About a month ago, I got an email from Wayne Chimenti, sailmaker, schooner captain & youth educator extraordinaire, inviting me down to meet some young women who were going to start working on Felicity Ann at the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Here's his email: "I have 3 young female interns starting this month. Two are boat school grads and they are fired up to restore the Felicity Ann with women for women. WC" Now, I'm totally jazzed that there's finally some fresh energy surging towards that boat and super optimistic about the opportunity it is for women and girls to do quality work, make a significant contribution to history and learn top notch skills with the instructors there. Unfortunately, I'm out traveling and couldn't physically get there, but if any of you are interested and can/want to help, follow, or support this endeavor, contact Wayne at force10sails@hotmail.com.
Kaci...first we miss you ~ but rest assured that this enterprise is moving forward. I met Penelope when I moved aboard a ketch in Port Hadlock Marina and immediately started photographing Boat School boats moored there. She subsequently invited me to document "Felicity Ann's" condition before she is housed for restoration. This is documented on Picasa.
It was a moving experience. But nothing prepared me for the feeling I got when the remains of "Felicity Ann's" interior captured my spirit and I felt myself engulfed by the Atlantic Ocean in all its winter wrath. I was awash with recognition of how much faith it must have taken to believe it possible to reach the other side in that tiny wood sloop. 254 days...what was she thinking??? 23' of modern motor home on a safe highway cross-country would be an adventure...23' of wood boat crossing the Atlantic Ocean, alone, exhausted and at further risk after losing her sea anchor? Ann was not a quitter. Neither can we be in the face of this opportunity to preserve this token of such an amazing accomplishment.
The wall mounted lantern, with its broken glass shade, the coat hooks (what many things might they have held?), the original wood frames and planks that have escaped previous renovations...the patinated tiny port holes and their dogs... they have compelling voices that call out to me. Me, born in the year of Ann's arrival, safe from her adventure. Me, who embarked on my journey to live on the Olympic Peninsula on the same shore in Hadlock, almost 20 years ago, called then to work on another historic relic that remains in the same harbor. Me, who worked as a rare female in Boat Haven on my first project in Port Townsend. Me, who is now thrilled to find so many women in our trade and tradition, even as I have left one set of tools and taken up another.
Now, through Ann Davison's adventure, we have an opportunity to engage young women's hands in saving this piece of women's history, if we can find the funds to put the supplies into their hands, as well. The restoration of "Felicity Ann" is about far more than replacing wood planks and floating her again. "Felicity Ann" represents the indomitable will and perseverance of which we women are capable. So much can be done with so little, if many of us contribute in all the ways of which we are able.
Thank you, Kaci, for all that you have done for so many years to support and encourage this, and so many other wood boat adventures...including mine!!! We will expect you to sail home for the launch!
Thanks Karen! Your photos of Felicity Ann and your great energy joined with other women working on the boat is an inspiration. I participated in an advisory meeting with about a dozen other Port Townsend women in March and continue to be involved as they develop the programs and funding for this fantastic project. Will no doubt see you this summer while I'm in Port Townsend working on Pax mast and hopefully sailing! Here's to more wooden boat women worldwide!
It was a moving experience. But nothing prepared me for the feeling I got when the remains of "Felicity Ann's" interior captured my spirit and I felt myself engulfed by the Atlantic Ocean in all its winter wrath. I was awash with recognition of how much faith it must have taken to believe it possible to reach the other side in that tiny wood sloop. 254 days...what was she thinking??? 23' of modern motor home on a safe highway cross-country would be an adventure...23' of wood boat crossing the Atlantic Ocean, alone, exhausted and at further risk after losing her sea anchor? Ann was not a quitter. Neither can we be in the face of this opportunity to preserve this token of such an amazing accomplishment.
The wall mounted lantern, with its broken glass shade, the coat hooks (what many things might they have held?), the original wood frames and planks that have escaped previous renovations...the patinated tiny port holes and their dogs... they have compelling voices that call out to me. Me, born in the year of Ann's arrival, safe from her adventure. Me, who embarked on my journey to live on the Olympic Peninsula on the same shore in Hadlock, almost 20 years ago, called then to work on another historic relic that remains in the same harbor. Me, who worked as a rare female in Boat Haven on my first project in Port Townsend. Me, who is now thrilled to find so many women in our trade and tradition, even as I have left one set of tools and taken up another.
Now, through Ann Davison's adventure, we have an opportunity to engage young women's hands in saving this piece of women's history, if we can find the funds to put the supplies into their hands, as well. The restoration of "Felicity Ann" is about far more than replacing wood planks and floating her again. "Felicity Ann" represents the indomitable will and perseverance of which we women are capable. So much can be done with so little, if many of us contribute in all the ways of which we are able.
Thank you, Kaci, for all that you have done for so many years to support and encourage this, and so many other wood boat adventures...including mine!!! We will expect you to sail home for the launch!