The Grace is built of Nimpkish Valley Douglas fir. The 8” square deck-support beams are yellow cedar. The caprails and sole (flooring below deck) is hard-wearing purple heart from South America.
Some statistics: 80,000 board feet make up the hull; the old-growth deck timbers have up to 45 grains per inch; the internal ballast consists of 42 tonnes of lead encased in concrete; the bowsprit is 30′ long and 16″ in diameter; the 18″ diameter masts rise 120′ above the waterline. Fully rigged, Pacific Grace carries about six miles of cordage. Steel strapping reinforces the hull, and diagonal wooden strapping stiffens the deck around the masts.
Following her launch in 1999, Pacific Grace was completed and commissioned in 2001 at a total cost of $2.1 million CDN. The project was entirely funded by donors and was built as the money came in. The Grace operates in our coastal sailing program each year except when conducting offshore voyages such as those in 2003/04 and 2007/08.
The “kids” are the raison d’etre for all this activity: the motivation for a crew of shipwrights to work five winters on a craft which some think represents obsolete technology; the reason 1,000 volunteers have donated countless hours; and the incentive for many more thousands to donate money. The SALTS ships provide “training, by the sea, for life!”