The first step always begins at the spar shed. After the spars have been cleaned and re-oiled we store them under the plastic spar shed. the shed is something we have to build every year as the plastic doesn’t hold up well for more than a winter. The Main yard requires all the able bodies we can find to lift it off the horses and onto the spar cart. Keep in mind through all of this that the main yard weighs about one ton and is 54′ long.

With the yard in position we attach the same setup to lift the yard into place as we used on the fore yard.

We add an additional block to lift the one ton yard into place. So the gantline is tied off around the top of the main mast, goes down through the block on the yard, up to the block under the working top then down to a fair lead and out to the truck.

This is Pret Woodburn, not the unibomber, helping with the rigging. He is a former employee, timber framer and all around nice guy. the day we lifted this yard into position it was blowing about 30 knots and very cold. Normally we wouldn’t try to rig on a day like this but we were running out of time before the ship was to open to the public.

The truck lifts the yard off the cart, the same as the fore yard, and we ease the tag line that is holding the yard back, and let the yard swing over to the ship. We dress the stbd. yard arm when it is on the stbd. side of the mast.

With the yard in position we climb up and attach the tye, and the parrels just as the fore yard. Everything is that much bigger on the main that it is always a big pain to get it all done. The cold and wind just add a level of difficulty that reminds us we should have studied something else back in school.

The main topmast is rigged much in the same way as the fore top mast. Two main differences are the weight of everything on the main top is at least fifty percent heavier than the fore top mast and the starting location of the spar.rse is different.

We have to take part of the dock side exhibit down in order to wheel the spar into place. The louvered panel in the picture has been removed and slide sideways to allow the cart with the top mast near the ship. While the top mast is big, the next spar, the main yard, which we affectionately call the “Big one” just fits into the exhibit space. More on that tomorrow.

So, the process, once the spar is in place is much the same as the fore top mast. We swing the mast over to the ship, raise it through the main mast cap and dress the mast with all the gear necessary before raising the mast up and setting the fid in place.

Couple of things that can go wrong. Too much wind will cause the unstayed mast to cant over one way or another as it goes up, placing either the gantline, snatch block or fair leads in the wrong position will result in having to lower the mast and redo the whole thing. Another fun thing that can happen, so I’ve heard, is an over zealous volunteer might make off the slack flag halyards before the mast is up, then when the over tight line snaps the mast could jump up about two feet. Ha, ha, that could be funny, especially if your in the working top and you see the mast leap upward all of a sudden. Ha, ha…

Anyway, we have to fair lead the gantline out to the truck in order to raise the mast. The driver of the truck cannot see any of the action as he is lifting the mast. Communication is key here between the driver, the riggers and everyone on deck keeping and eye on all the loose rigging as it goes up in the air.

This is the start of dressing the mast. The topmast is hanging inthe heal rope in front of the main mast. Two of us are in the working top receiving the gear and placing it on the mast head in the right order and three or four people are on deck hauling things up as we need them.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exciting episode… Rigging the “Big one”….or “that yard weighs nearly a ton you know.”

When we last left rig-up we had the sprit yard and fore topmast in place. The next spar in the sequence is the fore yard. Swinging the yards up in place is somewhat easier than the mast because the yards remain horizontal the entire time, well, hopefully they remain horizontal. All we have to do is hold back on them while the truck lifts the yard then slowly ease them over until the gantline is vertical, then raise the yard up into place. but with everything, there are a few details we have to go through for the yard to end up in the right spot.

The fore yard is placed alongside the exhibit. Fortunately the foremast and the exhibit line up so we can place the yard in the right spot for lifting. I don’t think the exhibit was planned with this in mind but it is a happy coincidence that it worked out this way. You can see the steel snatch block is still up in the rigging under the fore bowl and the sampson braid gantline is run through it.

We will bend the gantline to the middle of the yard and a tag line to the far end of the yard. the gantline will go through the snatch block down to the fair lead block on the pier then to our new truck. (Again, thanks Marty’s GMC in Kingston)

Before we lift the yard into place we rig all the gear necessary to hold the yard in place once it is up on the mast. There is the tye, rams head and halyard to lift the yard and lifts and braces to control the yard vertically and horizontally . The tye is a heavy line double through the rams head block with each end passing through the hounds on the mast. Eventually we will tie off the tye to the yard with a cow hitch and two seizings.

The lifts are made on to the fore stay collar, run through the lift blocks at the end of the yard, through a fairlead block on the first shroud then down to cleats on the mast. The brace pendants make onto the main stay, the fall ends lead to the aft end of the fore deck.

When everything is ready we haul up the yard with the truck, holding back with the tag line until the yard is in the air. When the starboard side yard arm is within reach of the foredeck we dress the yard arm. The sequence is, lift, brace then foot rope. The lift pendant fits over the yard, the brace pendant leads aft, and the foot rope spliced eye fits on last holding the other two in place.

When both sides of the yard are dressed we use the truck to lift the yard into position. It is easy to remember where the yard sits on the mast because it is the spot on the mast that is never scraped clean during spring cleaning so the mast is very dark where the mast sits. As I said before we tie off the tye around the yard. Meanwhile on deck the crew is reaving off the halyard through the rams head and the knights head on deck. The six part pulley between the rams head and the knights head provides the mechanical advantage necessary to lift the yard, if for example you can’t take your truck to sea.

