SPORT REPORT : Old Salt Wanna-bes

It was just a small article in the local paper. The San Diego Maritime Museum was looking for a few good matelots to help sail the Star of India, its 1863 square-rigger. But it produced 300 applications for 40 spots. And it didn’t just draw a bunch of kids wanting to run away to sea.

“For an old salt like me, this is one last chance to breathe the ocean breezes under real sails,” said Jeff Jeffries, 67, a retired music teacher, as he waited for his order to leap on the capstan during crew tryouts. “I had my own boat, but this is the real thing.”

The ship, the oldest iron sailing vessel still afloat, has made 21 trips around the world hauling people and cargo. The British-built ship came to San Diego in 1927 as a rusty relic. Restoration was completed in 1976, and it’s now the museum’s centerpiece.

“This is like a window in time,” said hopeful Tomas Macias, 52. “It is like riding the space shuttle, only going backward in history instead of forward.”

Aesthetics drew part-time schoolteacher, Elizabeth Schlappi, 56. “Square-riggers are the most beautiful creation ever to come from the hand of man.”

“It’s a tough job for these older folk,” said trainer Dan Duvall. “Hauling ropes, manning capstans, clambering up rigging, furling heavy sails. But that doesn’t seem to stop them coming.”

“No talking!” yelled crew chief Jim Davis to the novices in the rigging. “You have no safety harnesses. One accident, and it’s bye-bye to this program.”

To many hopefuls, this is nothing less than Peter Pan/Captain Hook territory. “She’s a big toy,” said Stan Williams, 41, a china importer.

The final cut came in April. When the ship sails off the San Diego coast in August during the “America’s Finest City” celebration, Williams and Schlappi will be aboard. Williams, to the thrill of his two kids, will be up aloft. Schlappi, to the relief of her 87-year-old mom, will be down on deck, hauling ropes.

“I just can’t wait for that moment,” says Williams. “When she slips her lines from the tugs, heels over to the wind and heads out to sea, I’ll be up there, part of history.”