There are several ways you may have arrived here.

But no matter what your journey to this point,
I welcome you to a highly personal account
about a schooner named Huloa, of how
she came to own us, the often gritty,
and usually expensive  process of
breathing life into a tired
and neglected lady.

These pages are part of the site:

Chequamegon Bay Web - Lodestar of Lake Superior's
Apostle Islands & Bayfield, WI

Looks idyllic, doesn't it?

The stuff of dreams, right?

Black hull on blue water. A cloud of white sails, shaped by a kind and steady breeze, throwing  shadows over a laid teak deck and an expanse of highly varnished mahogany.

The sun hot and the crew happy . . . .

But the first time we saw her in September, 1989 she was a bedraggled lady, a hulk left rotting on the asphalt of a marina for eight long years, no longer loved except in the memory of owners - now incapable of bringing  her back from the grave.

She smelled of decay, and after a brief peek inside we drove away, knowing nothing of her pedigree, not even recognizing her to be a schooner.

In a moment of weakness I had called the marina, then called the owner and talked of storage money owed, and what he thought he had to have for the boat that had been in his family for nearly thirty years, and what he didn't want to see happen to his schooner.

"She's a Bluenose Junior you know," he said, "gaff rigged and I still have the sails in the garage. Was designed by William Roue, who designed the original Bluenose. Only three hulls were built.   I've got a picture of her sailing in 1968 that I could send you."

But there was a vision that wouldn't go away - ok call it a dream - and with the support of wife and family, especially son Scott, (that's him on the left) the project was completed pretty much as dreamed.

It just took a bit longer than expected.