Climbing And Welding: Yardarms and Building a High Speed Trawl

26°27.21S,106°51.17E

The crew of the Stad Amsterdam are stoked about building a new trawl out of the scrap steel lying around. I’m in heaven standing in the stern workshop welding iron bars and rods to make a prototype trawl that can collect a valid surface sample at 8-10 knots. Yesterday we launched the suitcase manta trawl, which performs well at 3 knots. Captain Andy explained that even with the sails down, the ship alone acts like a sail and still moves at 5 knots or better. “It will be difficult to reduce our speed to 3 knots. Can you build a faster net?” the captain ask“Sure,” I replied. It will take a couple of days to figure it out.

It’s 12:30 and time for our climbing lesson. If you want to climb the rigging and sit on top of the main mast, above the 6th sail, then you’ve got to know where to put your feet. There’s a spider web of rigging and lines dangling from the masts. We don harnesses and begin to ascend. Anna goes first. Like a little monkey she scampers up the mast to the first platform. I lumber up the ladder behind her.

The mizzen mast, the third and last mast of the three on deck, is 75 feet tall. We stop at the first platform and scoot across the yard arm. The yard arm is a 40ft pole as thick as a tree trunk that hangs horizontal to the deck. A giant square sail, like a blanket that could cover a house, hangs down from the yard arm. It’s full of wind and balloons out like a giant belly. Anna and I hug the yard arm for a while and marvel at the view. There’s nothing but blue ocean all around.

Click here to send a comment or question to the research crew!