Waiting and wanting in a watery grave, the sleeping beauty, like so many ladies, was neglected and forgotten. Classically beautiful and vibrant in her day, her fairy tale ending was waiting on the distant horizon.
Freda, a 32-foot gaff sloop built in 1885 was rescued by the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center in Sausalito, Calif., and now sits in the middle of the large wooden building.
Nicknamed the Matriarch of San Francisco Bay, she's not sitting in water, she's in a kind of dry-dock, a place where boats sit out of water for repairs and improvements. Her keel and frame are visible, held together by a series of vice grips that mold the ship's shape into her old, swift self.
Spaulding facilitates a way of shipbuilding long lost in the world of metal and steel. It houses resources to complete repairs on wooden boats, and contains a school dedicated to the preservation of ship-making and the painstaking details and investment of time and energy.
The Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding is housed next to Freda’s dry-dock berth, and students apprentice up to 10-15 years to ensure their knowledge and skills will float. The wood frame building sits over shallow water and smells mostly of varnish and wood, mixed with sounds of hammers and chisel. The bright natural light spills in through the high windows and the place is as calm as a sea with no wind.
The atmosphere is timeless and transformative.
Other boats wait their turn in the yard, for repair to their hulls, refurbishing or refitting.
Steve Howking of Sausalito, works quietly under cloudy northern California skies, his appearance as worn as the wooden ships he repairs. Scraping the hull of an anonymous barnacle clad hulk, Howking enjoys repairing the damage that occurs when beauty is traded for time. With traditional tools, Howking digs to find good wood, and as a regular employee of Spaulding, this is a daily occurrence for him.
The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center is a main fixture on the Sausalito waterfront near the marina and just west of the Bay Model. Started in 1951 by boat-lover and concert violinist Myron Spaulding, this non-profit is dedicated to the preservation of ladies like Freda, in whatever shape they may dock.
Classes that teach the community about sailing, woodworking and history are offered on a regular basis to kids and adults, giving land-lubbers an opportunity to get their feet wet in the world of boats. Students of Spaulding get to create projects not within the sterile white walls of an anonymous classroom, but carve and create within the shadows of Spaulding’s maritime history.
Always in need of money for restoration projects, donors can buy one of Freda’s pepperwood frames for $1200 or donate to any other program keeping maritime history afloat.
In a few years, Freda will be ready to go.
For now, she's getting the care she needs after her owner let her founder and sink. Freda’s individual frames carry a plaque noting the name of the sea-loving patron who made that frame possible and the cards line up from bow to stern. Freda continues to bring attention to Spaulding and no doubt she is Spaulding’s masthead.
In this age of fast boats that jet by her berth, she brings awareness of the days of wooden nails and handmade sails. Her plight brought craftsman and cortege together for a rescue and she is in turn raising the skills of students and masters alike.
For Freda, she is now in safe harbor, far from high seas and swells. Soon she'll be back out there, sleek, beautiful and cared for.
Godspeed, Freda.
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