From childhood dream to reality in Nevada desert

Amanda Hammon

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

MOUND HOUSE, Nev. - Why in the world would anyone decide to build a 106-foot-long, 20-foot-wide schooner in Nevada, a state that's landlocked and bone dry?

That the historical replica is being built in the desert 200 miles from the nearest seaport doesn't bother the ship's captain, Charlie Brown. The 65-ton wooden schooner is being built mostly from plans Brown carries in his head.

"This was a dream I had when I was a kid," Brown said. "It's my passion. Some people have a passion for plastic cars, I have a passion for boats."

The schooner is Brown's fifth attempt at ship building. The ship is a replica of an 1898 Burgess Rhodes-designed "bug-eye" brigantine schooner. Such shallow-draft, two-masted ships were typically used in shallow coastal waters in America's fishing industry.

After first making a model to make sure the boat would float, Brown and some of his family and friends started converting the scale model from inches to feet, ounces to tons.

The ship, named the Vera Cruz, rests on blocks near the Kit Kat brothel, and if you aren't looking for it, you probably won't see it. Brown says the unfinished wood "will be a little more dressed up in 60 days," but for now, blends into the dusty background.

Boarding the landlocked ship isn't an experience for the tall or the claustrophobic. When finished, it will hold 14 people with a crew of five in tight quarters.

Ships are all about angles, Brown said, and visitors will find themselves sleeping, standing and sitting at odd angles. The ship is being built as "old world" as possible, but will have state-of-the-art water, plumbing and power systems.

Part of Nevada will head to the coast with the Vera Cruz. A vanity sink from the old Mapes hotel in Reno adorns a corner in the captain's cabin, and "Carson City" will be emblazoned on the hull.

Brown grew up in Florida and fell in love with the sea at a young age.

"If it floated, I put a sail on it," he said. "I loved ships, sailing and anything to do with the sea."

He once took some of his mother's sheets and used them to rig a sail on a makeshift boat that he sailed down the Hillsborough River to Tampa Bay.

Still, building boats in Nevada doesn't seem to make a heck of a lot of sense.

"I chose this site because it's near everything - the steel maker, the cabinet maker. There are no noise restrictions, so I can work when I want," said Brown, who moved to Carson City from Medford, Ore., in 1995 to begin working on the ship.

He has received a lot of help from area business in seeing his dream become a reality. Brown found a lumber yard in Carson City, which provided most of the wood, much of it rare, for the ship. A Reno business custom-made old world sailing canvases for the ship from specially milled fabric.

Brown operates a boat charter company called Rocky Point Charters based in Rocky Point, Mexico. When completed in August, the Vera Cruz will be trucked to San Francisco and the start of a maiden voyage to Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico.

The ship eventually will be used for chartered sailing trips in the Sea of Cortez, but its first trip will be about maritime education.

Brown, with the help of a marine researcher, marketing strategist Rafael Cappucci and educational consultant Jimmy Dichirico, will use the Internet to bring the voyage of the Vera Cruz and the history of sailing vessels to school children around the country. While the ship is an old world vessel, it will have webcams and other state-of-the-art equipment on board.

"Kids can't get history anymore," Brown said. "This will be an educational program for kids. Kids need a chance to see it."

The voyage plus the cost of construction will cost more than $500,000. Cappucci said the group is looking for sponsors to help with the educational portion of the trip.