Lee Jester’s ship, the Adagio, came in early. Not on the morning tide, but strapped and supported on the back of a drop-deck trailer. It was a typical July morning in the San Francisco Bay area when Bruce Smith climbed out of his Freightliner at Nelson’s Marine boatyard on the Alameda waterfront – overcast and cold but with a promise of sunshine later in the day. Smith had started his trip in Bellingham, Wash., two days earlier. He had driven into the boatyard in the wee hours of the morning, well before his appointed time of 8 a.m.
Anxious for Smith’s arrival, Jester arrived at the boatyard before 7 a.m. Smith’s load today means a great deal to Jester. It’s a 1929 Blanchard Lake Union Dreamboat. Even strapped to a trailer, the 30-foot wooden beauty evokes a sense of nostalgia with her understated elegance and classic line. But while the boat sported a recent coat of paint and varnish, she was showing her age below the waterline. “There’s leaking in the bilge area we have to take care of, and we plan to do some engine work,” Jester says of the newly purchased yacht he plans to dock nearby. Fortunately, he does woodworking for a living and his furniture shop is close by.
Located on a former Navy base, the boatyard’s neighbors include a small fleet of ships operated by the U.S. General Services Administration. A reminder of the area’s military past, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet, veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, lies docked nearby.
Inside the boatyard a flotilla of pleasure craft of all sizes and shapes rests on keel blocks and hull stands. The fleet includes sailboats, houseboats, power yachts and even a Chinese-style junk. The vessel sank a few years ago, according to its elderly owner, and is now being renovated.
By a little after 7 a.m. on this Friday, the boatyard comes alive as crews move boats about with a travel lift. “Fridays are always busy,” a yard worker says. “Everybody wants their boat in the water.” Smith and Jester are told they will have to wait an hour or more to unload, since there are four boats ahead. As they wait, the travel lift puts a 35-foot sailboat in the water, moves another inside the boat shop and then relocates a massive houseboat.
Smith removes and stores the tie-down straps and hull pads that had secured the 30-foot cargo to the drop-deck trailer. Smith says he always rolls and stores his straps right after taking them off a boat. “That way, I know where they are the next time I need them.” He likes to run with the same trailer for the same reason. “I know where everything is and I know I’ve got everything I need.”
Jester surveys his boat inside and out. It appears to have made the journey from the Pacific Northwest no worse for wear, except for a front window track.
