The running rigging is in full swing now! The construction team now has miles of rope and well over 100 blocks to weave together. Once complete, all the lines and rigging controls systems will operate a complex system of eleven different sails. Our rigging team is growing and highly motivated. The core rigging team of Noah, Kiel, Adrian, Bruce, Dennis and Randall are receiving a boost of energy from our newest rigging volunteer Eleandra…. we will be bending on sail in the next couple of months, anxious to get off the dock.
Exterior carpentry is almost complete and “looking great” in the Sausalito sunshine. There is just enough bright work to highlight the beauty of our ship without major effort to keep it up. Any day the windless, anchors and anchor chain are due to arrive adding 5000 lbs to the bow, to bring her closer to her designed water line.
We also have a newly organized sewing team: Barbara, Pam, Karen, Peter, Benson, Margie, Jenny, Michael, Susie and new volunteer Ingrid. They work on Fridays and Saturdays, making Lee Cloths, designing curtains for Matthew Turner’s bunks, and soon they will be sewing bunk covers, dinghy covers, and sail covers!
Hooking up the eco-hybrid propulsion system, vessel electronics, plumbing and instrumentation remains a herculean challenge before we can get Matthew Turner off the dock. Our big challenge is to fund the lithium batteries (more than $100,000). We have high hopes our funding will keep up with the construction schedule.
Thank you all who have helped us get this far. It is amazing!!!
Fair Winds,
Alan Olson
Generous capital funding provided in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation
