Drawbridge Wreath 405 feet of Holiday Spirit

We heard the drawbridge on Rt. 1 in Mystic hadn't had a wreath in over a decade.  We had a coil of 1" rope sitting lonely in the corner of our shop, what is a team of artisans supposed to do...

 

Josh realized that the turkshead knot we usually use to make a wreath wouldn't work.  Instead he chose to do a 4 strand sennitt made with doubled up plys.  The ends come together and are stitched together and covered with the yellow whipping to compliment the details on the Mystic River sign and the bow

 

 

 

 

To support this wreath, we had Brian Jacobs of Velvet Metal Works make us a stainless steel frame.  This is the same tubular steel used for bow pulpits and stern rails, so he knew it could hold the weight.  (Honestly, I wasn't certain). 

We covered the steel with tape to provide grip, and can be seen to the left in the picture above.

The fit was perfect.

We had to test the rigging to be sure it supports the wreath.  There are two lines running behind the wreath and supported with a marline hitch to keep the wreath from tipping out.  You can see the yellow whipping behind Jill.  The whip creates a color contrast but more importantly covers the free ends of the sennitt.  We did try to find a good rope for a covering turkshead over the whip, but we opted for the simpler look.

  A wreath on Connecticut's Route 1 needs a proper bow!

Of course, we didn't video tape our work, but here is the project done in smaller scale so you can see what we did.. I'm sorry we were so focused on our fun, we forgot the most important part, the documentation..