Seattle's Wawona Needs a New Home (18. June 2006, 08:49 by Derek Young) ~ Ahoy!
Should Tacoma, the land of Tall Ships Festivals and an historically gorgeous, but deteriorating, art deco ferry, offer a home to the Wawona? The boat is in trouble and appears to be following down a path similar to another old friend of our neighbor to the North. Maybe our niche in this region is that we offer a sanctuary to old boats while preservationists try to figure out what to do with them. I don’t know what it gives us or them… but I like old boats.
Link to the Seattle PI
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Very interesting indeed. However, the ship right now is a money pit and could be a liability for the waterfront which we might not be able to handle.
A qualified yes if the boat comes with 10M to keep it afloat and fix it up.
1 | Posted by Erik | Jun 18, 01:52 PM
I think we’ve got enough space on the various inlets (see Hylebos) to store such vessels. Seems to me like there’s a business just waiting to happen fixing up old boats around here. Someone with enough capitol could take one of these on. Anyway, I think being a “ship” kinda place could work well for Tacoma.
2 | Posted by KevinFreitas | Jun 18, 04:04 PM
I too love old boats. I used to do underwater surveying/ research for the Underwater Archeology Society of Chicago a few years back and I’m more used to seeing the remains of fine vessels on the bottom of the Great Lakes (Chicago was the busiest port in the world following the Civil War and with it came a proportional number of shipwrecks).
What a rare gift to see a surviving ship from this facinating time in our country’s history. It would be a great asset to have the Wawona in our waters but 400k to just move it here? Yeesh!
It seems we have the local talent to assist in her restoration. I’m sure that incorporating the Working Waterfront Maritime Museum into efforts to restore the Wawona would be mutually benefial to both parties. How ‘bout a working restoration exhibit for the museum? If we prove that we are totally serious about our maritime history maybe we can prevent Seattle from stealing our Tall Ships event (its bound to happen).
Anybody got $15 mil. burning a hole in their pocket?
3 | Posted by Mike H | Jun 18, 09:02 PM
I was on the Wawona a number of years ago. Just walked up, tossed a $5 in the donation jar and wandered on board. There was very little activity going and the couple of guys working there didn’t seem too interested in helping me understand what they were trying to achieve.
They did become suddenly interested in me when they needed a hand running a large timber hrough the band saw. I spent about a hour working with them and they were friendly enough but I got the distinct impression they really needed some formal organization around the whole community interaction/donation part of the equation.
4 | Posted by Davest | Jun 18, 09:30 PM
Back in the day, they used to have music on the boat. I wish I could have caught one of the shows when I first moved to Seattle – I think they stopped doing them years ago though… I’m thinking a brew pub on the boat with live music would be fun.
5 | Posted by morgan | Jun 18, 09:58 PM
“I’m thinking a brew pub on the boat with live music would be fun.”
Not a bad idea. Just tie it up and renovate enough for a club or restaurant.
6 | Posted by Erik | Jun 18, 11:31 PM
I’m thinking a brew pub on the boat with live music would be fun.
We can park it on Ruston Way and call it Top Of The Ocean II
HA! I was wondering if anyone would catch that!
8 | Posted by morgan | Jun 20, 02:28 PM
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