"Scaffolding was down and tools removed and her winter cover was cleared away as Highlander Sea stands nearly ready to re-enter her element at MCM Marine earlier this week. Visible to starboard of her massive iron rudder are the two new propellers and shafts fitted beneath the pilot schooner's skinny stern.

 

"With new frame sections, a new keelson, new underwater planking and new paint all around, the 81-year-old schooner is ready for re-launching today after a nearly one year rebuild at MCM. After a few days to soak up, provision, fuel and take on crew, Highlander Sea will head south down the river for her home port at Port Huron. There, shipwrights will continue interior work and re-rigging on the schooner, the pride and joy of owner Acheson Ventures."

 

 

 

 

The ship's current crew consists of our new Captain Micah Allnutt, Chief Mate Ben Hale, and Carpenter Andros Kypragoras.

 

Captain Micah has been dividing his time between MCM Marine, the site of the refit, in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. (Soo) and Port Huron. Next week he will be traveling to the Soo with Nobby Peers, a consulting engineer from Whitworth Marine in Maine.

 

Chief Mate Ben Hale has been busy measuring and planning the replacement of the ballast on the ship. This is an incredibly technical endeavor and is being done in conjunction with our Naval Architect and under the auspices of the Coast Guard.

 

Carpenter Andros has been overseeing four to six ship carpenters and additional laborers from the marina. He has been the mastermind and problem solver for a myriad of technical and tactical circumstances that have come up since the refit started. He has been on a veritable scavenger hunt for a ship's saw, a crane capable of lifting the foremast, a way to get the crane in place (no problem - you just spin the dry dock), a mill that could handle the lumber lengths required (South Carolina) and competent ship carpenters willing to work in the Soo (that was a real selling job when it was below zero).

 

The restoration on Highlander Sea is making remarkable progress. Each week, a "Shipyard Report"  is sent so we are getting very familiar with terms like planking, deadwood, futtocks, tail-feather, horn timber, various fastenings and DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing.

 

 

The project involves people and vendors from all over the country. We have carpenters in from the east coast and the mid-west. Andros has been ordering supplies from California to Maine to South Carolina.

 

The trip the timber is taking is the most adventurous, traveling from the forests of mid-Michigan and Tennessee down to a mill in South Carolina and then trucking up to Sault Ste. Marie for placement by the carpenters.

 

The owner of the mill, Churchill Hornstein, spent a weekend "wood shopping" with Andros in Michigan, where they found some "gorgeous" (their word not ours) oak trees. 

 

Along with our resident expert, Andros, we have continuing input from a naval architect, Tim Graul; a former mentor, Dave Short; and visiting engineer, Jim Jefferson.

 

Captain Micah and Chief Mate Ben have been busy working with the architect and the engineer on the interior design of the boat. Ben has tracked down some original ship drawings from the Hart Nautical Museum at M.I.T.

 

 

"Scaffolding was down and tools removed and her winter cover was cleared away as Highlander Sea stands nearly ready to re-enter her element at MCM Marine earlier this week. Visible to starboard of her massive iron rudder are the two new propellers and shafts fitted beneath the pilot schooner's skinny stern.

 

"With new frame sections, a new keelson, new underwater planking and new paint all around, the 81-year-old schooner is ready for re-launching today after a nearly one year rebuild at MCM. After a few days to soak up, provision, fuel and take on crew, Highlander Sea will head south down the river for her home port at Port Huron. There, shipwrights will continue interior work and re-rigging on the schooner, the pride and joy of owner Acheson Ventures."

 

 

 

 

The ship's current crew consists of our new Captain Micah Allnutt, Chief Mate Ben Hale, and Carpenter Andros Kypragoras.

 

Captain Micah has been dividing his time between MCM Marine, the site of the refit, in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. (Soo) and Port Huron. Next week he will be traveling to the Soo with Nobby Peers, a consulting engineer from Whitworth Marine in Maine.

 

Chief Mate Ben Hale has been busy measuring and planning the replacement of the ballast on the ship. This is an incredibly technical endeavor and is being done in conjunction with our Naval Architect and under the auspices of the Coast Guard.

 

Carpenter Andros has been overseeing four to six ship carpenters and additional laborers from the marina. He has been the mastermind and problem solver for a myriad of technical and tactical circumstances that have come up since the refit started. He has been on a veritable scavenger hunt for a ship's saw, a crane capable of lifting the foremast, a way to get the crane in place (no problem - you just spin the dry dock), a mill that could handle the lumber lengths required (South Carolina) and competent ship carpenters willing to work in the Soo (that was a real selling job when it was below zero).

 

The restoration on Highlander Sea is making remarkable progress. Each week, a "Shipyard Report"  is sent so we are getting very familiar with terms like planking, deadwood, futtocks, tail-feather, horn timber, various fastenings and DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing.

 

 

The project involves people and vendors from all over the country. We have carpenters in from the east coast and the mid-west. Andros has been ordering supplies from California to Maine to South Carolina.

 

The trip the timber is taking is the most adventurous, traveling from the forests of mid-Michigan and Tennessee down to a mill in South Carolina and then trucking up to Sault Ste. Marie for placement by the carpenters.

 

The owner of the mill, Churchill Hornstein, spent a weekend "wood shopping" with Andros in Michigan, where they found some "gorgeous" (their word not ours) oak trees. 

 

Along with our resident expert, Andros, we have continuing input from a naval architect, Tim Graul; a former mentor, Dave Short; and visiting engineer, Jim Jefferson.

 

Captain Micah and Chief Mate Ben have been busy working with the architect and the engineer on the interior design of the boat. Ben has tracked down some original ship drawings from the Hart Nautical Museum at M.I.T.