water for the winter, Shamrock’s dock is beginning to look a little crowded.