pictures are worth 1000 words

We begin this weeks blog with a visit from Scott Watts who was in town delivering a boat and came by to see Luna. Scott and his family generously donated Luna to the Foundation and have been following along in her construction. This is his first time seeing her in almost three years- Geez, has it really been that long? Here is Scott enjoying the view from the stern. Thank you for making this possible! 

The shipwright spent the weekend working on the transom windows. Looking at the picture, the four vertical slats at the top of the boat show the approximate size of each framed area. The major concern is obviously keeping water out. The challenge though is being able to open them when needed and keeping the structure strong enough to take on crashing waves over the stern while keeping her historical appearance. While we don't plan on doing bluewater cruising, rogue storms on the Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound have knocked down more than one ship, so safety is foremost in our thoughts.

Our Custom House made quite a splash at its debut in Hampton at this years Hunt for Hampton History and Blackbeard Festival. Local photographer Anthony Prater captured this picture at the Blackbeard Festival and did a little photo-shop magic to turn it into a painting. Anthony is a freelance photographer and has been working on a few photo projects in the downtown area focusing on the city's architecture. Thanks for allowing us to use the picture Anthony! In the background is the Kalmar Nykel, Delawares state ship.

Of Workdays and Pictures

We returned to the workshop after being driven off by the heat for a couple of weeks and darned if we didn't make some progress! In the meantime, I learned how to add pictures to the blog- there's no stopping me now!


Today was busy with six of us on site through the day. Our money shot for the day is the roughing in of the first two new quarter deck beams! Despite the rest of our absence, the shipwright has almost completed the stern and we surprised ourselves today by being able to set the new beams in place as the final job of the day. This puts a whole new perspective on the size of the cabin. Pictured are the shipwright and Larry, who has been out to several events with us and joined us for the first time on the farm today.

Blackeard Festival

The 11th annual Hampton Blackbeard Festival is over and all have had a chance to rest. To begin, we can't thank our members and their patient families for the turn out this weekend.

The beer pull went amazingly well. We had 16 show up, which enabled us to man two sites. Thank you to all who made it out and endured the heat.

update

This week has been busy on the Foundation front. This Saturday the 26th will find members at Hamptons Street Fest. We will be manning a beer tent to raise funds for "Luna" and draw attention to the 10th annual Hampton Blackbeard Festival. Stop by and say hello....

Preparations are under way for the Blackbeard Festival. If you are visiting, please stop by the tent and say hello. We will be located in Mill Point Park, same corner as usual.

This Sunday was spent moving lumber. It seems we had lost quite a bit of floor space in the workshop to lots and lots of lumber. So, the area known as the "chicken coop" was cleaned out. The coops resident tractor has a new home coming and the lumber was stacked in its new digs to continue drying. This included oak, juniper, pine, red cedar and a couple pieces of mystery wood (more on the mystery wood later). Photos would be a good addition right about now, but I don't have any. To give an idea of the size lumber we work with the cedar planks are 18 inches wide by 16 feet long, which we mill down and use for hull planks. The largest pieces of oak are six by ten inches by almost 20 feet long, hence the need for steel tipped footwear. These monsters will form the new keelson. The Juniper is to be used for deck stringers.

On to mystery wood. When we began the process of rebulding Luna, we knew we had our work cut out for us, literally! As we began stripping back the layers of accumulated muck and goo, we found various stages of repair and restoration. Eventually, the idea was hatched to save odd and unique pieces that we found. Eventually we identified eight different woods that were used in her repair or reconstruction, this included a cedar tree stump which was used to hold up the V-birth. Other species included oak, juniper, pine, walnut, mahognany, oak, and several unidentified pieces that we hope to find a project for because they were too nice to throw out.

Sunday is a work day. Hope to see you there.