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May 10, 2009

Weatherwax may never sail again

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

LAKE PLACID — The replica sail ferry Weatherwax is caught in an ownership storm.

Slated to become a museum fixture, it might never sail again.

The boat was originally built for the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau in 2001 with a grant of $250,000.

It launched Aug. 19, 2002, and then sat idle at Chimney Point marina for years.

SOLD TO MUSEUM
In 2005, the historic replica was sold to the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum for $1, when the Visitors Bureau could not come up with resources to support sail-ferry operations.

The agreement between the Visitors Bureau and the Transportation Museum said tourism groups in Essex County could use the boat for educational and festival events at least once a year.

It said the Visitors Bureau would pay for fuel to move the boat if tourism groups needed it.

The short, single-page document also said that if the museum were "no longer able to continue operation of the Weatherwax," the Visitors Bureau would get first right of refusal to repurchase the boat for $1.

Many members of the Essex County Board of Supervisors expressed disappointment at the time the sail ferry was sold, saying greater effort should have been made to keep it in Essex County.

USE REFUSED
After three years ferrying children and tourists on educational excursions to Valcour and Crab islands, Weatherwax did not sail in 2008.

Three weeks ago, the Visitors Bureau approached the Transportation Museum, asking to use the Weatherwax for a re-enactment of the December sail-ferry trip bringing John Brown's body from Arnold's Bay in Vermont to Barber Point in Westport.

Dr. Anthony Vaccaro, president of the Transportation Museum, replied with a five-page letter denying the Visitors Bureau's request.

"Although a noble idea, we the Board of Directors, owner of the Weatherwax, have evaluated this proposal and must reject the wish to put the boat back in the water."

Vaccaro outlined a plan for dry docking the sail ferry as a static display in the center of the museum's grounds.

"We have found that the boat is highly impractical as a tourist vessel in today's world."

CONCERNS
In his letter, Vaccaro said any plan to sail the boat in December for a John Brown commemoration "is foolish," with cold-water temperatures building what can sometimes be 5-to-6-foot waves.

He said the museum has also found the boat continues to take on water, even after the wooden hull has had a chance to soak.

"We spent $40,000 in labor and materials to keep it going for three years," Vaccaro told the Press-Republican.

"The problem is it's a wooden boat. We almost lost it many times because water comes pouring in between the boards."

The Visitors Bureau sees the denial as a breach of the sale agreement.

They had not asked to use the boat until this month.

Vaccaro said the Transportation Museum has designed a $1 million facility, with the Weatherwax as a permanent museum fixture.

But the plan to retire the boat as a walk-on display was not discussed with the Visitors Bureau.

"We should have had a better conversation," Vaccaro said.

He summed up the museum's perspective in two points.

"Number one, we own the boat. That boat was misrepresented when they (Visitors Bureau) sold it to us. Number two, 'in operation' to us means as a museum piece, very clearly. We feel we are the caretakers of the boat.

"The only reason we got it was because they couldn't run it."

INTENDED USE
Jim McKenna, president of the Visitors Bureau, said he wants the Weatherwax kept seaworthy for use on lower Lake Champlain, the historic home of its unique design.

But there is no funding in place to house or operate the vessel.

"Clearly, its current use was not the intended use. We want the boat. We want to use it. Our intent all along was to have that boat available for historic events on the southern end of the lake."

Outlining the sail ferry's future in a letter to several state officials, Vaccaro said, "Carrying passengers on a consistent schedule will not occur" on the Weatherwax, "since the boat cannot fight the high waves that exist on the lake. More than three-to-four-foot waves against the flat-front bow stops it from making any progress to its destination, even when running the motor at full throttle."

REPAIRS NEEDED
Douglas Brooks, who built the Weatherwax according to historic tradition, pointed out that sail ferries rarely ventured north of Essex ports, since the boats were built box-like to carry farm goods and supplies on narrow crossings at the southern end of the lake.

Historians find only a few examples of sail ferries in northern Lake Champlain, mostly at Isle La Motte, Douglas said.

Brian Olson, sail maker and captain at Westport Marina, who commanded Weatherwax on its maiden voyage, visited the boat recently and said it needs "significant repairs" to be made seaworthy again.

Wooden boats require expert care, he said.

"That boat needs to be dried, cleaned, caulked every year. You've got to scrub a wooden boat."

Brooks saw the vessel on April 14 and is distraught at its current condition. He recently sent a formal letter to numerous public officials decrying the boat's condition and the Transportation Museum's plan to dock the boat.

"She had come through the winter completely uncovered, and I don't believe that she has ever been under cover at the (museum) since the spring of 2004.

"Her motor was missing, as was half her spars. I also noticed on my recent visit that the three required deck boxes for life-jacket storage were missing, along with fire extinguishers, the emergency pump handle, the steering oar and the gaff and boom.

"Water has finally begun to seep through a seam in her deck and pooled in the hull, fostering the growth of large, visible (mold) spores on her internal framing."

Olson and Brooks are looking for a safe, dry location to store and repair the historic replica sail ferry, hoping for its return to the Visitors Bureau.

Olson said the Transportation Museum does not need a $250,000 seaworthy, walk-on museum display.

"They don't need to have that kind of Coast Guard-required equipment on a static museum display. A model sail ferry could actually be made to look more authentic without the expensive modern navigation equipment."

If the Weatherwax remains at the Transportation Museum, Brooks said, its sailing days on Lake Champlain are over.

"It would be an incredible waste of taxpayers' dollars.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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