It’s official: TS Playfair is a Hamilton resident

All it took was eight bronze letters to make her ours.'

The TS Playfair, a square-sail brigantine ship, moved here from Toronto last summer, calling the west harbour home when she's not sailing the Great Lakes.

But, with the word Toronto' across her transom, something wasn't quite right.

As part of the ongoing spring maintenance this Victoria Day weekend to get the 48-year-old year old ship ready to set sail, letters spelling out Hamilton' were added below her name.

Volunteer Liam Fraser worked from a small boat, carefully lining up and screwing in each letter under the watchful eye of captain Christine Chesterman. In the rigging high above, others scrambled atop masts reattaching sails or worked below decks to make her shipshape once again.

For Chesterman, Fraser and the others aboard the ship, they began as teenagers on a one-of-a-kind summer experience. They learned the ropes - literally - fell in love with the ship, and never really left.

The Playfair typically sails with a small crew in addition to a robust group of teens, age 13-18. The new sailors quickly learn new skills and share the required duties, including steering the 72-foot-long vessel.

Chesterman says adolescents wanting off the ship early are uncommon. More typical, she says, are apprehensive or shy teens who aren't on board with being aboard, but by the end of their one or two week run they don't want to leave.

You just get hooked," she says.

With COVID-19 rules hopefully continuing to ease in the coming weeks, the plan is for a full sailing schedule this summer, beginning June 25 with an adult crew, and the first teen crew setting sail July 2.