Back to Basics

An earlier attempt to re-boot the Isaac Evans was derailed by COVID. Now, new owners, a new home port, and a new business plan are on tap for this windjamming veteran

Josh Jacques and Jessica Kelley have purchased the Isaac H. Evans, originally the Boyd N. Sheppard, along with their partner Andy Tyska of the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard.

The schooner was built in New Jersey in 1886 for the thenlucrative oyster fishery. She was converted to windjamming in the early 1970s by Captains Doug and Linda Lee, and has sailed under several owners since.

Marlinspike spoke to Jess shortly before Thanksgiving.

Marlinspike: Jess, tell us about yourself and how you ended up in the windjammer business.

Jess: So there’s three of us that are partners in the Isaac H. Evans right now: myself, my fiance and partner Josh, and our business partner, Andy Tyska. We’ve all been in the boat business for some time now, all of us to different degrees. Josh and I met on Lynx and then came to Maine for the summer to wind-jam on different boats. But upon hearing that the Boyd N. Sheppard was about to be foreclosed on, Josh and I investigated it — a little bit too much, I guess you could say!

Andy is a big person in wooden boat preservation. He’s native to Rhode Island, but he just purchased the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard a few years ago, he’s a big preservationist. We’re all passionate about these wonderful historic vessels.

And the three of us devised a plan, once we heard that she was going to go under, because she’s from 1886. She’s one of the older ones surviving. So we just made a plan to get her out of her poor position with the bank and thankfully it all went through.

MS: Did Andy come to you guys, or did you guys find out that the Evans was in trouble and go to Andy? How did that all come together?

Jess: Josh was meant to be the mate on schooner Heritage and the Evans’ winter home is rafted-up to the Heritage at North End Shipyard. So when Josh was working on board, there were people in the shipyard who knew what was going on with her. So Josh found out and that’s where it all started.

MS: Three and a half years ago [see Marlinspike #19] we talked at length with Katie and Adam McKinlay, who were also veterans of the windjammer business. They had just purchased the Evans from Captain Brenda Thomas for a dollar.

Jess: Yeah.

MS: During the offseason, the Evans had come loose in a storm and crushed one of the yawls. The Evans had some damage, and it done some damage to the Heritage. Brenda had been trying to pass the schooner on for a while, at that point, and after the storm, Adam and Katie happened to be on the spot, and the price was right…

Jess: Yeah, I know. Adam and Katie did a really wonderful job. They put on a whole new bow on her, so that was huge. That was a big project. They did a really great job with that.

MS: They knew going in that the boat needed major work. They secured a loan from one of the banks. They had big plans to re-name and re-brand the schooner, using its original name, Boyd N. Sheppard. Do you have a sense of what went wrong? Was it COVID?

Jess: The Sheppard, she didn’t go out for her 2020 season. They would’ve made it, I think, if it weren’t for COVID. But because they had to sit out a season so early in their tenure, it wasn’t ideal.

MS: I’m surprised that the bank would yank out the rug from somebody they had just given a loan to. Especially with all those government programs designed to help people weather the storm. Did you buy the boat from the McKinlays, or from the bank?

Jess: We were able to buy it from the McKinlays, with the bank heavily involved.

MS: Got it. So, I assume Andy’s not going to be on the boat. That’s going to come down to you and Josh, right?

Jess: Josh and I are co-captains of the Evans. I spend most of the time in the yawl boat, so that’s my boat and this is Josh’s boat! But we are co-captaining her, with Josh being the primary captain.

MS: And who’s going to cook?

Jess: We aren’t windjamming, actually.

MS: You’re going to stick with the day-sail business plan?

Jess: Yes. We’ll be offering public and private charters and day sails and some other special sails. And we’ve actually taken the boat to Boothbay Harbor, which is where she hails out of now. Anyone coming on board should know that they’re actively helping us to preserve the Evans. That’s our mission. She’s 1886, She’s an older vessel, so the projects are never ending. Anybody that owns a wooden boat knows that, especially the older ones. So it’s no surprise that she needs some work to keep going, and that’s the mission that the three of us are on: to get those funds by whatever means possible, to keep her alive and keep her sailing.

