What is a day of sailing training like at The Elissa?
Everyone gathers at the shop between 8 and 9am for a day of sailing training in Elissa and some get involved to help prepare for the day. A person in charge will assign various tasks, such as preparing the ice water for the day, scrubbing and hosing down the deck, and polishing the brass. One wants to be sure and check the station bill to see what mast and watch they have been assigned for the day.
We are called to meet at the main mast around 9:00 am for roll call and announcements. The officer of the day then orders one guard to report ashore for maintenance and the other guard to report to his mast for sail training.
The sail training portion of the day will eventually engage the crew in all aspects of how to sail a square rig and work will be done on each mast. There are some tasks assigned at each mast, while other tasks are taken on by whoever arrives first. The challenge is learning the process so that we can be ready for the next task before we hear the command.
When we have the command for it to happen, there are several steps that occur before we actually start moving the yards. Towing the yards is everyone’s job and when we go sailing we do our best to recruit guests to help.
The sail training portion of the day includes sail handling as well as man overboard drills, fire drills and abandon ship drills. We want to do these drills thoroughly for our own safety and the Coast Guard Inspection that takes place before we start our annual day of sailing.
A sailor’s life isn’t complete until he has a good handle on knots, so there is practice in this too. Keep in mind that when we cruise at night during our annual sea trials, much of the work will be done in complete darkness. I’m not mentioning it to intimidate anyone because that event is a lot of fun and a learning experience. However, keeping this in mind is all the more reason to do some homework from time to time on the different facets of learning to sail a square rig.
You may remember that after the morning meeting, half the crew went ashore for maintenance. Maintaining the Elissa is a never-ending task. Just when we think all teak looks great on the top rail, it’s time to start over.
Maintenance can be sanding, varnishing, paint chipping, rust removal (there’s always one more rust spot), tarring, deck sealing, working at height, and yes, even bilge cleaning. So no matter what your skill set, there will be some important task for you to accomplish that makes a difference. Our ship maintenance keeps it seaworthy and in good repair for museum visitors.
If we have released the sails for training, sometime around 3 or 3:30 pm, some will be called to go up and furl all the sails in preparation for ending the sail training experience. When that is done and the deck is clean and ready for guests, the meeting is called sometime before 5 pm There are usually some announcements and comments on how things went during the day.
Hopefully, the day has been a good learning experience for everyone, no matter the task at hand. Most importantly, it’s one step closer to the day we can all take her sailing and prove ourselves as an official member of the crew.
Most of the time, we say goodbye at 5:00 pm and then we can share some snacks and really take seriously what happened or maybe should have happened during the day.