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
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
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
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.
Russ Mullins is a workingman and he owns a workingman’s boat.
Mullins, 62, grew up on Offatts Bayou, where boys and boats just naturally went together. [Read more…]