Jim and Janet Guidry are preserving, rather than restoring, their Donzi built in 1970. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Owner protects history of high-performance powerboat

If Jim Guidry’s bright yellow, 18-foot Donzi brings to mind the infamous “cigarette” boats favored by Miami drug smugglers of the 1980s and made famous by the “Miami Vice” TV series, it’s no accident. She represents a stage in a development of those boats. [Read more…]

Mary Jo and Leroy Naschke sit aboard their 52-foot schooner at the Galveston Island Yacht Basin. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

A Nova Scotia schooner in Galveston Bay

Seen across the water in Galveston Bay, the 52-foot schooner Marigo presents an unusual sight. First of all, she’s a schooner — a two-mast, gaff-headed schooner, to be exact. With its four-cornered fore and main sails and two triangular headsails, it’s a rig once common in Galveston, but one not often seen today in these waters. [Read more…]

Paul and Amy Dunphey and their sons, Benjamin, Nicholas and Sammy, live aboard their yacht, Liberty Belle, which is moored at the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Yacht is full-time home to family of five – and two cats

At her covered berth at Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook, no one would take Liberty Belle to be a houseboat. Sleek and seaworthy at 67 feet, her lines bear the stamp of renowned yacht designer Jack Hargrave. Her all-aluminum hull is a 1968 product of Miami’s Lantana Boatyard, her gleaming paint and varnish work are a credit to the club. [Read more…]

The pilot boat Galveston is a aluminum 70-foot boat built by Gladding-Hearn in Massachusetts. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

A hard-working vessel in a busy waterway

Swift, spare and robust, the pilot boat Galveston does her one job very well. [Read more…]

The historic Grey Mist is moored at the Galveston Yacht Basin. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

The yacht that went to war

At her quiet berth in Galveston, Grey Mist embodies a span of stories lived over 95 years. The most compelling of these stories involves her participation in the evacuation at Dunkirk, one of the most decisive episodes of the Second World War. [Read more…]

Laurence Wall on his 42-foot, deep-draft cruising sailboat, Serious Moonlight, which is named for a lyric in the song “Let’s Dance,” by David Bowie. Photo by Phyllis Hand

Boat lost in storm gets second life

When the floodwaters of Hurricane Ike had receded and the city was reopened to returning refugees, Laurence Wall quickly made his way to the Galveston Yacht Basin to see how his boat, Serious Moonlight, had weathered the storm. [Read more…]

Santa Maria is 77-year-old wooden shrimp boat that is part of the Galveston Historical Foundation’s Texas Seaport Museum. Built in 1937, she was a working shrimping and fishing boat that was part of the “Mosquito Fleet” at Pier 19, where she is now docked. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

A rare save in maritime preservation

Congenial as the Gulf Coast environment is in many ways, it’s a harsh one for wooden boats. Not many have survived here long enough to embody a history. An exception is the 38-foot wooden shrimp fishing vessel Santa Maria, built in 1937. And even she had help late in her active life with a protective coating of fiberglass around her bottom. [Read more…]

Bill Cartwright holds his dog Harley beside his homemade sailboat Enterprise. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Boldly exploring a watery universe

Early next year, Bill Cartwright plans to set out with his little dog, Harley, on a cruise of a year or more throughout the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. He’ll do it on his 20-foot homemade sailboat. Remarkably, the boat seems up to the challenge.

[Read more…]