Break and make! Shtandart needs your head of fire and hands of gold
22.09.2016
“Break and make! Shtandart needs your head of fire and hands of gold” – states the major rebuild that starts in Fall 2016 and should be completed by Spring 2017.
Our project team invites everyone who wants to help and is looking for an excuse to do so. The ship will soon celebrate her 17th anniversary, and this is a fairly respectable age. We had a lot of week to month long maintenance projects, but now we’re into it for real.
Chuck the old deck that leaked into everybody’s hammock and dripped water into your tea in the main saloon. Blow it up, disassemble and build the new one from scratch. Toss away the old squeaking braces! Overhaul the standing and running rigging, give some TLC* to the spars! (*TLC = tender love and care :)) Retire the old caulking that let water through the hull! Let our engineers stop running as if they have been bitten in the stern and have some extra sleep.
Major rebuild, major for real. Finally we found some time for the ship to undergo a thorough maintenance and we gotta do it right.
Our resources are limited. We put on some “money fat” throughout the last two years and we will spend it on the basic projects that will extend the ship’s life span. However, we have a number of additional projects that would tremendously improve the life quality aboard the ship; these can only be done if we get extra funding. So we’d gladly accept any monetary contribution (http://www.shtandart.ru/donate) or get in touch with potential sponsors.
We have a precise timeline and a set of milestones that we need to reach in timely manner. We need to finish in time for us to carry on with our plans for the next year: participate in the Baltic Sea TSR regatta, make it to the multiple maritime festivals. The Portuguese yard will take up some of that work, a large part of it will be done by the ship’s carpenters, and the professional crew is doing the rest. The crew would welcome volunteers with their arms wide open.
Yes, we are calling you up. To make that happen we need hands and heads growing out of the right place. No gender, age or social limitations. That’s your chance to build your happiness with your own two hands. All this is happening in warm and soulful Portugal. You’ll need to get to the yard and back on your own. We guarantee a deep dive into the wooden ship building, hard work in a cheery friendly company and colorful time off full of things to do.
We can invite you only for specific dates and specific projects; each project has a set number of volunteers. This is because almost all the deck will be gone and you won’t be able to live aboard. We have very limited accommodations ashore. But the food is going to be superb as always!
Find your place in the timeline from November, 21st, 2016 to April 9th, 2017 in the Portuguese town Vila do Conde. Send your application to ship@shtandart.eu with the “Rebuild” in the subject line. Tell us a bit about yourself in the email and specify the dates you’re interested in.
Talk to you soon!
We’d greatly appreciate if you spread the word!
Full-sized picture you can find here
*After Feb 2017, the dates are approximate. If the first part goes well, hull painting and spar installation can be done earlier and the rebuild will be over by the beginning of March.
Project types explanation:
Downrig – taking down rigging and spars and storing them for the winter. Includes sails, yards, topmasts and masts.
Disassembling quarterdeck bulkhead – taking down the bulkhead between the main deck and the quarterdeck and the poop deck gangways.
Disassembling deck – taking apart the deck planks.
Disassembling interior planking – taking down the decorative interior planks above the main deck.
Disassembling second cockpit (saloon) – taking apart the heads and interior decorations to get to the bulkhead between the main saloon and the second saloon to change the wiring.
Removing caulking – removing all the old caulking to prepare to caulk the ship all over.
Replacing plating fasteners – replacing the old nails that keep underwater plating together
Rigging overhaul and spar maintenance – sanding, repairing and varnishing the topmasts, yards and blocks, inspection and re-serving of the standing rigging.
Capstan rebuild – replacing/restoration of the metal base of the capstan.
Assembling interior planking – putting together new interior planks above the main deck.
Ventilation – interior ventilation system improvement.
Painting bottom - priming and painting the hull below the waterline with the bottom paint.
Fit out – putting the spars and the standing rigging back together, final prep for going out to sea.
