Schooner Western Union repair bill increases

By Pru Sowers

It’s what’s inside that counts.

In the case of the Schooner Western Union, currently in dry dock undergoing repair, what’s inside is going to cost potentially $150,000 on top of the $750,000 originally budgeted for the project, aimed at getting the last working wooden sailing schooner built in Key West back in the water.

William Barry, chairman of the Schooner Western Union Preservation Society (SWUPS), said that unexpected wet rot and termite damage was found in several of the ship’s ribs after the schooner was pulled out of the water at the Tarpon Springs, Fla, boatyard where the ship is currently in dry dock.

“The ship’s ribs below the water line could not be thoroughly inspected until the schooner was pulled out of the water onto the rails at the Tarpon Springs boatyard and a number of the hull planks were removed,” Barry told Konk Life. “The wet rot was caused by rain water penetration to the hull from deck leaks.”

All the damage is repairable. However, it will add another approximately $215,000 in costs, including a $40,000 new foremast, a $25,000 steel shoe installed on the keel and up to $150,000 to repair the rot in the ribs and frame, Barry said.

The good news is that the original budget included $65,000 for new engines. Because the U.S. Coast Guard is not requiring that the engines be replaced in order to be certified to return to the water, that money can be put towards the new expenses, Barry said.

“After postponing the $65,000 engines we are still looking at somewhere between $100,000 to $150,000 over the $750,000 available budget,” he said.

Key West officials voted to give SWUPS a $250,000 taxpayer-funded grant in 2015 to help pay for the original repairs. That enabled SWUPS to receive a $500,000 historic preservation grant from the state. In return, the schooner’s owners agreed the ship will remain permanently home-ported in its slip in the Key West Bight.

The new repairs will push back the Schooner Western Union’s return to Key West by a few months. Originally expected to sail into Key West Harbor this summer, Barry said it will return by January.

“What will need to be completed is to purchase, ship (from Washington state) and install the new 65-foot foremast, repair and install the 65-foot main mast, purchase and install the mast booms, rigging, sails and U.S. Coast Guard required safety equipment. All of the above can be completed in a Stock Island marina. This had been done in years past under the direction of our current Captain. It is also significantly less expensive than completing these tasks in a boatyard,” Barry said.
As for where the new money will come from, Barry said a donor, not taxpayers, will hopefully provide the needed funds.

“We have what must be for now a very promising anonymous source that would provide the necessary funds to complete the schooner on Stock Island,” he said.
Built on the Simonton Street beach in 1939, the Western Union helped lay 30,000 miles of communication cables between Key West, Cuba and the Caribbean. In 1974, she was converted to a passenger vessel, eventually purchased by Historic Tours of America, which offered day sails to tourists. Unwilling to keep maintaining the increasingly-expensive boat, however, HTA donated her to SWUPS in 2007.

Since then, the schooner has fallen on hard times, with maintenance on the aging wooden boat put off again and again until she was forced into dry dock by the Coast Guard in July 2013, one year after she was designated as the flagship of the state of Florida. There she has sat while SWUPS members tried to raise the money for the overhaul.

Once the schooner repairs are made, SWUPS says it can continue offering day sails with annual revenue estimated at $1 million. Of that amount, between $150,000 and $200,000 will be set aside each year to pay for maintenance and repairs.

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