DANA POINT : Gift Steers Ship From Uncertainty

Claud Sympson’s eyes lit up as he watched a group of teen-agers hoisting a barrel up the rigging of the Pilgrim sailing ship to cries of “heave ho!”

“Well done, well done,” Sympson crowed, clapping for the students in a living-history course about life at sea.

With his recent $225,000 donation, enabling the Orange County Marine Institute to purchase the Pilgrim, Sympson has guaranteed the permanency of education programs aboard the vessel that are attended by more than 60,000 students a year.

A retired corporate executive, Sympson, 77 and a 40-year Anaheim resident, said he could easily afford the donation. The Cleveland native is a 10-year member of the institute’s board of directors and announced his donation plans at Thanksgiving.

“I’ve always been interested in the ocean and in kids,” he said. “And with the two combined, it’s irresistible. I’m glad my wife Jimmie and I were able to do this.”

The nonprofit institute had been soliciting donations to purchase the two- masted sailing ship since 1985, when it signed a five-year contract with a Salinas-based consortium that has been leasing them the wooden boat. That contract would have expired in May if the $450,000 purchase price was not met, said Stan Cummings, institute director.

“This is important for us,” Cummings said, noting that Sympson’s donation is the largest in the institute’s history. “Although the Pilgrim programs are less than half of our operation, more people know us because of the boat than anything else. It’s a landmark, and it’s even on the city (of Dana Point)seal.”

The Pilgrim began its life under the name of Joel, built in 1945 in Denmark as a cargo ship for hauling grain, Cummings said.

In 1975, the boat was purchased by BJW Enterprises in Salinas. It was rebuilt in Portugal as a replica of Richard Henry Dana’s vessel, planned to serve as the centerpiece of a Monterey commercial development by the owners.

When the development fell through, the boat was docked in Long Beach Harbor from 1977 until it arrived in Dana Point Harbor on Memorial Day in 1981, the first official day of business for the marine institute, Cummings recalled.

Institute directors then authorized a $5,000 annual lease and paid for insurance and maintenance of the boat, while they unsuccessfully sought an interested buyer who would donate the ship to them. By 1985, with the living history program in full swing, the purchase agreement was signed to prevent the boat from being sold to interested private parties, Cummings said.

Following purchase of the ship, Sympson said the institute will be free to pursue construction of a permanent mooring for the boat, which is now anchored in the west end of the harbor.

Sympson talked excitedly about future plans for the facility, which include a $12.5-million expansion of the buildings.

“We can start having adult classes and do more community service than we do now,” he said. “Our goal is to educate our young people in marine life and the values of the ocean. This has always been the home port for the Pilgrim, and this (donation) is like paying off the mortgage on a house.”