If you change all the wood in a boat, is it still the same boat? The Theseus Paradox, a question dating back to ancient Greece, generates a laugh from Robert d’Arcy, captain of the schooner Martha. 

The captain, who joined the Schooner Martha Foundation when it began in 1996, is also the project manager of all restoration projects on the wooden vessel, which happen each winter when the racing season ends for the 84-foot schooner.

“She’s been restored, but she’s still Martha,” d’Arcy said. “She was built as a racing yacht, and as a foundation we decided to honor that and to utilize her as she was intended to be used.”

The captain, too, has gone through many changes in his life, but has maintained an unmatched level of passion for wooden yachts and their history.

As for an actual answer to the paradox, d’Arcy thinks it’s all a matter of scale. In the case of Martha, which is more than 100 years old, as long as pieces are added bit by bit over the century, the boat remains the same. 

A LIFE AT SEA

Sitting below the deck of Martha, hanging mugs of blue and green cast rainbows onto the mahogany cabin. 

The space is large, for a boat, but filled with the necessities of life onboard. Sleeping bags, pillows, and laptop chargers sit amongst finely-bound books on the art of sailing. The watch schedule from the last race hangs, framed, in a place where it can be easily read even by tired morning eyes.

D’Arcy seems as natural a feature of the boat as the wood itself, a well-loved blue hat bearing the sailing vessel’s name slung low over his eyes.

D’Arcy describes himself as “young enough to still be here but old enough to have seen the old world a bit.” Born in Rhode Island in 1957, d’Arcy is a fourth-generation boat builder. Although he hadn’t heard of Martha growing up, he was at the “epicenter” of American yachting and familiar with and a fan of her designer, Bowdoin B. Crowninshield.

In fact, once d’Arcy joined the Schooner Martha Foundation, he made it a personal goal to bring more awareness to Crowninsheild’s designs, whom he called an “unsung hero of yacht design.” 

“I wanted to make her strong and safe, tune her up and clean her up to be a testament to his design and prove its efficiency,” d’Arcy said.

Before connecting with Martha, he worked at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, the nation’s largest maritime museum, as a restoration carpenter and did historical research. Throughout his education, both formally and on the job, d’Arcy’s appreciation for the craft grew.

“I really like the design, form, and function of a yacht. What a beautiful creation,” he said. “It’s in the water, it has to absorb tremendous strains and loads, but it’s beautiful.”

After being steeped in the history of American yachting, d’Arcy took a momentary break from wooden boats.

“As a young person growing up you think, ‘Am I doing this because that’s what I’ve been taught to do or am I doing this because I want to do this?’”

He turned to other forms of adventure, including windsurfing, skiing, and mountain biking. But he just couldn’t stay away from the allure of the elegant wooden craft.

“I ended up back in big boats, so I guess it’s my choice,” d’Arcy said.

MAKING MARTHA

Walking down the docks at the Point Hudson Marina, it would be difficult for the untrained eye to pick out the oldest boat. Martha, with a gleaming white and teal paint job and sparkling decks, doesn’t look like a day over 50. It is only her design, with subtle touches signature to the naval architect who created it, that signals to passers-by that the schooner has spent 113 years in the water.

It’s easier to describe what’s original on the boat than what has been restored, d’Arcy laughed. The keel timber, laid in late 1906 or early 1907, is Martha’s “primary backbone” and has been in the water for 113 years. 

Much of the deck framing and all but one of the stringers are just as old, as is the cabin and helm. D’Arcy estimates about 10 percent of the fabric is from the early 1900s, including West Coast fir, oak framing from back east, and Douglas fir planks that came from Blakely Harbor. 

Martha was built in San Francisco in late 1906 and finished in 1907. Her first owner, J.R. Hanify, ran one of the West Coast’s largest lumber yards, and was a fan of luxury boats. There was an avid racing clique in San Francisco at the time, and Hanify found several other competitive yachtsmen who admired the schooner, which he named after his wife, Martha.

Competing vessels on the West Coast were different from the polished, glamorous yachts of the east, d’Arcy said.

“It was new out here, rugged, rough. There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the workboat and the yacht,” he explained. “Glam wasn’t in; people were practical.”

In fact, the sole difference was whether or not the boat was used for commerce, since the design between the two groups could be identical.

Martha has changed over the years, following the evolution of schooner yacht design. There were many changes in her rigging and sail composition as sail design improved.

D’Arcy called her staysail composition the “ultimate schooner rig,” but aspects of the design are always changeable. 

Martha switched hands a few more times, notably going to James Cagney from 1934 to 1943. 

In 1968, owner Edgar Kaiser brought her to Washington, and there she stayed.

LIFE ABOARD

D’Arcy and Martha coming together was perfect timing. He was unimpressed by modern yachts, which placed practicality above style. He was further disappointed that wooden boats were being pushed out to make room for newer options in fiberglass, steel, and aluminum. 

“While I accept and understand that modern materials and modern design acumen are very important, it doesn’t mean we have to abandon that which was good from our past,” d’Arcy explained.

“If we’re only going to measure things from investment in to investment out, a boat is not a good investment,” d’Arcy said. 

“But if we measure things in quality of life, the fun factor, being involved in things you enjoy, a wooden boat is not about how many beans you count at the end of the day, it’s about other things.”

Those additional merits include continuing a legacy that can hopefully continue for yet another century.

“There’s something intrinsically important to me about the concept of ‘Design it well, build it well, and take care of it.’ Here we are 113 years later, kids are going out and sailing on this boat and having fun and learning skills,” d’Arcy said.

