[Public-List] Rescue of 'Touch Wood'

Gordon Laco mainstay at csolve.net
Thu Feb 21 07:54:23 PST 2008


Yes! - 'Princess' and 'The Boat Who Wouldn't Float' are two of my
favourites.  

Sadly, both boats came to sad ends.  Princess was last seen in the late '80s
when she was more than 100 years old; she was offered to a museum but they
could not take her on and she disappeared after that.  Woodenboat mag has
published appeals for news of her but she may be gone.

Mowatt's Happy Advernture, the star of '..wouldn't float' ended up on
display beside a restaurant in Nova Scotia complete with explanatory sign.
When the restaurant went out of business a few years ago a developer
bulldozed the building... And that famous schooner along with it.

Thanks Dan

G



> have you read joe richards book princess? and yes, updates would be
> appreciated
> dan
> 
> Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote: Hello all hands,
> 
> Just to cap the earlier discussions about my earlier discovery of my
> Folkboat TOUCH WOOD; I have been quite moved and gratified by the offers of
> support.  I have formulated a plan and it looks like she is moving north in
> a few weeks.  My thanks in particular to my clients at Taylor Allen at
> Rockport Marine, Maine, Thad at Redds Pond Boatworks, Marblehead MA, Matt
> Murphy at Woodenboat Magazine and to A30 sailor Peter Milley.
> 
> I am going to truck her up to my business's warehouse in New Bedford Mass
> and store her there until I can organize  the next hop to Ontario. (she
> might not come home to Canada for years but that's OK)
> 
> Apparently she suffered two hurricanes (Katrina and Wilma) after being
> abandoned by the person I sold her to, and although she lost her mast, cabin
> top and most of her deck fittings she somehow survived alone on her mooring.
> The person who saved her wreck and is passing her on to me told me that the
> dismasting was owed to the upper shroud plate assembly dragging its bolts 4"
> down through the mast (consider 130 knot + winds...) allowing the shrouds
> and stays to get slack - that lovely 36' sitka spruce mast then broke at
> deck level, smashing the coach roof when it came down.
> 
> The funny thing is that when I first bought her in 1979 I had a recurring
> nightmare in which I was standing on a shore in a terrible storm watching
> her fighting for her life on a mooring, sawing back and forth on her lines
> with short sharp waves breaking over her until a broken tree came along and
> destroyed her.  Well it nearly happened.
> 
> If folks are interested I will write a note time and again about progress.
> 
> Gord
> Surprise #426
> 
> ______________________________


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