For the first time in more than a decade, Pride of Baltimore II gets to stay in Charm City for her annual dry dock maintenance. Usually, she is sent to Portsmouth, Virginia, where facilities can accommodate the 185-ton tall ship.
But this year, the General Ship Repair Corporation used a 1,000-ton floating dock along Key Highway on the Baltimore Harbor to lift Pride II out of the water.
One year after her 30-year retrofitting, this winter’s maintenance will be mostly routine: hull inspection and scraping, new bottom paint, and recaulking. Just like any Chesapeake Bay boater probably plans to do this winter. Except, Pride II can’t go to just any boatyard for hauling.
“Being able to haul Pride II out of the water locally is a real blessing. There aren’t many yards that can accommodate a vessel like ours. We are extremely excited to be working with General Ship Repair,” said Jeffrey Buchheit, executive director of Pride of Baltimore, Inc.
General Ship Repair, a nearly 100-year-old family business, is the only remaining shipyard in an area that once held Bethelhem Steel’s repair yard, dating back to 1853. General Ship Repair services schooners and steamships, supertankers, tugs and barges, and all kinds of workboats.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
