Four of the Flying Horses, all injured in service at their eponymous Oak Bluffs carousel, now sit in the woodworking shop of West Tisbury shipwright Myles Thurlow. Each is a prancing model, darkly lacquered, missing one or more of its limbs. The horses seem at home there, lined up in the hall beside bits and pieces of old ships and the new wood destined to fix them.

It has been six years since Mr. Thurlow first began wood restoration on the Flying Horses, a job he said stemmed from a job he did at the Old Whaling Church, another Vineyard Preservation Trust property. Despite all his experience, Mr. Thurlow said the process is still nerve-racking at every step.

“You don’t want to muff it,” he said. “You have to approach it very slow from the start.”

More at The Vineyard Gazette HERE.

Andy Lyons (left) and Myles Thurlow (right) give grounded Flying Horses new life.