The Niagara will offer 24 public-day sails and 11 school-day sails this season, compared to12 public-day sails and four school-day sails in 2016.

The U.S. Brig Niagara's 18 professional crew members reported for duty last week to prepare for the start of the Great Lakes summer sailing season and public and school-day sail schedule.

"We'll spend the next month putting the rig back together — that's the name of the game,'' Niagara Capt. Billy Sabatini said. "We have to rig the ship, and we have a lot more rigging to do than we do most years because we have the lower mast and the bow sprit out. That was to effect all the repairs we had to do.'"

Three extra shipwrights worked on Niagara projects this past winter.

Shipwrights replaced a 25-foot section of waterway timber on the starboard quarter; replaced an 8-foot section of deck on the bow; replaced the starboard forward channel; replaced two pin rails, and brought down the foremast and did a major repair to its fighting top platform.

Sixteen of the Niagara's 18 professional crew members have returned, Sabatini said.

Niagara shakedown and training sails are scheduled for April 29-30 and May 1-2 in Presque Isle Bay and on Lake Erie. Those sails will allow crew, composed of professionals and trainee personnel, to determine if the ship's engines are running properly, its sails are working and all of its lines are led in the proper places.

At the end of the 2016 sailing season in October, the Niagara sailed to Cleveland's Great Lakes Towing Co., where the vessel underwent nearly three weeks of maintenance.

Part of the dry dock maintenance involved a "destructive survey,'' in which six good planks — three on each side of the vessel — were removed so Sabatini and Niagara crew could look behind the planks, evaluate the ship's internal structure and look for where rot could potentially develop.

"What we found is that the underwater portion of our ship is in excellent condition,'' Sabatini said. "Really, it looks brand-new, and that has a lot to do with the construction of materials. Using laminated pine that's pressure-treated really made a big difference. We're very, very happy about that.''

As a sail-training vessel under U.S. Coast Guard inspection, the Niagara is required to be inspected out of the water twice in a five-year period, with no inspection interval exceeding three years.

Before its October dry docking in Cleveland, the Niagara's last such inspection was in the fall of 2013.

Funds generated from the Flagship Niagara League's September 2016 Tall Ships Erie Festival paid for the Cleveland maintenance inspection, which cost less than $100,000, Sabatini said.

Former Gov. Tom Corbett announced in May 2014 the Niagara would receive a $4.8 million, state-funded overhaul that would make the vessel seaworthy for another 25 years.

Sabatini said work on that planned refit of the Niagara, which would include a complete rebuild of the hull, likely won't start until fall 2019 at the earliest.

"The plan for the refit was always going to be from the water line up, and that's where we want to replace everything,'' said Sabatini, who begins his fourth season as the Niagara's captain. "Between now and then, we just keep dealing with all the rot as it comes.''

The Niagara will offer 24 public-day sails and 11 school-day sails this season. Because of a 2016 sailing season laden with Tall Ships appearances throughout the Great Lakes ports, the Niagara was able to offer only 12 public-day sails and four school-day sails in 2016.

"Traditionally, in Tall Ships festival years, we have less time in town, so we try and make it up to the community in non-Tall Ships years, so that is why our numbers are doubled this season,'' Flagship Niagara League Executive Director Shawn Waskiewicz said.

The Flagship Niagara League will offer its community Discovery Day on May 6, when admission to the Erie Maritime Museum and tours aboard the Niagara are free from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Children's activities and crafts are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sabatini and a veteran crew took the Niagara on seven sail-training voyages on four of the five Great Lakes this past summer, most of which coincided with the vessel's several Tall Ships festival visits.

The Niagara sailed more than 5,000 miles in 2016. Port visits included Chicago; Duluth, Minnesota; Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Bay City, Mich.

This season's sailing schedule includes visits to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, June 16-18; Bath, Ontario, July 6-9; Sorel Tracy, Quebec, July 14-16; Quebec City, Quebec, July 18-23; Rochester, New York, July 28-31; Port Colborne, Ontario, Aug. 4-6; Put-in-Bay, Ohio, Aug. 16-17, and Cleveland, Aug. 19-20.

"We are doing something big this year. We are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada,'' Sabatini said. "That's a pretty big deal. That's why we're visiting mostly Canadian ports. Quebec City is going to be a massive festival. They're talking about bringing 40 tall ships in, which will be the largest festival I've ever been to.''

The Quebec City event is an international Tall Ships festival.

"Our Erie festival has nine or 10 ships, and the Chicago Tall Ships festival has about 15 ships, but Quebec City is expecting 40 tall ships, and the Niagara is probably going to be one of the smaller ships there,'' Waskiewicz said.

Ron Leonardi can be reached at 870-1680 or by email. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/ETNleonardi.