John Guzzwell’s cruising icon sails again
Issue 50 : Sept/Oct 2006
Forty-four years after he last held Trekka’s helm solidly in his hand, John Guzzwell reflected, “She seemed so small and simple.” John skippered Trekka’s return to salt water when she led the procession of traditionally rigged vessels in the parade of sail off the Victoria, British Columbia, waterfront to kick off the Tall Ships Challenge 2005.
The next day, serenaded by spirited music from the Mexican navy training ship, Cuauhtemoc, hundreds of sun-scorched spectators lined up to board the square-rigged stars of the Tall Ships pageant as Trekka basked in the attention from curious dockwalkers. Meanwhile, hard by the harbor at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, an elementary-school class listened attentively as the builder of the smallest “tall ship” explained how he and his boat became international sailing icons.
“You’ve got to have a dream,” John told the youngsters. “When I was your age, I was in a German concentration camp. I used to dream about a sea-going adventure.”
Carrying his toolbox, John Guzzwell arrived in Victoria in 1953. There he started to convert that dream into reality. He commissioned a set of plans from the innovative British naval architect, Laurent Giles, who made the reverse sheer acceptable. The young shipwright rented space at the back of a fish-and-chips shop and started to build the definitive singlehander, a 20-foot yawl that he named Trekka.
In 1955, the 25-year-old set sail on what would become a record-setting four-year voyage in the smallest sailboat to complete a solo circumnavigation. John tells this story beautifully in his book, Trekka Round the World.
Final bluewater voyage
Just over 25 years ago, in September 1980, John joined delivery skipper Eric Abranovich when Trekka returned to Victoria Harbor from Honolulu after her final bluewater voyage. Her new owners, the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, mounted her as a static exhibit. Early in 2005, the museum loaned her to a downtown shopping center, which showcased her in its lobby for five months.
“After we put Trekka on display in the mall, we noticed there was a whole lot of public momentum and interest,” says Jamie Webb, president of the museum at the time. “This provided the impetus to get her fixed up.”
This public relations venture resulted in Trekka’s first refit under the museum’s stewardship. That spring, another Victoria wooden-boat institution picked up her restoration and moved it forward once more. Nestled into a remnant of the working harbor, the Sail and Life Training Society shipyard echoed with the sounds of chisels, hammers, and caulking mallets. Amidst sawdust and shavings from other maintenance projects, Trekka perched on a cradle while inspectors determined that her fiberglassed red cedar hull and plywood deck were still in fine shape. Shipwrights fashioned a new spruce mizzenmast, made two big angle-iron flanges to bolt the keel back on, and installed new bronze through-hull fittings. Her lifelines were missing, but the original rigging and mainmast were sound.
Dress rehearsal
The June tall ships events served as a dress rehearsal for Trekka’s debut on the Pacific Northwest wooden boat circuit that fall. At Victoria’s annual Labor Day Classic Boat Festival, Sandy Goodall took over the dockside public relations role. With Sandy skippering and Port Townsend, Washington, sailmaker Carol Hasse crewing, Trekka once again hoisted her sails for the Sunday parade past HMCS Oriole and then competed in the Open Classic Race. Their efforts were rewarded when Trekka won the festival’s “Best Restored Tabloid Cruiser” award.
Carol calls her crewing experience “an honor and delight.” She notes that the cockpit is “tight for two, but reasonably comfortable within easy reach of the tiller.” Sandy clarifies that the cockpit is actually a foot well in the deck, not something you can sit “in.” Rather, you sit “on” the deck, with your feet in the foot well.
The next weekend, Trekka’s career came full circle when she returned to her singlehanded passagemaker roots. Sandy, who stands 6 feet 3 inches tall with a build similar to that of John Guzzwell, singlehanded her across the Juan de Fuca Strait to Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival.
The museum’s insurance policy stipulates that Trekka must be escorted on such trips, so John West’s motor vessel, Scaup, went along on the crossing. “There’s a lot of life left in her,” comments John, noting that when the wind in the strait got up to 25 knots, the historic yawl was doing over 6 knots.
Star attraction
At the Port Townsend festival, Trekka reigned as the star attraction. “There was a constant stream of people wanting to touch, see, and feel,” Sandy reports, adding that one man did a double take then pulled out his cell phone and called a friend in Seattle. “You’d better get up here,” he enthused. “Trekka’s here!”
Public appearances such as these encouraged Trekka’s caretakers to chart a realistic course for her future. “The museum will keep her in showable condition,” says Jamie Webb. With the goal of launching Trekka this past June so she could attend Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats festival over the July 4th holiday, shipwrights began putting the finishing touches on her restoration. The interior was repainted, varnishing completed, and patterns cast in bronze or aluminum to replace the missing stanchions.
Former Victoria ship chandler Mike Magrath sold John Guzzwell Trekka’s original lifelifes. The men met on a trans-Atlantic liner when both were immigrating to Canada. During the five-day rail journey from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Vancouver, Mike says, “We never mentioned boats once.” He was surprised to learn later that his travelmate was building a boat. “Because there was little demand, there were no off-the-shelf marine fittings available; they had to be ordered.”
Through his U.K. connections, Mike brought in some of the parts John needed. When John was looking for lifelines, Brooks and Adams in Birmingham, England, came up with the right size in stock. A few years later, Mike realized this distribution gap represented a business opportunity. He became partners in a wholesale importing business, and Bosun’s Locker retail store was born in Victoria. It still does business in its Johnson Street location almost 50 years later.
Replacing the Dacron sails that have weathered some 30 years of bluewater cruising remains the largest outstanding task to complete Trekka’s outfitting. The schedule depends on the availability of time, money, and fabric. Carol Hasse’s Port Townsend loft will build the new sails in collaboration with international sailmaking consultant Sandy Goodall, both of whom will rely on input from John.
The Maritime Museum of British Columbia has designated Sandy as the official skipper of Trekka and another artifact awaiting restoration: the 1896 cutter, Dorothy. John’s book, Trekka Round the World, served as an inspiration for Sandy, who says, “Sailing her was almost too good to be true.” He calls the book “the stuff of dreams that makes you want to get your own boat and sail into the sunset.”
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