The engineless EVANS under her fore and jib, with an assist from her yawl boat

Photo by Spencer Whitehouse

MS: Well, if your boat is 135 years old, you couldn’t have a better partner than a guy who owns a boatyard.

Jess: Oh, exactly. And he’s so passionate about keeping these boats alive. I mean Ernestina, that’s been a huge project. So the three of us, I think we make a pretty good team.

MS: What is the business plan going forward? The pivot away from windjammers to day sails, was that about your COI? Was it about the market that you see in Boothbay Harbor?

Jess: We had intentions of windjamming when we first bought her, but she hadn’t been used for overnights in quite some time. Her COI was facing being taken away; luckily we had some extensions in place from COVID. As soon as we closed, we hauled her immediately and were able to keep her COI, so she still has that for overnights, and we will maintain that. It’s important for her to keep that. She’s grandfathered into a lot of the Subchapter T regs.

We won’t be windjamming. Her below-decks just isn’t fit out to be competitive with the other windjammers. She’s been out of the overnight trade for a couple years, so she needs some more work, and that’s on the list.

We brought her to Boothbay just The EVANS has returned to her earlier paint scheme for Windjammer Days, initially, this past summer. And then we ended up serendipitously putting together some day sails. We did a charter, and that prompted us to rethink our original business plan of getting her back into the overnight business.

Eventually we decided it would be better for her to do something that didn’t require overnights. We’re going to do day sails and private charters, and I think that’s what she’s best suited for right now.

MS: Tell me more about what kind of shape she’s in, what work she needs at this point.

Jess: For 1886, she’s in good shape. Right now, the big projects we’re facing have to do with her centerboard log, in that area that’s seen a lot of use. And those centerboard logs, in these coastal ships, are notorious for just needing upkeep. So that’s the bigger project we’re looking at right now.

She’s going to need a new deck down the line. That’s going to expose some beams and just the typical stuff.

I mean, it’s nothing crazy. It’s everything we anticipated when we bought the boat, and did our homework, and talked to the shipwrights that had eyes on her over the years. I’d say the centerboard is probably the bigger project we’ve got in the near future.

MS: Where would you like to be in four, five, six, years with this boat? In terms of the condition of the boat and the business plan that you might be running.

Jess: We’d love to take on the bigger structural components, like the centerboard log that I just named. And with that, it would be great to tackle the keel, give her a new bottom. That’s hopefully the first project we. And then I think the deck would be next.

The bow is completely new. Her stern post is pretty new. I think the transom would probably come after that. The transom was cut so that she could stay under a hundred feet overall, to adhere to those T-boat rules. So it’d be nice to get a nice high transom that she used to have back in the 19th century on her. So those are the bigger projects we’re looking at over the next five to six years, I’d say.

MS: And she’s currently at Boothbay Harbor?

Jess: She is, yep, at the public dock. She’s got half of her winter cover on, plastic’s going on this week, so then she’ll be totally wrapped up and ready for winter.

MS: I assume you’ll be working all through the winter? When do you hope to get started in the spring?

Jess: Yeah, absolutely. We are going to be doing our first sail on Memorial Day weekend. We’re really excited for that. But we’ve got a ton of work to keep us busy. She’s going to get all new paint, varnish, block work, just all the fun stuff.

MS: What’s the impact of the Evans leaving the North End Shipyard and going to Boothbay Harbor? Do they still have the critical mass that they need at North End Shipyard to keep that operation up and running? I know that’s a vital component in the windjammer industry, having that yard available to the windjammers.

Jess: Yeah, absolutely. They’re doing their thing, North End, and they’re great. John [Foss], Doug and Linda [Lee] were so, so helpful in the very early days with Josh and I and Andy purchasing the boat. They all have so much history with her, they’re all great, and they’re doing great.

Josh and Jess hold down the stem

Good times with the random orbital sander

MS: What do you and Josh and Andy hope to bring to midcoast Maine that’s not already being done?

Jess: I mean, we just want to see these boats survive. That’s what we’re passionate about. And that’s how we got here, seeing that there was the potential for one to be taken away.

Our mission is to just do whatever it takes to keep them going, and I think that’s what everyone’s doing. So it’s nice to be a part of a community that’s really passionate about that. And I think it’s a cool niche that Maine has. Excited to be here! b

For more information on the Evans, visit www.schoonerisaachevans.com.