Enterprize on Slips

Painting Oil on Board
60 x 45cm

Every one to two years Melbourne’s Topsail Schooner Enterprize is slipped at the Duke & Orr’s shipyard at Docklands. Prior to the slipping volunteers assist with much of the maintenance work including removing, checking and tarring running rigging; insitu checking and tarring of standing rigging; checking all the sails; scrapping and re-varnishing all spars, and many other jobs needed to ensure Enterprize looks and operates as well now as when she was launched in 1997. For further information refer to the Enterprize Web site.

I felt the mix of the traditional tall rigger, sitting amidst the solid horizontal support beams and the maze of vertical structures, including an elevated walkway, created an interesting painting composition.

Further details on the Enterprize are provided in some of the other paintings of that vessel