Here’s the latest info from Eric to our newsletter subscribers about the upcoming dry docking:
Preparations are underway! The Marine Committee is busy interviewing candidates for Project Manager, and making plans for repairs to our barge, Poplar. Since the dry dock does not have sliding bilge blocks, several approaches to building side blocks for Gazela are being considered. Volunteers Will Be Needed The target date for entering dry dock is May 15th. We will need at least 10 line handlers on the day of entering the dock, and four “fish catchers” when the dock is pumped down. Any fish in the dry dock are netted and returned to the river before the dock is pumped dry. There will definitely be lots of work to do once the ship is blocked and the dock is dry. There may be some assignments before then to help prepare the blocking. Stay tuned for details. Also, please come down on the weekends leading up to this. There is lots to be done to get both Gazela and Poplar ready. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Lisa Kolibabek, will be handling crew sign ups for yard work. You may email her at volunteer@gazela.org to indicate your interest. Volunteers will have to sign Releases of Liability to be allowed to work in the shipyard. Those forms will be available next week. Donations Funding for Gazela will be from the Gazela Primeiro Preservation Fund, which was established by Mary Smith, in memory of her late husband, William Wikoff Smith. We are deeply grateful to Mary for this and the many other things she has done for Gazela. Funding for Poplar will come from a public fundraising campaign that will be launched early next month, as well as donations from members of PSPG. We now have five donations totaling $2,106. Thank you to Eric Weakland, Warren Crescenzo, Pete Eastwood, Scott McPhee, and anonymous. To make a donation, please click here for our “Donations” page at www.gazela.org, or, you may mail a check to the guild’s office. Fair Winds, Eric Lorgus President