The schooner Suva has been owned by the Coupeville Maritime Heritage Foundation (CMHF) since the first part of May 2015. The CMHF is her sixth owner. She is manned totally by volunteers; captains and crew, maintenance workers, and dockside hosts.
Suva was built in 1925 for Frank Pratt, a Massachusetts lawyer who moved to Whidbey Island in 1908. Pratt commissioned Ted Geary, a prominent naval architect in Seattle, to design a vessel for Puget Sound waters that could be used to entertain corporate and private clients and friends. Suva was built in 1925 almost entirely of old growth Burmese teak by shipbuilder Quan Lee in Hong Kong. After being built, she was then shipped to British Columbia where her spars were stepped. She was originally designed as a gaff-rigged schooner. Suva’s spars are Sitka Spruce.
In 1960, Suva had a major refit and was re-rigged to a staysail schooner. The original Lawson-Scott gas engine was replaced by a 140-horsepower diesel Detroit 453. An on-deck aft helm was added, as were life lines. The wood burning galley and salon stoves were replaced with diesel units.
From 1925 to 1940, Suva was anchored in Penn Cove, where Pratt sailed the schooner before gifting it to friend Dietrich Schmidt (for one dollar) and later his son Allen Schmidt, who combined owned the boat for 40 years. Suva then went to Bill Brandt of Olympia for about 25 years before returning to the North Sound to Port Townsend owner Scott Flickinger. Lloyd Baldwin, from whom CMHF purchased her, bought the boat in 2009. Suva has always been kept in Puget Sound waters.