06-16-2007, 09:22 PM
I was visiting my brother and some old friends near St Simons Island this weekend, while talking to my old friend Laura she told me of a tall ship that has tied up the the marina in Brunswick. She a photo hound and was taking some pics of the boat when the owners asked her if she would like to come aboard and have a tour of the boat. She went aboard and took some remarkable photos. She told me I should go check it out before I left so Saturday afternoon my brother and I drove on down to the marina. You could see the mast from a mile away so it wasn't hard to find. It's tied up behind an old seafood market that once had seen some better days. We pulled in and parked the truck ignoring the no trespassing signs and walked on over to the ship. It was a 157' 3 masted brigatine built in South America launched in 1989. She's wooden hulled with 141' aluminum masts. Main and mizzen are gaff rigged with topsails, the foremast is square rigged. We were checking the ship out when a 14 year old boy appeard on deck and invited us to come aboard 
. He met us at the top of the gangplank and began giving us the tour. This kid knows more about boats than most of us ever will. He has even piloted the boat out of the harbor himself. The boat is owned by a communal church and is being lived on by this young man along with his 2 younger sisters and his mom and dad. The boat was purchased from the owner after the yard it was sitting in for 6 years was sold and the new owner wanted every thing out. The church had inquired about purchasing the boat about a year before that but it was too much money for them, 3million. The owner of the boat called them and asked if they still wanted the boat. They purchased it for what it cost to have the bronze portholes made. What a deal! The boat was unrigged but had masts, it must have been quite a job but the masts are stepped and sails have been built for her. They have had her out 1 time with sails up but the Coast Guard has stopped her from navigating the harbor without a pilot. She displaces 317 tons and the limit is 300 tons. Now they are trying to get some sort of exemption so they can still use the boat because it is a private boat and not being used for commercial use in any way. They have the local government on their side but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Now we got a grand tour of this boat. Inside and out it was made with no expense spared. There are stained glass windows in the cabin doors. Every cabin has it's own head complete with jacuzzi and bidet. The woodwork is fantastic with mahogany everywhere you look. This ship is truely fit for a king. It has a drop down transom that was made to land a helicopter on and store it below deck. All the portholes are custom made bronze with beveled glass. The twin windlass is also custom bronze which the boy giving us the tour said was a lot of work to keep shined. The rigging on this boat is beautiful. All the standing rigging is gavinized 7x7 that has been coved with a black thin line with turks heads tied in here and there. This boat is a work of art through and through. The owners are working on her constantly of course. Right now they are rewiring everything with tinned stranded wire. Aparently money was spared on the original wiring and they used solid strand.
Now we had enjoyed our tour and we were up on deck talking to this young 14 year old sailor about this and that when I finally decided to ask the question that I had been wanting to ask when I first saw this ship. What do you say to someone who asks to climb the rigging. Climb on up he said.
This was one of those times that may only come around once I was thinking so I put my camera bag down, straped my Nikon around my neck and climbed down to the main deck. I looked up the mast and 120' above me was the lubbers platform. I was going up! I climbed to the outside of the ratlines and began my long ascent. I got about halfway up and things began to look really far below me. The wind was blowing stronger up there and I could feel the rig moving around. My climbing slowed down and my heart sped up with every foot higher I went. The boy decide to join me and sped past me. He had no problem climbing the rigging and waited for me on the platform above me that still looked like it was 100' away. Slowly I climbed higher until I was about 10 feet from the top. Now about 10 feet from the top the ratlines get a LOT smaller. There as also a surpise for me up there, in order to get on the small platform you have to go around the stainless rods that are holding it up. This means you have to hold on with you hands and let your feet dangle in the air while you squeeze your body around the rods and rigging. A safety harness would have been nice about that time, but we didn't have anything like that. I managed to finally get to the lubbers platform and the view was all I imagined it would be and more. I was standing 120' above the world on a tallship! My chicken s--- brother wouldn't even consider going up. For me it was dream come true and something I will always remember. I took a bunch of pictures from up there which I'll post when I get home. I was up there for about an hour and enjoyed every second of it.
