A $7 million dream: Steinbeck's vintage sardine boat makes its modern debut
MOSS LANDING, Calif. — The boat sits at the dock waiting to sail. Gleaming under a fresh coat of white paint, black trim and mist-green highlights, it tugs on lines that creak from the marina's gentle surge.
The captain stands on the flying bridge as the crew casts off. The owner, coffee in hand, watches from the stern railing.
With a straight prow, stolid cabin top, broad aft deck and crow's nest, the boat, the Western Flyer, is a throwback to the last century — more reminiscent of a child's toy bobbing in a bathtub's choppy water than anything taking to the seas today.
By many accounts, today's outing — a shakedown cruise in local waters — should never have been possible. With nearly nine decades of service on the West Coast, the boat should have slipped beneath the waves long ago. It nearly did.
Striking a reef, it was once pronounced a total loss. Filling with water from a ruptured fish tank, it once nearly swamped. Popping rotten planks, it sank twice at the dock.
Misfortune seemed its destiny, yet still it endured.
"The Western Flyer," says the owner, John Gregg, "has a life force. All who get on board can feel it."
Yet Gregg is being disingenuous. Were it not for the $1 million he spent buying the boat — and $6 million restoring it —