The skills that kids learn are not just about sailing, but about life. Living aboard a vessel at sea is like living on your own little planet, d’Arcy said. The crew forms a society, all needing to work together to complete the mission at hand. 

“You need a functioning hierarchy and also a sense of society and community,” d’Arcy said. This includes conservation of resources like food, water, and fuel, which he noted was not unlike the planet today. 

Now, Martha’s normal, pre-pandemic season typically begins in early spring, when groups of schoolchildren clamber on deck and learn the ways of sailing. It starts on a Friday, when kids get the first feel of a vessel like Martha: hearing the vocabulary onboard, practicing skills, and handling lines.

One week later, when the group goes out again, the kids are familiar with the nomenclature, running through practiced motions of sailing and applying their maritime knowledge. They get to race, grasping the original helm from the beginning of the century. 

Moving into the summer, Martha’s focus is directed toward serious racing events. It begins with the Swiftsure International Yacht Race out of Canada in May, then the Classic Mariners’ Regatta rolls around in June in Port Townsend Bay. More events follow, with varying lengths and levels of competition. 

The race crew is typically 10 to 12 people, who might be dedicated kids who graduated from one of the school programs or seasoned mariners. On overnight races, there must be enough people to man the boat fully on watch while others get rest. The crew uses a rolling watch system, d’Arcy explained, in which one person rotates out every hour. This avoids a completely new, likely tired, crew all changing at once, which leaves room for error as the new lookout adjusts.

THE LEGACY OF MARTHA

Working on a ship with such a storied history would be a daunting task for a less seasoned captain. People are familiar with Martha all over, mainly from the West Coast but some from much further. D’Arcy recalled a friend referring to her as the “darling of the West Coast,” a title that he is proud of. 

With an internet presence, d’Arcy said that if someone has an interest, they can find Martha. Especially when she travelled all around the West Coast in 2014, people came out of the woodwork to find her and provide pictures, tips, memories, and stories about the vessel’s history.

One person’s uncle had owned the boat in the 1940s and provided the crew with amazing photos of the family’s trip to the Hawaiian Islands; the schooner in a tropical backdrop of islands in their natural glory 70 years ago. Another was a descendant of Martha Hanify, and gave the crew a canvas coaster made out of the original fabric of the boat. 

“There’s a lot of neat history we keep gleaning, compiling more and more of her cultural history and identity,” d’Arcy said.

On that landmark trip now over five years ago, Martha and her crew traveled down the coast to San Francisco, past Monterey and Santa Barbara, to San Diego, then around the Baja peninsula and into the Sea of Cortez for the winter. The way back took a detour to Honolulu for yet another race

“She has touched so many people and imparted something to each and every one of them in a different way. I realized Martha was a lot bigger than just a boat,” d’Arcy said. “She’s a time machine. You don’t own this. You take care of it for your time; you’re a steward of it.”

This tracks with d’Arcy’s general view of the world. “Do no harm, and lend a helping hand when you can,” he said.

IT'S HIS BUSINESS

Any of the captain’s free time is spent on his business, Robert d’Arcy Marine Services. He is the owner and project manager on restorations of classic yachts. The business exists in a “symbiotic relationship” with the Northwest Maritime Center, he said, out of which the restorations are based.

His current project is a 1938 Danish spidsgatter called Helma. The 26-footer is set to launch at the end of the month after a costly, but wholly worthwhile, restoration. She needed a complete and total restoration, d’Arcy said, and was lucky to have owners who are connected to her legacy and heritage, and willing to make great effort to keep the vessel in the water. 

The only original pieces left were the lead keel, some aft wood and part of the side cabin. This is especially unique because most European vessels lost their lead keps to the war effort for bullets. D’Arcy speculates the Danes must have snuck her up an estuary to spare her. 

D’Arcy was surprised when the owners agreed to the restoration, but glad they did. In dollars and cents, the boat might not be worth it. But in cultural significance and design? Absolutely.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

New crew members are welcome at all times, and typically join naturally as people elevate to the race crew when they show interest, dedication, and a willingness to learn.

Three young people are living on board this summer, including Mary. Along with keeping up on daily maintenance, they get a headstart on long-term projects. Maintaining Martha takes constant effort, and the workload stays high throughout the year.

While d’Arcy has always been an adventurous person, the 63-year-old knows that he cannot be Martha’s primary captain forever. He has been training his future replacement, Captain Kris Day, to someday assume the position so that d’Arcy can retire and enjoy life with his family. 

Last year, Day took 50 percent of the trips as captain, and would have done the same this year had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Martha is a very important structural part of our lives,” d’Arcy said, referring to his wife Holly Kays and daughter Mary. “But the last 25 years of my life went by like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. 

D’Arcy is in no rush to step away, but will let a timeline emerge as life continues. Laying the groundwork for a transition now, though, will allow the hand-off to be seamless when it happens.

“Whether I get hit by a donut truck or decide to just stay home and plant some flowers, it’s all good,” he said.

He’s not worried about Martha, since she is owned and managed by the foundation, which has a mission statement and bylaws, instead of being left to the whims of a private owner.

“She gets an owner that is as long-lived as she, and that’s the foundation,” d’Arcy said.

Still, he hopes the schooner spends the rest of her days in Port Townsend, as he plans to. 

“Being in Port Townsend is great. There are a large number of people who love the idea of what Martha represents,” d’Arcy said, noting the Port of Port Townsend’s recent campaign to preserve Point Hudson, the authentic waterfront and two historic districts.

“I’ll probably spend the rest of my life somehow connected to the foundation, and I’ll gladly spend the rest of my life in Port Townsend.”