Godfrey Stephens is an awesome artist and lifelong sailor (see pp. 100-109 of Builders of the Pacific Coast on his carvings and paintings). He’s been hounding me for years to include sailboats in our building books. With the tiny houses books under way now, he’s been deluging me with his stream-of consciousness emails and sailboat photos. (As of this moment, there are 366 messages in the “Stephens” mailbox, and 462 photos in the “Stephens” photo folder. (People who know Godfrey will chuckle knowingly at this.)
Well, Godfrey just came through in a big way (he also had a big hand in turning me on to many of the3 builders in Builders of the Pacific Coast). Friends of his had just sailed in through the Golden Gate and were anchored out in Sausalito, waiting out a series of storms before heading south to Mexico. I contacted Julie Newton and Paul Smulder by email and on Tuesday, Paul picked me up in their tiny dinghy and we went out to the boat.
Ay caramba! The boat is a dream. Solid teak hull, 46′ long. Everything is exquisite and immaculate — and beautiful. I won’t go into it here, it’ll be one of the stars of this up and coming book. At left is the Mia heading into the mist-shrouded Golden Gate last week after a trip down the coast from Vancouver Island; photo by John Miller aboard the Silas Crosby.
Wing and wing
Under the gate
Under the fog