Navy Blue

by Richard Stout member of Thousand Islands chapter

It’s not an antique or classic. It is FRP with a lot of exterior wood.
We ordered Navy Blue from a Seattle broker and it was custom built to our specifications in China. I had previously owned a 1962 Chris-Craft Constellation and loved the layout and functionality as a weekend cruiser but we needed a new boat. This was the closest modern boat similar to our Constellation we could find. So we ordered Navy Blue with “No exterior wood”. We received her at the Port of Seattle from the top level of a container ship. The first thing I noticed was the wood transom, cap rails, and brow rails. We discovered the beautiful teak decks in the cockpit when we got on the boat. Evidently, we had a miss-communication with the China manufacturer. I have since come to appreciate that miss-communication. The woodwork is beautiful and easy maintenance.

We kept her on Lake Union Seattle for a year for shakedown and finishing the interior to our specifications. While there we cruised the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands. A memorable time was spending Independence Day 2007 at Roach Harbor. Fire works didn’t start until after 10:00 pm waiting for enough dark to let them stand out. My wife Susanne and I purchased some crab from a pier side vendor and steamed them on board. It was a memorable meal enhanced by a wonderful bottle of Washington wine and by the time the fire works started we were half asleep.

After the year, we moved her to San Francisco Bay where she resided at the San Francisco Yacht Club for the winter. We moved her to Lake Tahoe for the summer and maintained the move cycle until Lake Tahoe’s Invasive Species program, which we wholeheartedly supported, made it more difficult to transport between the Bay and Tahoe. Thus, she stayed on Lake Tahoe until I moved her to Alexandria Bay, NY this fall.
She is currently on the hard in heated storage at Ed Huck’s Marina at Rockport, Ontario. My wife Susanne died in 2015 and my new love Kathleen Cross and I look forward to cruising the 1000 Island area on Navy Blue next summer.