ABERDEEN — After two years of fundraising, the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport was able to purchase new sails for the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain at a cost of about $140,000. Most of the money for the sails — 19 of them between the two ships — came from individual donations, said Brandi Bednarik, Executive Director of the Seaport.
The Lady Washington has been at the ship’s home port in Aberdeen since mid-October while the crew focuses on maintenance of the rigging and replacement of old sails. Port Captain Jamie Trost said the Seaport’s full-size replica of the original 18th century ship will be getting nine new sails. He said he hopes the new sails will last at least 10 seasons.
“We went up in the cloth weight this time just to make them a little more durable,” Trost said.
“The sails are made out of a material called Oceanus which was developed for traditional sailing ships to have a synthetic material that looks and feels like actual canvas. Modern sail material is really stiff and slippery — two things that we don’t like to see on traditional ships. When we put the sails away, we have to scrunch them down into a furl and that’s really hard if the cloth is stiff,” he explained. Slippery material could be dangerous for the crew of a traditional ship while putting up and taking down the sails, he added.
“While we downrigged the ship to get ready for that, we took the opportunity to take a lot of the rig off,” he said.
“You can have new sails, that’s great. Getting new sails is kind of like getting new tires for your car, but did you check the axles, the rotors and the hubs and everything? So we took this opportunity while we’re here to focus on inspecting all that other stuff,” he said.
“We took the rigging down and now we’re putting it back up in the same way that they would’ve in the 1790s if Lady Washington had spent a winter on Grays Harbor. They might have done the exact same thing that we’re doing right now,” he said.
The first round of day sails is next weekend (Feb. 15-16) during which the Lady Washington will sail toward Cosmopolis before returning to the Seaport after about 2-3 hours, Bednarik said. There’s a special winter price, $25 per person for the February day sails, she said. Those interested should call the Historical Seaport at 360-532-8611.
“We’ll have a couple of sails rigged for that. We’ll finish that round of day sails, and then during the week when things are slow, we’ll continue to rig the rest of the ship, bend on some more sails, and we’ll have a fuller suite of sails for the second weekend of day sails (Feb. 22-23),” said Trost.
Trost said the crew will get all the new sails and finish rigging the ship by the end of February. He added that the weather has been a big factor in planning the maintenance.
“There are no good painting days (in January). Rigging in the rain can be an issue,” he said.
“In order to keep on schedule, we’ve got to put up with (the rain). It’s a little bit slower because it’s slippery, the crew is wearing foul weather gear, and communication can be challenging because of the noise,” he said.
“If it’s raining that’s one thing, if it’s windy, that’s another thing. If it’s raining, windy and cold, that’s the trifecta of misery for the crew,” Trost said. He added that the crew is living aboard the ship during winter maintenance.
“The windy days here at this dock, things get pretty loud, the mooring lines creak and groan. We go through a pretty significant tide cycle so we can’t constantly have the lines under the same strain. You hear it in the middle of the night when we’re up high and there’s a little slack in the lines. The ship moves around a little more. When we’re at low tide and everything’s tight, things are quieter,” he said.
“The weather is a constant factor for all sailors. The biggest factor for us weather-wise will be when we can eventually leave Grays Harbor and get into the inland waters of the straits and the Sound. Going offshore this month would’ve been miserable for all, but hopefully by March, we’ll have a little bit better luck,” he said.
The captain and crew are hoping to make it to inland waters on March 1-2, according to Bednarik.
“We just need one day to get up to Cape Flattery and then after that, the weather can do whatever it wants,” Trost said.
