HRMM Class: Wooden Block & Mast Hoop Build

The Hudson River Maritime Museum has partnered with the sail freight schooner Apollonia to offer unique classes at the Riverport Wooden Boat School while the vessel is at the museum's docks undergoing restoration work for several weeks in May, 2018.
 

Wooden Block & Mast Hoop Build

Students will work with two lead instructors and three assistant instructors to shape and construct rope-stropped blocks and wooden mast hoops for the Apollonia. Each day the students will be broken into small groups - half to work on blocks and half to work on mast hoops - and will rotate through stations. Block building will involve mortising out slots and drilling a hole into a square block, shaping, and finally gouging out a recess for the rope strop. Mast hoop construction will involve scarfing out thin strips of wood, steaming them, and forming around a mast jig.