At 80, Virginia Is Making Waves : The 1913 wooden racing sloop, lovingly restored to health, is outperforming younger competitors while winning other honors.

For an 80-year-old, she is in great shape--strong, agile and fast. So fast that last year she took first place in eight races, beating competitors years younger.

Virginia, a 44-foot wooden sailboat, was designed and built in 1913. Two years ago, the sleek racing sloop was named to the National Register of Historic Vessels, becoming the first West Coast yacht to be so honored.

And last month, Virginia was chosen by Sail Magazine as one of the 100 great sailing yachts in North America.

All of this comes as no surprise to Daniel Heagney, the man who fell in love with Virginia at first sight and who helped restore the aging vessel to its original glory. He recalls the day nine years ago when he first set foot on the narrow-hulled sloop.

“It was late on a Sunday and we went for a sail. We sheeted in, and Virginia took off like a rocket ship and I was hooked,” says Heagney, a Dana Point marine surveyor who had been asked to take a look at the vessel to see what sort of shape it was in.

At that time, the Nautical Heritage Society in Dana Point was considering accepting the old boat as a donation. “We get offered a lot of wooden boats,” says Steve Christman, founder and president of the 12-year-old nonprofit organization. “Most of them are junk, and it sounded like this one was a disaster looking for a home, but I have one rule: I will at least go look at them.”

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Christman says that after he saw Virginia, he was grateful for that rule. “It pretty much just jumps right out at you, what the boat’s potential is,” he says. “We found that the boat was basically sound but needed a lot of tender love and care, but we felt that the boat could be brought back to health.”

Heagney uses stronger words. “I was convinced that I could save her life,” he says, explaining that many old wooden boats end up “chain-sawed” and destroyed because they are beyond redemption.

After the boat was donated to the society in 1984, Heagney and a volunteer crew spent about a year restoring the vessel. And during the nine years that the Nautical Heritage Society has owned Virginia, Christman says, hundreds of volunteers have been involved in sailing and maintaining the boat. But he adds: “It wouldn’t have happened without Daniel. It wouldn’t be what it is. He spends a tremendous amount of time and has put together a dedicated crew.”

Heagney laughs and says people are always asking him what he gets paid. “I work on this boat for free,” he says. “There’s a lot of maintenance. A wooden boat needs daily care.”

Keeping such a boat in top shape requires not only time, but also money, Heagney points out. Fortunately, a group of sponsors, including Koehler Kraft Shipyard in San Diego, which provides free haul-outs, and scuba diver Shirley Abbott, who provides free bottom-cleaning service, have helped keep costs down.

But even with such donations, maintaining the boat still costs about $5,000 a year, Heagney says. “If we had $5,000 a year, we wouldn’t have to struggle so much,” he says.

To make ends meet, Heagney, who serves as program director and skipper for Virginia, offers sailing and seamanship classes aboard the vessel, which is at the Dana Point Harbor Youth and Group Facility.

Introductory sailing classes, which include two six-hour sessions on weekends, cost $105 per person. Advanced classes cost $225 and instruction in coastal navigation costs $90. Private sailing lessons are also available on Virginia. (For information call (714) 661-7439.)

“One major difference between our society and other organizations,” says Christman, “is that we believe in actually having working boats. Just getting hold of a boat to paint it up and put it at the dock doesn’t hold any fascination for me. To really preserve them, you have to preserve the skill and you have to sail them.”

Both Christman and Heagney are proud of Virginia’s sailing record. In its eight decades at sea, the boat has won races in Puget Sound, the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Michigan, Long Island Sound--and now in the Pacific Ocean off California, where two years ago Virginia won first in class in the Newport-to-Ensenada Yacht Race.

The boat’s racing schedule begins every April and continues through December. And although Virginia competes against younger, lighter vessels equipped with thousands of dollars worth of modern equipment, the boat manages to hold its own, often winning on corrected time against fiberglass yachts of the latest design.

Heagney attributes part of Virginia’s success to the boat’s designer, the late William Gardner, who created many well-known vessels. The boat is a narrow, low-sided racer, constructed of oak frames with mahogany planking and has spruce spars. Its average speed, according to Heagney, is 6 to 8 knots.

Learning to sail the boat in order to get the best performance was not easy, Heagney admits. “I had to learn to sail and race at a completely different rhythm,” he says. “I raced for four years before we ever placed in a race.”

Now, Heagney and Virginia win races so often that Christman says, “Daniel walks in here once a week with a trophy.”

Although winning races is gratifying, Christman says he is most proud of Virginia’s other accomplishment--being named to the National Register of Historic Vessels. “It was a two-year process,” he says, “and this is the only yacht on the Pacific Coast so honored.”

To be eligible for the National Register, a boat must be associated with events and people that have made contributions to U.S. history, according to Christman, who points out that the registry includes the country’s most famous vessels still afloat, including the frigate Constitution.

Very few yachts ever win the honor, he says. In California, only 15 vessels are on the list and none of them are yachts.

But being named to the register has not changed the way Virginia is treated, Heagney points out. “This boat is not on the National Register and being kept under glass,” he says. “This boat is out and still being used.”