Even for a warship of the Sea Stallion’s size, with its length of 30 metres and rigging and mast weighing a total of 850 kg, it is an everyday manoeuvre to lower the mast and rigging – and raise them.
It’s a manoeuvre that involves the whole crew of 61. They must be able to do it routinely, quickly and safely both in harbour and, not least, in the open sea. The most important reason for being able to lower the mast quickly is that for navigational purposes there is often a need to drop the sail and row. It is a lot easier to row in a swell and against a contrary wind when the mast and rigging are down.
So Wednesday’s major activity on the ship was a three-hour exercise in lowering and raising the mast. The sun beat down over the lightly clothed, sweating crew, who needed all their strength on a super summer’s day such as they had not seen before on the voyage from Dublin to Roskilde. The arrival date of 9 August is moving steadily closer and the Sea Stallion is now lying in Lowestoft for the sixth day, waiting for the right wind.
“The day’s exercises went really well, especially the second time we lowered and raised the mast,” was skipper Carsten Hvid’s comment on the practice.
Lowering and raising the mast on the Sea Stallion can be done surprisingly quickly despite being a quite complicated affair, requiring a large number of actions delegated to individuals and groups being done in a very definite sequence if everything is to be successful.
A very simplified but fairly comprehensive outline of lowering and raising the mast is as follows:
About 20 people sit in a long row on the Sea Stallion’s thwarts and take hold of a thick hemp rope, which is an extension of the fore stay lower and runs through two blocks to make it easier for the crew when they haul. First they tighten the fore stay so the mast moves forward and the mast lock, which supports the lowest part of the mast, can be removed and the mast can be tilted backwards. At the same time, the close-haul shrouds are loosened because they are mounted on the hull towards the fore end of the ship and therefore pull the mast forwards. The close-haul shrouds are manned by six crew on each side, and it is their task to ensure that the mast does not swing to starboard or port by holding back or hauling on the shrouds. The lower shrouds furthest forward are also loosened.
The 20 people then cautiously slip the fore stay, letting the mast slowly glide backwards and down into the large, high gaff aft, which locks the heavy mast. The mast is then down.
When the mast is to be raised, the hauling is done by both the 20 fore stay hands and the two teams of six hands at the close-haul shrouds. The latter must again make sure that the mast does not swing to the sides while it is raised to its top position. Once the mast is vertical, the fore stay is tightened a little more so that the mast lock can be put in place. Then the fore stay is loosened slightly and made fast. At the same time all the loosened lower shrouds are tightened, and the ship is then ready to raise its sail again.
Today it took 12 minutes to lower the mast and 20 minutes to raise it again when the the crew collaborated best.
“There are several reasons for practising raising and lowering the mast,” explains Carsten Hvid. “We have made a number of improvements to the procedure that need testing; we have some new crew who need to learn the routines; and it’s actually some time since we last trained in this procedure. Moreover, it is vital for the validity of the test sailing we are going to do in the Limfjord that we can lower and raise the mast quickly and with routine. Some of the exercises are to measure how fast we can row under various conditions, including in a contrary wind in which the mast needs lowering first.”
