From childhood dream to reality in Mound House

Why in the world would anyone choose to build a ship in Nevada, a state known for being ... well, landlocked and dry?

Water or no water, among the Mound House brothels a modern-day Noah's Ark is rising from the desert.

The 106-foot-long, 20-foot-wide schooner actually isn't big enough for many pairs of animals (or anyone over 6-feet tall,) and in its heyday during the 18th and 19th centuries, was a more appropriate vessel for a pirate than a holy man.

The fact that the historical replica is being built 200 miles from the nearest seaport doesn't bother the ship's captain, Charlie Brown.

As a matter of fact, the wooden schooner is his design, built mostly by his hands from plans he carries in his head. Brown did build a model of the ship first to make sure the boat would float. It passed its floating test in Washoe Lake, and now Brown and some his family and friends are converting the scale model from inches to feet, ounces to tons. When finished, the 65-ton ship will probably be Nevada's very first piece of working maritime history.

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

The wooden ship is a replica of an 1898 Burgess Rhodes-designed Bug-Eye (Gaff) Brigantine Schooner. In desert English, the ship is a two-masted version of the old pirate sailing ships seen in the movies, Brown said.

Boarding the landlocked ship isn't an experience for the tall or the claustrophobic. When finished, the ship will hold 14 people with a crew of five in tight quarters. Ships are all about angles, Brown said, and visitors to the Vera Cruz 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 Mapes hotel in Reno adorns a corner in the captain's cabin, and "Carson City" will be emblazoned on the hull.

While nautical terms may seem a bit out of place in Nevada, they're a part of Brown's native language.

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 his mother's sheets and sailed down the Hillsborough River to Tampa Bay and has since spent his life on the water. The Mound House schooner is Brown's fifth attempt at ship building.

"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."

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," Brown said.

He's also received a lot of help from area business in seeing his dream become a reality. He moved to Carson City from Medford, Ore., in 1995 to begin working on the ship. Brown found businesses like Meeks Lumbar in Carson City, which provided most of the wood, much of it rare, for the ship. A Reno business custom-made old world sailing canvasses for the ship from specially milled fabric.

Brown operates a boat charter company called Rocky Point Charters based in Rocky Point, Mexico. The Vera Cruz is designed to sail in the shallow Mexican coastal waters. Schooners are ships of the American Northeast, used for fishing and to haul oysters, cargo and pirate loot into shallow waters where bigger ships couldn't go, Brown said.

When completed in August, the Vera Cruz will be trucked to San Francisco where its maiden voyage will hit 20 ports from San Francisco to Puerto Penasco, Sonora Mexico.

The ship will eventually 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 over $500,000. Cappucci said the group is looking for sponsors to help with the educational portion of the trip. For information, call 841-7389.

For information, head to the Web at www.rockypointcharters.com. If you are interested in sponsoring the Vera Cruz's educational tour, call Rafael Cappucci at 841-7389.