The grand old schooner had just reversed course.
And within moments, the white sails above were filling up the blue sky and sending the Suva on one final mighty push across Penn Cove.
“You can just feel the wind catching the sail,” Vicki Schmitz Block said, watching with astonishment from the deck. “We really are moving.”
Until last Wednesday, Schmitz Block hadn’t been aboard the Suva in 31 years.
But when she learned of its whereabouts and the story behind its revival, she got an invitation from the Coupeville Maritime Heritage Foundation to come to Whidbey Island and get reacquainted with the boat she and her ex-husband Alan Schmitz once owned and sailed for 15 years.
Yet, first, she had to share the idea of the visit with her husband Jack Block.
“He said, ‘What’s a Suva?’” Schmitz Block said.
“We were married 14 years before I ever talked about Suva to him. It was a different life.”
The Suva, a 91-year-old, Gatsby-era schooner, is back for its second sailing season in Penn Cove this summer. The boat was originally owned by Coupeville millionaire Frank Pratt Jr., who commissioned naval architect Ted Geary to build it out of Burmese teakwood.
The Coupeville Maritime Heritage Foundation purchased the boat from Lloyd Baldwin of Port Townsend in 2015 and triumphantly returned it to its home port.
The foundation is the yacht’s sixth owner, if you count family overlap. Dietrich Schmitz, Alan Schmitz’ father, bought the boat for $1 from Pratt’s son in 1940. The boat stayed in the Schmitz family until 1985.
“Dietrich Schmitz was the financial adviser to Frank Pratt,” Schmitz Block said. “As Mr. Pratt’s health deteriorated (he died in 1939), I think he was worried about what might happen to Suva. He wanted to give it to Dietrich but he wouldn’t accept it as a gift, so he bought it for $1.”
Schmitz Block shared such stories and other Suva experiences to an audience at the Coupeville Library last week before she and her husband were the honored guests of a special sailing the next morning.
“It was almost like an out-of-body experience,” Schmitz Block said. “Never did I dream I would sail once again on the Suva. I forget how much energy from my life and my children’s lives was spent on that boat.”
Schmitz Block and her ex-husband owned the Suva from 1970 until ’85, spending many summers taking trips with their two children to points all over Puget Sound, British Columbia and the San Juans Islands. Back then, home base was the Seattle Yacht Club.
But mixed in with the adventures were a few misadventures. On one of the couple’s first dates, Alan Schmitz captained the Suva and thought the boat would fit underneath the Hood Canal bridge. He was wrong. The mainsail became wedged, the mast bent and cracked and his father was presented with a $20,000 repair bill in 1968, Schmitz Block recalled.
They were married five months later.
Over the next 17 years, Schmitz Block got an education in sailing aboard a boat that was built in Hong Kong in 1925 and in her day was arguably the best cruising sailboat of her type in Puget Sound.
In the 1970s, the couple made several major changes and upgrades that are seen on the boat today, including installing a second steering station on the stern deck, remodeling the galley, and installing a 12-volt electric windlass to raise the anchors.
“There is so much original equipment still on this,” Schmitz Block said. “It’s amazing.”
While docked at the Oak Harbor Marina last winter, volunteers continued the improvements and maintenance.
They refurbished the teakwood decks, renewed upholstery, overhauled the electric system and replaced the fuel lines. The foundation is working toward the Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection so the boat can carry more passengers.
The Suva is moored at the Coupeville Wharf, offering daily dockside tours for a donation.
Weekend sails that last 2.5 hours are available for $75 per person and private sails may be arranged.
Crew members and docents are being sought and training will be provided. To learn more, go to www.schoonersuva.org
Schmitz Block learned of Suva’s current status through social media. Her son, also named Dietrich Schmitz, had been corresponding with Mark Saia, the Suva’s captain, about the boat.
“He said, ‘Nice boat,’” Saia said. “I said, ‘Oh, you know it?’ He said, ‘I grew up on the boat.’”
Schmitz Block said she was pleased to see the boat gain a fan in her current husband during the sailing since he had to tolerate hearing so much about her previous life. Block was the Port of Seattle’s commissioner for 28 years.
“He was fascinated,” she said. “He thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Alan Schmitz, who died in 2012, deeply loved the Suva, Schmitz Block said. She said he would have been touched by the care it is receiving in Coupeville.
“I can’t tell you what a godsend this has been,” Schmitz Block said. “I can’t help but think about Alan Schmitz being up in heaven. He just must be beaming.”
