difference between you and wooden boat
The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage--at least it seems that way. If you've been thinking you need to know more about it, here's your opportunity.
Last year I got a call from Dick Wagner, local patron saint of old wooden boats, with an offer that could have read, "Free Classic Boat, Moorage Included."
Seattle's Center for Wooden Boats had acquired an old thoroughbred of a sailboat, the legendary sloop "Mistral," and they needed someone to look after it.
These were Dick's actual words:
"She just needs to be sailed."
Truthfully, the only difference between you and wooden boat experts is time. If you'll invest a little more time in reading, you'll be that much nearer to expert status when it comes to wooden boat.
Perhaps he said something else after this, something about sanding and varnishing and occasional engine trouble, or occasional white-knuckled moments trying to get the bilge pump working while water streamed in from the bow. If he did, I wasn't listening. That would have been the rational thing to do, and taking on the stewardship of a large boat — old, wooden, fast or otherwise — is guided as much by sugar plums dancing in one's head as dull, boring reason.
I took on Mistral for two years, slowly picking up a crew of fellow volunteers. Seventeen months into my commitment, we have spent a couple thousand hours scraping, sanding, varnishing, painting and tinkering. The Experience Mistral Project has grown to include an official logo, a fictional corporate structure complete with a promotions-and-marketing department, iron-on transfers, a "free beer" night and a blog to apprise the world of all the latest Mistral news.
Some of us have even gone sailing. We picked up several coveted duck stickers in the Tuesday night Duck Dodge series on Lake Union. Amazingly, we won an actual cup by besting two of the Northwest's finest wooden racers. We've taken dozens of people out on the Center's free Sunday sails. And earlier this month, we had one of those sterling Northwest weekends that have you waking up on Monday with the feeling that you've just done something unique and spectacular.
"This one day of sailing has made all the work worthwhile," said Erik Nielsen, a former Washington State University dinghy racer and crew member so dedicated he actually calls me "skipper." It was midweekend and we had just finished an absolutely wild ride around Port Townsend Bay. We had yet another great ride to come.
As your knowledge about
wooden boat continues to grow, you will begin to see how wooden boat fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.
