Far from Home

This Maine-built schooner might seem out of place in Southern California, but a dedicated group of volunteers have kept BILL OF RIGHTS sailing out of Chula Vista for eight years now

Marlinspike chatted with Don Johnson of the South Bayfront Sailing Association in November.

Marlinspike: Don, let’s start by talking about the history of the schooner. How is it that a Maine-built boat came to be in Chula Vista?

Don Johnson: Now, that is a real good question. I have pieces of that answer. I don’t have the complete story. I know the early parts better than the middle parts. Joe Davis, of course, commissioned the boat to be built.

MS: That was in the early seventies..?

DJ: His family apparently at some point had had a large schooner and I think it had been in his blood pretty much all along. So he wanted to build his schooner, did a lot of research, spent time with Howard Chappelle getting suggestions as to what would make beautiful, fast schooner. I guess a lot of the material referenced the Wanderer. She’s not a replica of the Wanderer, but a number of the characteristics are incorporated.

MS: Is this Sterling Hayden’s Wanderer you’re talking about? DJ: I don’t think so, I think it precedes that.

MS: But was he looking for a yacht? He wasn’t thinking about doing sail training, about getting passenger certification.

DJ: He did get passenger certification. He did do sail training, but I believe that had a lot to do with financially supporting the vessel. But it was built more along the lines of a yacht than a sail-training vessel. The original boat had private cabins. The A compartment, which is now open and has 16 open bunks, had eight cabins of two bunks each, each with its own lavatory. Not with a head, but a sink.

No engine, of course. And it was built, I believe, to do sail training and to race. Davis was a racing enthusiast. So the rig at one point was quite a bit bigger than it is today. Apparently, it wasn’t performing quite as well as he liked, so they increased the area of the main, raised the rig, put a taller topmast on and sailed her that way for a while. When she changed hands, that rig was cut back, and an engine was added.

So she operated on the East Coast for a little bit after that, and I’m getting fuzzy about the years at this point, but somewhere in the late 1980s, a different owner had her put the engine in, brought her around through the Canal, and all the way up the West Coast up to Coos Bay, and up to the

Vancouver area, and she operated up in that part of the world for a while.

MS: So when did she come down to Los Angeles?

DJ: My understanding is that the Los Angeles Maritime Institute (LAMI) came into a substantial amount of money, through port grants, that enabled them to design and build their two brigantines [Irving and Exy Johnson]. In order to scale up their programs, they cast about for a boat that was available, and Bill of Rights apparently was operating in San Francisco at that time. Bought her, brought her on down to Los Angeles, and operated her for several years while the brigantines were being built.

MS: And then after that, the Bill of Rights was sailing under the American Tall Ships Institute?

DJ: My understanding is once the brigantines were launched, [LAMI] basically set aside the Bill and she was languishing. Stephen Taylor with ATSI entered into some kind of lease arrangement with LAMI to operate the vessel, and sailed her out of Ventura for several years.

MS: Tell us about the genesis of your organization, and how you ended up with the Bill of Rights.

DJ: Well, several of us had been doing sail education down here at Chula Vista Marina for literally 30 years, teaching mostly the Coast Guard auxiliary classes, but also serving as sailing instructors in small boats. We were talking about starting a branch down into Vista Harbor. In order to do that, we needed to organize as a nonprofit. So we turned in an application to become a nonprofit in early 2013.

Now, later that same year, the Bill had come into the yard down at Marine Group. Work was being done on the stem and some of the planks on the starboard bow, and the project went over budget. Stephen Taylor didn’t have the funds. LAMI went through a process, took back the boat, but didn’t have a use for it, didn’t have a budget for it, and had this yard bill owed against it.

I had been working with the ship. Typically we’d try to help whoever came into the yard to purchase things, figure things out. Any way we could help out. And so the shipwright on the job, Doug Shear, mentioned to LAMI, why don’t they give me a call? So they called me up and offered me the vessel for what was left on the yard bill.

MS: Wow.

DJ: Yeah! [Laughs] I checked with the people I knew in the marina, the ones who’d been teaching classes, and said, “There’s an opportunity to acquire a schooner. Are you guys interested?” and everybody said, “Yes, we are.”

So we came up with the money in an extremely short period of time, like two weeks. Parking it was a question. There was only the one spot in Chula Vista Marina, down at the excursion dock. And with the help of the political people — the mayor was Cheryl Cox at the time — she helped make arrangements through the port for us to acquire that slip on a permanent basis. And so we had that spot.

