Gillmer’s “Blue Moon” resembles traditional British pilot cutters that worked the English channel in all weather. Dad loved the design immediately and built a “footie” model, finished 1952, before the first actual Blue Moon was built! Kids finally fledged, in 1988 he commissioned John Swain to bring his dream alive. Built on the Chesapeake, sailed on Lake Ontario for a decade, “Katie & Ginny” was then shipped by rail across Canada, and donated to SALTS in 1997. Used only briefly by them, tall ships are far better for their purpose, she was then sold to a private owner, her proceeds going towards building Pacific Grace. Purely by chance, I discovered her for sale again while I was still living in New York. An opportunity not to be missed, I bought her back, then moved both of us to Port Townsend; the perfect place for two gracefully aging ladies. A Norwegian coin is beneath her mast step and her tiller head is carved after a Viking figure, nods to the place Gillmer’s own Blue Moon was built. Crafted by “Gaffer”, as Dad was affectionately called, the cherry wood is from a tree in our yard that once held my tree fort!
