A lifestyle, not an investment

A boat's worth will never appreciate. But you will appreciate a boat's worth.

Pamela grew up in the Detroit suburbs in the 60s while Rich grew up in still war-torn Essen Germany. For her, adventure was exploring the creeks and pathways out in wild remote Orchard Lake. (That's sarcasm, BTW.) Rich paddled homemade rafts into flooded underground bunkers, hoping to come across some macabre remnant of the horrific Allied bombing of a decade before. She learned French, starting in 2nd grade. Rich went to school until 8th grade when he was put into an apprenticeship program. In 1970, Rich emigrated to Toronto. In 1975, Pamela went to study at the Universite D'Aix-en-Provence north of Marseille. Rich soon set out to explore the rest of Canada, jumping freight all he way to Suquamish, British Columbia. There were stints as a tuna fisherman in Hawaii, a reindeer wrangler in Alaska, a hippie in California and a logger in BC. Pamela earned a degree in Zoology, then a Masters in French and wound up in French Polynesia for a couple of years. 
Then their paths converged. Six months after they started seriously dating, they decided to get married. Pamela was 36, Rich was 40. Inevitable? Perhaps? Another adventure? Absolutely. 

They moved onboard their first boat the day before they were married.

Rich went to work every morning at the union sheet metal shop, walking down the dock and waving goodbye. Pamela headed for Capital Hill to her job as campaign manager for WashPIRG, a statewide grass-roots environmental lobbying group. Married in April, 1991, Pamela was pregnant with Sophia by January 1992. Sophia was barely 2 when Rich found the Crusader. Suddenly, their life had a third entity: a 70-year-old tugboat. For the next 30 years, the lives of Rich and Pamela, and then Sophia and then Zenia, have been dominated by this 65-ft beautiful wooden floating nest. Following the first 21-month long dry dock, the family settled into a routine: wait for the school bus, see where the tide is, watch the herons and seals, go out for low tide days and get to know the boating community.

To be continued... stay tuned for more. 

If you want to be sure to catch the next installments, email Pamela at [email protected] and she'll put you on the list.

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The Zenia Sophia in her Shilshole Bay Marina slip on C Dock

We love taking pictures during our dry docks, both to document our work and give us the feeling of celebration.
If you are seriously interested in seeing the boat-work we have done over the last 18 years
(when we had good digital cameras and took a LOT of photos), please do not hesitate to contact us and
we would be more than happy to show you the photos.
It has been a labor of love.
​This wonderful Puget Sound boat deserves it!
We hope you have been inspired by our journey.
​Some lucky, daring, water-loving will take her to the next level.
Perhaps it is you.