Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show Stuns the Crowd Again

Our Maine Coast sailing roots helped create a fond attachment to classic wooden boats. However, a visit to the Master Mariners Wooden Boat show demonstrates that people from all walks of life can get infected by the compelling allure of wood. The gleaming varnish, the quiet tone and unique smell in the cabin of a wooden boat, the craftsmanship and hours of labor that go into maintaining a wooden boat, all combine to draw a dedicated cohort of passionate sailors into this close-knit club. Yes, they may all be crazy, but it’s a craziness all sailors can appreciate.

Not everyone has the skill, time, heart or budget to take on a wooden boat, but all sailors are glad that the members of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association are there to unite this group to organize and host the Wooden Boat Show at the Corinthian Yacht Club. The event attracts a wide selection of boats that are open and available for gawkers and aspiring wooden-boat owners to climb aboard and admire.

How did they all get this crazy? Sandee Swanson can’t really explain. After 25 years of running the successful fiberglass catamaran charter boat Apparition out of Schoonmaker Point Marina, she decided to “retire” to a wooden boat. As she described it, it sounds more like retiring from a vacation life to take a full-time job. Taking guests out on the Bay aboard Apparition sounded like less work than maintaining her 75-year-old Ralph Winslow Friendship sloop Black Witch. But people fall in love. Sandee now owns a “leaner” and is happy to be learning new skills and maintaining the immaculate sloop now celebrating her 75th anniversary since launching. She was built at Wilmington Boat Works in Wilmington, CA, in 1949, when California was full of wood-boat craftsmen.

We stopped by to see Tim Murrison aboard his 44-ft Davis sloop Bolero, launched in 1946, and he told us he’s “almost done” with his 35+ year project boat. He’s built the spar, redone the hull, and also won a lot of races with this 44-footer that sports a beam of only nine and a half feet. A modern 44-ft boat is probably four- to five-ft beamier.

The Concordia yawl Encore is one of 103 Concordias built since the C. Raymond Hunt design was introduced in Massachusetts in 1938. It’s one of the the largest classes of one-design, racer-cruiser keelboats ever built, and they turn heads wherever they sail or dock.

With flags flying, the fleet of well-cared-for classic boats made the Corinthian home for the Summer Sailstice weekend. The Sunday of the show was cool and breezy, but it kept pennants flying crisply in the fresh air.

Jim Linderman Jr. and Sr., above, are renowned sailors, craftsmen and shipwrights. Jim LInderman Jr. skippered and maintained wooden boats in Europe for many years, but is now back in the Bay Area helping care for some of the local fleet, including work now being done on Ocean Queen. Jim Linderman Sr’s long history with wooden-boat caretaking could fill a book and goes back to helping Harold Somers with Wanderbird on the Sausalito waterfront.

Stop by a wooden boat at the show and you can admire the craftsmanship and hear a few sailing “yarns” from owners who’ve typically owned and cared for them for decades. Robbie Robinson was there aboard his Myron Spaulding-designed 38, Nautigal, launched in 1938 from the Anderson and Cristofani boatyard in Sausalito.

It’s often hard to discover the hidden wooden gems that hide amongst the sea of fiberglass that inhabits most Bay Area marinas. Once a year they all get together to show off the results of their stewardship of these beautiful boats, which, despite their age and beauty, can often be seen taking on the cold salt-air breeze of San Francisco Bay.

It may appear crazy to those who struggle to maintain a fiberglass boat, but it’s the kind of crazy that causes folks to fall in love. Once you step aboard to walk the decks or go below and finally meet the owners from this dedicated community, you start to come under the spell. It’s a community of people who bond over the appreciation, beauty and tradition that come from centuries of sailing heritage.

The show is put on by the Master Mariners Benevolent Association, which uses money raised from the show to support youth in learning the trades and craftsmanship of wooden boats.

Here’s a small photo gallery we put together. All photos were taken by John “Woody” Skoriak. Enjoy!