Then, just as we’re about to conclude the deal, LAMI says, “Oh, by the way, we need to transfer this to a non-profit.” And literally that day, the paperwork arrived from the state of California granting us our non-profit status [laughs].

MS: It sounds like a lot of serendipity there, but it also sounds like you got the boat without the benefit of a planning process. You were just flying by the seat of your pants.

BILL OF RIGHTS in an earlier life

DJ: I don’t think it was even that substantial [laughs].

It was one of those whirlwind things — within three weeks from the phone call, we have this boat, and we’re now talking with everybody. Okay, how are we gonna do this?

One of the thoughts I had was there was a very good RV park here down by the harbor, and I believed we would be able to draw people from that RV park to take day sails. That did not work out. We never did get a good business from that group. So we kind of languished, paying expenses out of pocket, which luckily were relatively minimal.

MS: When you purchased the boat, she still had a COI and you were able to jump right into doing day sails?

DJ: No. That was the impression we had! [OCMI] San Pedro basically was happy with the boat, and they were ready to sign off, but we had to reestablish ourselves with San Diego’s Coast Guard. And with them we spent almost six months going back and forth, doing things. Nothing truly major, but proving stuff, doing drills, and reworking a few things, before they actually gave us, South Bayfront Sailing Association, our COI.

MS: You came up with a captain, or someone had a license?

DJ: There were two of us who had licenses in the group, at the time we bought the boat. Over the past eight years, we’ve licensed at least six additional captains, including myself, and I’ve been operating the boat for a little more than five years.

When we were in Dana Point a few weeks back, we had five captains on board.

MS: So you have a stable of captains rotating through; it’s not all on you to run all the trips.

DJ: That is correct. Me and my second main gentleman, who is Paul Nice, a retired merchant mariner from Military Sealift Command. He has an unlimited all-oceans license. He had been operating tankers for the last 30-odd years, and so he’s an excellent second captain.

MS: What kind of license do you need to run that boat? How many deckhands?

DJ: The Coast Guard requires, for overnights, two licenses. Now, the way it’s stated on our COI is one captain, one licensed mate, and six deckhands.

MS: But your “mate” is usually another licensed captain.

DJ: Yes. That’s what we’re doing so far. We don’t have anybody who’s a licensed mate. Everybody’s a licensed captain.

MS: Bill of Rights is certified for something like 30 guests overnight and some enormous number for day trips, 80-something?

DJ: 88 people, including crew. Overnight is 34, including crew.

MS: Do you fill the boat to those numbers?

DJ: Yes.

MS: And she’s got room..?

DJ: We’re packed to the gills. As a matter of fact, typically the 4th of July is sold out.

MS: Tell us more about that. What do your programs look like now? What have you got running?

DJ: Our primary customer is the US Navy Sea Cadets, for whom we do a number of programs through the year. A five-day sail between Christmas and New Year’s. In April, one week at Sea Plus, a boat building program. We do small boats. And then in the summertime we do two weeks at sea, two boat buildings, and six weeks of catamaran sailing.

MS: Tell us more about the Sea Cadets.

DJ: The Sea Cadets are sponsored by the US Navy. They provide the funding — my impression is it’s close to $2 million a year. They have an enrollment of somewhere around 6,000 Sea Cadets. They come in from all over the country.

MS: How old are they?

DJ: The ages range from 10 to 18. They’ve got what’s referred to a Junior League program, which is 10 to 13, and then the regular Sea Cadets are 13 to 18.

MS: And are they hoping that these kids will enlist in the Navy?

DJ: A fair percentage do go into the service. I don’t recall off the top of my head what that is, but it’s good enough to where they invest in it. It does give enlistment a little bit of a bump. They come in E-3 if they were qualified in US Navy Sea Cadets.

MS: Do the Sea Cadets sign up the kids, organize the travel, assemble the paperwork, and then you just provide the sailing opportunity? Or do you have to get involved in those logistics?

DJ: They organize everything. I propose dates to the regional commander and he accepts it and our price, and they go ahead and advertise it throughout their organization. Again, we have kids flying in from all over the country: New York, Florida, all the way up the West Coast, the Midwest, and so forth. It’s really a good program.

MS: You’re also going to some festivals, right? You went up to Dana Point for the Ocean Institute’s Festival?

DJ: Yes. We go to every one we get invited to [laughs], which isn’t that many these days.

MS: There’s not as much going on out in the West Coast, is there?

DJ: No. Now, typically the other one we go to is Fleet Week up in San Pedro. LAMI puts that one on.

MS: Is everyone in your organization a volunteer?