Getting back down around the platform supports was even harder than getting up. There was so little space for your feet to go up there and you have to cross your left leg around your right somehow and over the supports and onto the ratline below. Once again your legs dangle over 120' of nothing while you swing into position only this time you're looking down at what you could land on if you slip. Being that close to the mast the only spash I would have made would have come from my body as it splattered on the deck. You only live once and today was one of those days when I was living it up.....really up.....high up! As you guessed by now I made it back down without any problems, with a dream crossed of my list things I want to someday do. It was fantastic!
Keith
. He met us at the top of the gangplank and began giving us the tour. This kid knows more about boats than most of us ever will. He has even piloted the boat out of the harbor himself. The boat is owned by a communal church and is being lived on by this young man along with his 2 younger sisters and his mom and dad. The boat was purchased from the owner after the yard it was sitting in for 6 years was sold and the new owner wanted every thing out. The church had inquired about purchasing the boat about a year before that but it was too much money for them, 3million. The owner of the boat called them and asked if they still wanted the boat. They purchased it for what it cost to have the bronze portholes made. What a deal! The boat was unrigged but had masts, it must have been quite a job but the masts are stepped and sails have been built for her. They have had her out 1 time with sails up but the Coast Guard has stopped her from navigating the harbor without a pilot. She displaces 317 tons and the limit is 300 tons. Now they are trying to get some sort of exemption so they can still use the boat because it is a private boat and not being used for commercial use in any way. They have the local government on their side but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.Now we got a grand tour of this boat. Inside and out it was made with no expense spared. There are stained glass windows in the cabin doors. Every cabin has it's own head complete with jacuzzi and bidet. The woodwork is fantastic with mahogany everywhere you look. This ship is truely fit for a king. It has a drop down transom that was made to land a helicopter on and store it below deck. All the portholes are custom made bronze with beveled glass. The twin windlass is also custom bronze which the boy giving us the tour said was a lot of work to keep shined. The rigging on this boat is beautiful. All the standing rigging is gavinized 7x7 that has been coved with a black thin line with turks heads tied in here and there. This boat is a work of art through and through. The owners are working on her constantly of course. Right now they are rewiring everything with tinned stranded wire. Aparently money was spared on the original wiring and they used solid strand.
Now we had enjoyed our tour and we were up on deck talking to this young 14 year old sailor about this and that when I finally decided to ask the question that I had been wanting to ask when I first saw this ship. What do you say to someone who asks to climb the rigging. Climb on up he said.
This was one of those times that may only come around once I was thinking so I put my camera bag down, straped my Nikon around my neck and climbed down to the main deck. I looked up the mast and 120' above me was the lubbers platform. I was going up! I climbed to the outside of the ratlines and began my long ascent. I got about halfway up and things began to look really far below me. The wind was blowing stronger up there and I could feel the rig moving around. My climbing slowed down and my heart sped up with every foot higher I went. The boy decide to join me and sped past me. He had no problem climbing the rigging and waited for me on the platform above me that still looked like it was 100' away. Slowly I climbed higher until I was about 10 feet from the top. Now about 10 feet from the top the ratlines get a LOT smaller. There as also a surpise for me up there, in order to get on the small platform you have to go around the stainless rods that are holding it up. This means you have to hold on with you hands and let your feet dangle in the air while you squeeze your body around the rods and rigging. A safety harness would have been nice about that time, but we didn't have anything like that. I managed to finally get to the lubbers platform and the view was all I imagined it would be and more. I was standing 120' above the world on a tallship! My chicken s--- brother wouldn't even consider going up. For me it was dream come true and something I will always remember. I took a bunch of pictures from up there which I'll post when I get home. I was up there for about an hour and enjoyed every second of it.
Getting back down around the platform supports was even harder than getting up. There was so little space for your feet to go up there and you have to cross your left leg around your right somehow and over the supports and onto the ratline below. Once again your legs dangle over 120' of nothing while you swing into position only this time you're looking down at what you could land on if you slip. Being that close to the mast the only spash I would have made would have come from my body as it splattered on the deck. You only live once and today was one of those days when I was living it up.....really up.....high up! As you guessed by now I made it back down without any problems, with a dream crossed of my list things I want to someday do. It was fantastic!
Keith
hock: