Picton Castle under full sail. (Jean Jarreau photo)
MARIGOT–Non-profit association Caribbean Sail Training (CST) has announced that, in partnership with Maritime School of the West Indies (MSWI), it will be offering a three-month special-session Rigging Course in the bosun school on board the three-mast vessel Picton Castle in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada.
“This is a unique and once in a lifetime chance to participate in a “master’s course” in ship rigging for professionally focused mariners and those interested in such rigging, said CST. “This will be a great deal of hard work. The test and ‘final exam’ will produce a re-rigged ship in perfect order. The work needs to be good enough for a ship that sails deep-sea, offshore and around the world.”
Arrival date/start date is September 12, 2019. Last day of the course and graduation is Friday, December 13, 2019, with a return to the Caribbean on Saturday or Sunday.
Candidates, male or female, must be 18 years or older. A curriculum vitae with picture must be e-mailed to Caribbean Sail Training at
info@CaribbeanSailTraining.com together with a motivation letter and eventual sea/ship experience.
This is a three- month course. Accommodation in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, will be on board the vessel Picton Castle. Fall and Winter can be cold there, so warm clothing will be necessary. Interested persons need to have a valid passport and eventually a visa if needed. Contact
info@CaribbeanSailTraining.com
The owner and captain of Picton Castle, a veteran of five circumnavigations around the world, explained what is involved:
“What we will do is fully down-rig the three-mast Barque Picton Castle, and rig her up again. This is a big job and it is a young rigger’s dream. And a rigging job like this on a proper deep-sea, oceangoing, square-rigged sailing ship does not come along very often. As soon as the ship gets back from her voyage to the Great Lakes in early September we begin; send down sails, un-reave running rigging, send down blocks, label and stow, all in a ‘properly seamanlike’ way.”
“After that, down come yards and topmasts, all with tackles, smarts and capstans, in the time-honoured and safest way. No cranes allowed, no accidents. This is seamanship. Like all seamanship, this requires judgement. Then all spars, shackles, blocks and wires get closely examined and surveyed.
“Then we get to the wire work. We will be overhauling and no doubt replacing some wire rigging. This means getting good at examining a piece of rigging and assessing what needs to be done, and getting good at measuring, parcelling, serving, wire-splicing, and wire-seizings, then setting it up in proper tension.
“This will all get done at our dock and rigging loft in Lunenburg right next to our ship-fitting carpentry shop and new ship chandlery on Bluenose Drive. And we will still have lots of small-boat-handling, sail-making, boat carpentry and all the rest. We will be busy, very busy. And tarry.”
The Picton Castle is a member vessel of Caribbean Sail Training and is registered in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, and is owned and operated by Windward Isles Sailing Ship Company, Ltd.
The ship’s mission is deep-ocean sail training and long-distance education. The ship is a completely refitted barque that observes the rigorous standards of Germanischer Lloyds for steel-hulled Cape Horners. She is 179 feet overall, with riveted steel hull, clear oiled-pine decks, steel masts, and wooden and steel yards.
She carries 12,450 square feet of canvas sail. The ship also has a powerful 690 hp Burmeister and Wain alpha diesel engine for occasions when sailing is not feasible. The galley is on deck, and its 1893 cook stove is similar to those used on commercial sailing ships 100 years ago.
There are berths for 40 sail trainees and 12 professional crew members. Usually about half of the trainees are men and half women. Their ages range from 18 to 60+, with the majority under 35. Sleeping accommodations are bunkroom style, in two tiers of pilot bunks. Bunks have curtains for privacy and individual reading lights.
Picton Castle is a true working tall ship. Sail trainees participate fully in the ship’s operation: handling sails, scrubbing the deck, taking a turn at the wheel, raising anchor, hauling on lines, helping in the galley, going aloft (optional), and keeping lookout. There are training classes in seamanship and navigation, plenty of opportunities to learn square-rig sailing and, on the world voyages, to explore exotic tropical ports and islands.
Picton Castle has visited St. Maarten-St. Martin already several times and, on one of the previous voyages with a stop in Marigot, CST sponsored and delivered a new yard for the ship.
Captain Daniel Moreland is one of the most respected sailing ship masters at sea today. An internationally recognised authority on square-rig and traditional sailing ships, he started his career sailing in the West Indies in island schooners, brigantines, and passenger windjammers.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89442-cst-offers-3-month-rigging-course-on-picton-castle
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