Two New Brigantines with drawings by Scott Kennedy Johnson for his courageo us, some might say incredible, fil m documentati on of rounding the H orn in the square rigger Peking, it is his contribution to sail training that first intrigued and then inspired Captain Jim G ladson, founder of the Los Angeles M aritime Institute's TopSail Yo uth Program. A career educator and Pacific Coast sailor, G ladson has nurtured the TopSail Youth Program since its launch in 1992. O perating under the mantra "we do not train yo uth for lives at sea, but use the sea to educate youth fo r life, " the program has met with enormous success . The success of the T opSail Yo uth Program had sustained the lives of two fo rmer East Coast vessels of some renown. T he 1938 square to psail schooner Swift of Ipswich, designed by H oward Chapelle, was purchased by the Institute in 1994, and the 197 1 topsail schooner Bi!L of Rights, des igned by M cCurdy, Rhodes & Bates, was acqui red on loan and added to the fleet in 1997. C alifo rnia's most agreeable weather keeps both boats working r~ practically nonstop. W ith increased demand for the program , rhe rime had come to enlarge the fleer. Though Swift and Bi!L were adequate, the programs were confined to the individual limitations of each. IM:J'i ~f,,./f',.._,,A;,,f 11~ !Jr•f«f,~5 Now a boat could be designed to conform to the specific needs of the prog rams! T o do this G ladson engaged naval architect W . I. B. [!Jn addition to meeting US Coast C realock to develop drawings from those of a brigantine that was Guard safety standards, the brigantine designed by H enry G ruber in 1933 but never built. G ladson was adamant that in addition to meeting US Coast G uard safety {must} be a state-of-the-art sail training standards, the brigantine be a state-of-the-art sail training vessel, vessei pleasing to the eye and, pleasing to the eye and, while they were at it, it might be prudent to build two. Ir was at this point I received his call. while they were at it, With the vessels' mission clearly defined, I set about to co nit might be prudent to build two. struct a soundly built smart sailer, times two . Construction has been underway since February 2000, at which rime two 65-foor purpleheart keels were laid end to end on the LA Maritime Museum parking lot, our wo rking shipyard. It is a bit of a tight fit-challenging, in fact, but it provides some very up-close and personal vantage points for the sidewalk supervisor. Many of rhe crew have worked with us before, including Barty Bowles, mechanic/shipwright, Steve Johnso n, rigger, Stewart Pro thero, systems, shipwrights Roy Vetterlein and John Pendleton, and M ick O 'Neal, equipment operator. T he las t three went from the Kalmar Nyckef in Delaware to the Jeanie Johnston in Ireland . Local professio nal shipwrights and carpenters round out the present crew, which will grow to 30 before completion. As in all of our projects, volunteers play an important role, performing a variety of tasks as they work in tandem with rhe professional crew. W hen the keels were laid, my crew had already begun to prove the architect's lines by laying down the ship's lines in a spacious vacant building a few blocks from the shipyard. I guess I'm a bit stub born when it comes to lofting, full scale with batten and "' pencil, which some find old fas hioned, even unnecessary. I've -·;:..· never been sorry to have taken the time fo r this procedure, and, based on the number of corrections and/or refin ements that have resulted on every proj ect that I have personally overseen, the cost saving is undisputed . I believe that the lofting process also bonds the crew to the project, and, at the sam e time, it helps us to understand the idiosyncrasies of a particular design. M ost impe r-
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SEA HISTORY 95, WINTER 2000- 01
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