The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere. According to their website “From daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce, NOAA’s products and services support economic vitality and affect more than one-third of America’s gross domestic product.” It was formed in 1970 by then President Richard Nixon for better protection of life and property from natural hazards from three existing agencies – the US Coast and Geodetic Survey (1807), the Weather Bureau (1870), and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (1871).

With his experience, Captain Jon is able to listen to the NOAA forecast and interpret the best direction for the J&E Riggin to sail on any particular day and be able to look ahead for the length of a schooner cruise to have an idea of what our course might look like.

This link will take you to the written version of the radio broadcast that the Captain listens to every morning and evening.

We are now to the point in outfitting where we need to start getting all the lines up followed by the spar being put in place and then the sails. We are inside our 30 day countdown – 16 days til board for our first trip of the 2011 season!

The schooners at Windjammer Wharf, Stephen Taber, J&E Riggin & Nathaniel Bowditch, get ready for the season by taking their winter covers off.

And the deck sees the 'sun' again

Mouse prepares for a trip aloft to get the rigging started.

Toni gets lines and pulleys ready to go

Up and up and up he goes - Mouse climbs the ratlines

Tagged: Alan Castonguay, ratlines, Rockland Windjammer Wharf, Schooner J. & E. Riggin, Schooner Nathaniel Bowditch, Schooner Stephen Taber, Toni Ridout, winter cover, Wooden Boat Maintenance ]]> http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/05/12/winter-cover-comes-off/feed/ 0 Lady E Rockland Windjammer Wharf Schooners J&E Riggin's winter cover is off! Alan Castonguay aka Mouse gets harnessed Toni gets lines and pulleys ready to go Going aloft http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/05/12/replacing-the-rail-cap/ http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/05/12/replacing-the-rail-cap/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 16:33:36 +0000 J&E Riggin http://mainesailsblog.com/?p=1564 ]]> One of the last “big” project of the outfitting season this year was replacing part of the rail cap on the port side of the schooner.

Rail Cap Deconstructed Photo by Alan Castonguay

Rail Cap Work Begins Photo by Alan Castonguay

Mike Rogers, a boat carpenter, leads the rail cap repairs.

Measure twice & cut once!

Inside complete

A coat of primer and paint & she's as good as new

Tagged: Mike Rogers, rail cap work, Schooner J. & E. Riggin, Wooden Boat Maintenance, Wooden Boat Repair ]]> http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/05/12/replacing-the-rail-cap/feed/ 0 Lady E Rail Cap Deconstructed photo by Alan Castonguay Rail Cap Work Begins photo by Alan Castonguay Rail Cap Repairs Led by Mike Rogers Rail Cap Repairs - Measure 3 times & cut once! Rail Cap Repairs Rail Cap Repairs Complete http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/04/28/fore-gaff-repairs/ http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/04/28/fore-gaff-repairs/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:26:21 +0000 J&E Riggin http://mainesailsblog.com/?p=1505 ]]> One of the rainy day projects Captain Jon has been working on is a small repair to the fore gaff. The fore gaff is the upper spar attached to the forward mast, the lower spar is the boom (the one you duck from so you don’t get hit in the head!)

Captain Jon used Douglas Fir for the repair, the same wood the whole spar is made from.

Once the repairs were done, Scott did the painting. She’s now ready to go for the season.

If you’ve sailed with us before you have seen the water barrels that sit on deck.

Behind these two lovely blonde fairies you can see two of the water barrels on deck.

They have served us well for the last 10 years but last year the metal rings finally gave out. This put Captain Jon on the hunt for new barrels. We were lucky enough to find someone here in Maine that has them shipped by the tractor trailer full up from Kentucky.

Before they will be ready to use for water this season they need some sprucing up. Scraping down the outside will expose the natural wood (oak) color to which we will protect with varnish as we do on all the exposed wood on the Riggin, aside from the deck and cabin tops which get oiled. Next the metal bands will get painted black as they were on our old barrels.

The crew has been quite excited to get started on this project, though they needed to wait for a rainy day (the days we do barn project and are not on the boat). This day came on Wednesday.

When I arrived at the office the crew had already started working on the barrels. I walked into the barn and Cap came over with a plastic tub with wood shavings saying “smell!” Now normally when someone walks up to you and tells you to smell something common sense tells you not to, but this was Cap so what the heck! Wholly Whiskey Batman! It was amazing how the smell of Kentucky whiskey has absorbed through the oak staves so when the crew scrapped the outside layer of wood all the shavings smelled like a distillery. Some of the stamped labels on the barrel heads were in pretty good shape so we kept them, they’ll make for a great story.