DJ: Yes. We have no one who’s paid.

MS: What is the downside to relying completely on volunteers to maintain and crew the boat?

DJ: When we have a sail scheduled, I have to advertise for crew. I put the dates out to our group. We have about 80 people in the group, and then people say, “Yes, I’m available.” And they sign up and commit to go.

MS: And is that that like pulling teeth, or does that tend to go pretty smoothly?

Drag racing in San Diego Bay

DARRELL SLATER / BAYSHOTS

DJ: I’m not gonna say it’s easy, but it’s not pulling teeth either. I am comfortable with our turnout.

MS: How would you describe your volunteers?

DJ: There is a mix. But in all honesty, it’s predominantly older white men. A large percentage are veterans, some of them disabled veterans. But we have everything. We’ve even got an Irishman!

MS: So what is your annual calendar like? Are you able to sail year-round? Are some times busier than others?

DJ: Some times are busier than others. January through March is very light. The groups locally who use us are the Rotarians. We have several Rotaries who use us as a fundraising venue. We give them a fixed price for an afternoon sail, a three-hour sail, then they sell tickets to their members. We probably have half a dozen Rotary sails.

Then the other things that we do, like the 4th of July, which I mentioned. We have the Parade of Lights in San Diego Bay. There are two weekends in December, and so we sell tickets for those. And those three events are typically full.

MS: How many days a year would you say that Bill of Rights gets underway?

DJ: I would say less than 80 days. And it does vary.

MS: This is eight years now you’ve been evolving your programs, your offerings. Do you feel like you’re getting traction, that there’s interest in the boat, that people in Chula Vista are aware of you?

DJ: It’s very limited in Chula Vista. Chula Vista is not a maritime community at all. It’s a city of 250,000 people and 99.9% of ‘em have no idea they have a harbor.

To a large degree, the town is a bedroom community, a less-expensive housing alternative to San Diego. A lot of the people work north from here. And there is a substantial Mexican population, a large Latino demographic. That particular culture likes to fish, but they typically don’t sail much. We’re having trouble connecting with that part of this community.

Down here at the waterfront, there is no draw at all. There’s one restaurant, period. People don’t come down here to shop. There’s no shopping at all down here. So there’s no walk-by trade.

MS: Have you had any success with the local schools?

DJ: We’re having limited success with private schools, homeschool groups, but we’re having a lot of trouble breaking through into the public schools. Still working on it!

MS: You mentioned the unexpected work you had to do to get the schooner certified. This boat is now 50 years old. What kind of shape is she in today? Are there any big projects in the offing?

DJ: The big project right now is replacing the majority of the deck. Portions of the deck are fairly worn, and it does leak, which makes it a little uncomfortable for the kids, when we’re out if it rains. So we are in the process of replacing the deck incrementally. We’ll be taking up a section of planks, putting new planks down. The prime focus is not to have to go into the yard, take the boat out of service for a year, and spend a million dollars replacing the deck. We can’t do that. We don’t have it. We’re replacing a few planks at a time and keeping the boat in service.

Bill of Rights

BENSON LEE

MS: The Spirit of Dana Point was just down in your area, having her deck renewed. Were there any learnings from that project?

DJ: Yeah! I can’t afford to do that. They spent, literally, a million dollars. The boat was out of service for almost a year.

Good for Dana Point, they enjoy great support. They were able to raise the money, that’s great. But, for us there are definitely some issues when it comes to replacing the deck. There’s cabins and hatches and portions of the boat that are much more problematic to lift off and put planks under. So we’re not going to do that. The center portion of the Bill is sound and tight, so we’re going to replace the port and starboard sides and then leave the center portions.

The rest of the boat is an extremely good condition. The Coast Guard has gone through her and I’ve had two different surveyors go through her. The last one was scolding me because he wasn’t finding enough things to write down. We literally were going around looking for loose wire ends. So the boat is very, very sound. She’s got oak planks and frames, very well built. Joe did a great job. Harvey Gamage did a great job. She really is a good boat.

MS: What is she like to sail?

DJ: Oh, she’s a dream. She really, really is a great boat. The best we ever did, coming back from San Pedro about five years ago, the wind was perfect — good speed, right direction — and under sail we were doing between 12 and 13 knots without any tops.

MS: When you say “good speed, right direction” is that a beam reach?

DJ: It’s a little ahead of a beam reach, but yes.

MS: You’re not setting anything above the lowers at this point, are you?

DJ: That is correct. We are not. We do have a jib top now. I keep blowing it out and having to rebuild it, but [laughs] right now, we have a top.

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