Work begins on repairing skipjack bowsprit

Just like the rest of the Mary Stewart, her new bowsprit is being made the old-fashioned way.

Owner Mike Shay has set up shop in a bay of the Discovery Village complex in Shady Side, where the 65-foot, 25-ton skipjack Mary Stewart is moored, and begun carving a 600-pound trunk of yellow pine.

For landlubbers, the bowsprit is the long -- in this case, wooden -- beam pointing off the bow, or front, of a sailing vessel. It might seem mostly decorative, but in fact the series of lines and chains that attach to it provide crucial support for the two masts, mainsails and the smaller jib sail that is directly attached to...