For fun: The Clermont Springs Distillery that our barrels came from produces whiskey and bourbon for Jim Bean. Last year they celebrated their 75th anniversary.

“For 75 years, the Jim Beam Clermont Distillery has stood strong amidst the Kentucky landscape,” said Jeff Conder, vice president, Americas Operations, Beam Global Spirits & Wine. “Today, we celebrate the role the Distillery has played in shaping Jim Beam Bourbon into the world’s number one-selling bourbon and its continued significant contribution to Kentucky Tourism through our commitment to a multi-million-dollar tourism development project.”

As I stepped out of the car Cap says “Come see the peapod.” As we walk over he tells me the crew is done painting and the peapod is now outside getting her first rays of sunshine. When I walk around the side of the truck my eyes gaze upon the bright and shiny paint that now covers the little row-boat. She’s beautiful, as she is every year, and this year is no exception. New, unscratched, unweathered  white, deep red, green, yellow and black paint. One can’t help but feel the anticipation of the sailing season just around the corner. Only 45 days until we set sail for the first trip!

Oh and the other thing Cap showed me was the new water barrels he picked up yesterday….but that’s another post!

In recent weeks Captain Jon has started on a few projects.

In the barn Cap has started sanding and staining the forward skylight and adding window bars.

The forward skylight that's been sanded down. Cap made these rails to cover the glass area for an extra layer of protection.

What happens to the oak when water and iron seep in around the glass window.

After bleaching three times and a round of and Oxy-type cleaner

Cleaned up and with a fresh coat of varnish

On the boat he has started the process of adding in a deck beam on either side of the main mast (in front of cabin 9 and 11) to give it more support. In the photo above the blocks that you see below the skylight are the new sections of deck beam that will recieve a coat of paint and then be placed as additional mast support.

While Captain Jon is busy in the barn and on the boat, Annie and Elizabeth are busy in the office working on marketing, reservations, testing recipes, and writing – lots of writing. And then there is family life.

The zinc on bottom is what we'll replace while out of the water - it's left from last year. The zinc above was put on this spring during our haul out.

“Any time you have two different metals that are physically or electrically connected and immersed in seawater, they become a battery. Some amount of current flows between the two metals. The electrons that make up that current are supplied by one of the metals giving up bits of itself-in the form of metal ions-to the seawater. This is called galvanic corrosion and, left unchecked, it quickly destroys underwater metals.

The most common casualty of galvanic corrosion is a bronze or aluminum propeller on a stainless steel shaft, but metal struts, rudders, rudder fittings, outboards, and stern drives are also at risk. The way we counteract galvanic corrosion is to add a third metal into the circuit, one that is quicker than the other two to give up its electrons. This piece of metal is called a sacrificial anode, and most often it is zinc. In fact, most boaters refer to sacrificial anodes simply as zincs.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of maintaining the zinc anodes on your boat. When a zinc is gone, the metal component it was installed to protect begins to dissolve-guaranteed.”

~ Elizabeth
learning more each day

The J&E Riggin out of the water

View of the Riggin's transom

This week Captain Jon, the crew, and experienced boat carpenter (and former owner of the day sailing bugeye Schooner Jenny Norman) Mike Rogers have been busy busy busy. Projects this week include replacing tie rods on either side of the centerboard trunk, replacing a plank next to the centerboard log, recaulking sections hull seams, replacing the zincs on the hull and rudder, inspecting a keel bolt, and repainting the bottom.

The captions on the photos below give a little description of some of these projects.

Toni & Bo setting up scaffolding

Scott power washing the Riggin's hull

A plank from the hull is being replaced (one out from the centerboard log)

View looking up from the hull into cabin 4

Experienced ship's carpenter, Mike Rogers, takes measurements for the new plank

This keel bolt has held up quite nicely over the last 36 years.

Capt Jon shows the worm hole where the keel bolt was removed from.

And that’s what’s been happening in our corner of the ocean. Not much is happening today however as overnight a Nor’easter blew in and turn we gave the crew a much deserved day off. They predicted gusts up to 55mph and Capt Jon is sure that when he walked out of the workshop this morning is was ‘blowin’ stink’ at 45!

If all goes well with the remaining project list over the weekend we’re thinking of going back in early next week. Then it’ll be time to put her coat on for the long winter ahead.

~Elizabeth
learning all kinds of new boat terms