Jo goes to |
Looking up at the ropes on the schooner Windy. She is the first four masted schooner built in the US since 1921, but has a steel hull and deck, where those older vessels would have been wood. Windy is 148' in length overall (including an almost 25' long wooden bowsprit), 109' length on deck, and she displaces 188 tons. The masts are aluminum, rising 88 feet off the water, round in section with a 3/4" wall thickness, and booms and gaffs are built of laminated wood. The four lower sails are traditionally gaff rigged, but the topsails depart from history in that they have roller furling, eliminating the need to go aloft each time they are struck. She flies up to three headsails, with the outermost, the jib topsail, being flown only in very light air. Altogether she can set about 5,000 square feet on a total of 11 sails.