The online home of Spaulding Wooden Boat Center members, volunteers & friends

We’re close to completing the replanking of Freda’s hull so this was the last opportunity to put a camera through her ribs and capture this viewpoint.

Looking towards the bow

Looking towards the stern

These photos were taken on February 16, 2010.

Freda is a gaff sloop built in 1885 on San Francisco Bay and is the oldest private sailboat on the West Coast. Read more about Freda

We are very impressed with the 3D laser scanning images of the Charles W. Morgan historic whaling ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

See more images and read about them at Mystic Seaport’s photo stream on Flickr and at Mystic Seaport’s Web site (link below).

3D laser scan of the Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport

The Charles W. Morgan is the last surviving wooden whaling ship from the great days of sail. Built in 1841 in New Bedford, MA, the Morgan had a 80-year whaling career with 37 voyages before retiring in 1921. Read more about the Charles W. Morgan at About the Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport.

We’ve been asked a few times what the definition is of brightwork.

Brightwork is sometimes narrowly defined as one of either the metal or unfinished wood on a boat, but the term applies to both unpainted wood and metal on a boat or ship that must be kept bright by polishing. These days, most effort goes into maintaining the wood, frequently teak, on a classic sailboat or motoryacht.

Wood may be oiled or varnished and requires regular maintenance and reapplication of the oil or varnish. Bronze and aluminum require little or infrequent care, stainless steel needs periodic cleaning and polishing, and chrome, well, chrome on a boat is like socks on a centipede, as a friend of mine says:  it may be fashionable, but it’s just too darn much trouble.

USS Potomac on San Francisco Bay

Cruise on board the historic USS Potomac for the 21st Annual Sausalito Lighted Boat Parade & Fireworks. This event is a benefit for the Sausalito-on-the-Waterfront-Foundation.

When: Saturday, December 12 at 5:00pm
Where: Sausalito Ferry Landing

Tax-deductible ticket price: $75/person (PICYA affiliate or SYC member $65/person)

Cruise includes: wine & light appetizers plus entrance to the Sausalito Yacht Club for dancing to the music of the Jame Moseley Band afterwards at the club. USS Potomac will return to the ferry landing at about 7:45pm. Dinner will be available at the Sausalito Yacht Club.

Purchase details: We must receive 65 paid reservations by 12/8 for this cruise to happen. [12/8  We've received the minimum reservations we need and the cruise is happening!] Your check must be received by 12/8. More information is at http://www.novomondo.com/potomac_cruise.jpg.

You can read more about this historic yacht that once belonged to both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Elvis Presley at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Potomac_(AG-25).

UPDATE December 13: USS Potomac won People’s Choice award in the Lighted Boat Parade! It was windy and wet but a great night.

Freda - built on San Francisco Bay in 1885

Freda is well on her way to returning to the waters of San Francisco Bay, but she still needs your help to complete her journey. Please consider contributing to the completion of the museum-class restoration of Freda, the oldest private sailboat on the West Coast of the United States.

You can contribute on our Web page at Make a Donation, or you can contact the Spaulding Center directly at (415) 332-3179.

You can read more about the historic gaff sloop Freda on our main Web site.

Ivan Davies, Jonah Ward, Jane Davies

Ivan Davies built Auroral in the 1950’s in an old stable in San Francisco. Two other Spaulding 33’s were being built in that stable at the same time, including our Pegasus, built by Michael Schnapp.

Jonah Ward, a staff member of the Spaulding Boatworks, completed the restoration of Auroral. An enthusiastic crowd of over 200 were on hand this past Saturday to celebrate her relaunch.

Ivan told us that Auroral’s original color was white but, given time, he’d get used to her new, bright red hull.

Read the article at MoreMarin.com.

Continue reading at MoreMarin.com.

He was one of the great racing sailors of his generation, and we’re coming to a big weekend at what was once Myron Spaulding’s boatyard in Sausalito. Today it’s the people’s boatyard, if we can keep it…

Read more at Kimball’s blog, Blue Planet Times.

Celebrate with the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center at a private event on Saturday, November 7 at 11am.

We’re celebrating:

• The first planks on Freda, our 1885 gaff sloop
• The launch of Lightly Salted, a pram recently completed by the Youth Boatbuilding & Sailing Program
• The launch of Auroral, a Spaulding 33 sloop restored by staff member Jonah Ward
• Myron Spaulding’s birthday on October 28

There will be music and refreshments.

Photo by Rod Bauer

This is a special event open to members and special friends of the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center. If you’d like to attend and didn’t receive an invitation, contact Andrea Rey, Program Director, at 415 332-3179 or andrea [at] spauldingcenter.org.

Saving the Bay is four one-hour episodes tracing San Francisco Bay from its geologic origins following the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago through years of catastrophic exploitation to the restoration efforts of today. It’s on local public TV broadcasting with many repeat showings.

Home page:  http://www.savingthebay.org
Broadcast schedule:  KQED/KTEH schedule

November 4, 2009 will be the 240th anniversary of the Spanish discovery of San Francisco Bay by a land expedition of Juan Gaspar de Portolà in 1769.

Artist’s conception of the Portolà expedition’s first sighting of San Francisco Bay from Sweeney Ridge in 1769

From Wikipedia.org:

The first recorded European discovery of San Francisco Bay was on November 4, 1769 when Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà, unable to find the port of Monterey, California, continued north close to what is now Pacifica and reached the summit of the 1,200-foot (370 m) high Sweeney Ridge, where he sighted San Francisco Bay. Portolà and his party did not realize what they had discovered, thinking they had arrived at a large arm of what is now called Drakes Bay. At the time, Drakes Bay went by the name Bahia de San Francisco and thus both bodies of water became associated with the name. Eventually, the larger, more important body of water fully appropriated the name San Francisco Bay.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay

National Park Service flyer on San Francisco Bay Discovery site (PDF)

Students put finishing touches today on the second Norwegian pram built by the Youth Boatbuilding and Sailing program at the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center. More photos are available on the Youth Boatbuilding Blog.

A special event to launch the new pram will take place in early November at the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center. Contact Program Director Andrea Rey for details.

Mavis, a San Francisco Bird Boat, was built in 1924 by Bagley Nunes.

The photo below was taken this morning in the boatyard at the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center.

Mavis in the Spaulding boatyard 9-14-09

The photo below of Mavis with the Lightship San Francisco was taken 71 years ago, in 1938, just outside the Golden Gate, not long after the Golden Gate Bridge opened (1937).

Lightship San Francisco 1938 by born1945, on Flickr

You can find more information about these classic San Francisco Bay boats at www.birdboat.com.

August 29, 2009

See a photo gallery from the race on our photo blog, at woodenboat.posterous.com