To me the topmasts are the most interesting to rig. We bring them down to the pier from our shop on our spar cart. The cart was made during Al Guraldi’s era. He was the first marine shop manager back in 1958. The top mast has no rigging attached and is laying horizontally on the ground. We have to lift it up vertically, guide it through the cross and trestle trees on the foremast then into the foremast cap above it. Here,s how we do it.

Step one, as I said, is to get the mast to the waterfront. The mast is held into the cart with a come-along and we have a trailer hitch, like the kind the electric company uses when the transport new telephone poles, that we attach to one end of the spar. We have long ago worked out where to set up each spar for optimal lifting into place on the ship. the fore topmast will lay along side the back wall of the dockside exhibit.

The mast is in place and the sampson braid gantline has been moved from the sprit to the foremast. We use a big steel snatch block under the forebowl as the lifting block. We make a bowling with the sampson braid through the fid hole of the top mast. the line is hitched about 2 fathoms below the top of the mast then the line runs up to the snatch block, down to a fair lead block on the pier and finally to the truck. We rig a tag line to the fid end of the top mast and secure that to something solid on the pier. When it is time to lift with the truck the tag line prevents the mast from jsut sliding forward and not going up in the air. As the truck lifts, the tag line is slowly eased which sends the mast into the air and eventually allows it to hang vertically.

In this picture the topmast has been lifted up vertically, and is poking through the cap. You can see it sticking up above our heads. Now is the time to dress the mast. the crew on deck will send up, in the right order, shrouds, backstays, martinets, flag staff, flagstaff cross trees, flagstaff cap, the flagstaff fid, the topmast fid, topyard lifts and a the flagtstaff truck with two flag halyards. One after another each piece is placed over the mast in the right order and then finally we are ready for the heal rope.

With all the gear dressed on the mast it is time for the heal rope. Actually we rig it before anything is on the mast but that part doesn’t matter. The mast is stopped off at the cap. We let the sampson braid linethat we used to lift the mast up, go and rerig it so that the bitter end is tied around the top of the foremast, goes down through the lubbers hole in the working top, then around the sheave in the bottom of the top mast, back up to the big steal snatch block under the bowl, down the the fair lead block on the pier and finally to the truck. We have made a big block and tackle that will raise the mast up to its full majestic height. The trick now is to have someone driving the truck who can make the truck creep along and not shoot the mast up so fast it fys out of the bowl like some wild bow and arrow.

Usually, Paula and I are in the bowl for this process. We have the big fid on hand for when the mast reaches the correct hdight and shout, not too histerically, to stop the truck so we can put the fid in. The fid, by the wa,y is an iron bar about 1 1/4″ square that the mast will sit on. The fid rests on the cross trees and finally we can reeve off the lanyards for the shrouds and the mast is secure. Except of course for the head stay, which I forgot to mention we also raised up when we were dressing the mast.

The final part is to bring the head stay pendant out to the end of the bow sprit.

So… The yard we start with first, almost always, is the sprityard. It has all the same rigging as the other yards but because it is on a mast, (the bowsprit) that is at an angle the yard can sometimes be troublesome to rig. So we start with the sprit to get it out of the way and to “warm up” our rigging muscles.

This is the sprit yard hanging on a gantline. the gantline is a sampson braid line led through a temporary block on the bow sprit. The gantline is lead to our truck which, as I have stated before, is a stand in for a bunch of sailors hauling on the line. You can see the lifts and braces have been rigged to the yard but are not yet holding the yard in place.

Here’s our shop truck pulling the yard into place. The truck, by the wa,y is brand new this year. Ironically it is an extended cab truck purchase with the intention of carrying a full complement of marine artisans. It is very nice truck, purchased from Marty’s GMC in Kingston, MA.

Here is the yard in place. With the lifts and braces and halyard attached it is a simple matter of hauling the yard up to its proper height, and location on the bowsprit. For this operation we do use actual people to haul on the lifts and braces. All those lines lead to the beakshead and I don’t think we could get our truck out there. Witht he yard in place we can then attach the parrel, which help hold the yard in its proper location while sailing, and stand back and admire our cleverness.

The first yard takes about half a day to rig, if you include a coffee break, which we always do.

Over the course of the next week or so I will document the rig-up process we use on Mayflower II.

Every year, for the past fifty years, the marine artisans department has removed the ship’s rig in the fall and set it back up in the spring after overhauling everything during the winter. It is a vital part of keeping the ship healthy and a function that often goes by without much notice.

When visitors do ask about it they immediately assume we use a crane to lift the yards and topmasts into place. The entire process is accomplished with a system worked out for any ship, years ago, but instead of manpower stomping around a capstan to raise the spars into place we use our truck and fairleads out to the pier. I will explain as we go along….

Peter Arenstam and crew are on the water right now, bringing Mayflower II home to her berth at State Pier in Plymouth Harbor. Hear what Peter has to say as he audio blogs about the progress of the journey home–

Peter live from Mayflower II - 9:30 am

Outside the Canal - 10:50 am

In the Canal - 11:34 am

Into Cape Cod Bay - 12:19 pm

The Last Leg of the Journey - 1:23 pm

Passing the Hurricane Gate

Leaving Fairheaven

Approaching Cape Cod Canal

Passing under the Train Bridge

The Bourne Bridge

The crowds at Sagamore

Entering Cape Cod Bay