Our guest speaker this week was Adventurer/ Boat Builder Chris Bowan, delivering what is best described as ‘part 2’, of what I suspect will be followed up with yet further future visit to continue his both educational and at times rather entertaining journey of his boating adventures.

 

Chris, shared a number of boating stories … but the one that was of extreme interest, to all in attendance is when he shared his meeting with Bob Dylan the musician. At first the link appears to a little obscure but is best described by a common link in sailing boats.

 

Today’s story finds Chris on the Caribbean island of Bequia, under a canopy of almond trees on a beach. Despite the fact that Bowman had limited knowledge about wooden boat construction and had never built a boat before, Bequia was extremely well-made. At the time, Bowman was 25 years old, relatively new to the Caribbean scene, and learning how to be a charter boat captain. Not a person with a large ego, Bowman was able to push away any feelings of intimidation and apprehension, and surround himself with a team of excellent local shipwrights. Bequia, originally named Just Now, was built in 1976 by Chris Bowan.

 

To start the project, Chris first developed the architectural lines, which he based on a 32-foot sloop by Sam Crocker, a Boston-based naval architect who designed more than 300 vessels, mostly during the first half of the 20th century.

 

The construction of Bequia began in 1976. Bowman secured the large greenheart timber needed for the keel and lead ballast; it was salvaged from a decaying, beached English schooner. The hull was built using wood cut from local trees, and silver Balli from Guyana. The 60-foot-tall mast was made from wood that had once belonged to a schooner that wrecked near the island of Bequia. While his crew carved the large, heavy frames and planked the hull, Chris, with the help of his father, who was back in California—sourced the deck fittings and hardware for the rigging from marine hardware stores in southern California and a salvage shop on St. Barts.

 

After completing the construction of Bequia, Chris flew home in winter 1977 to visit his parents. While catching up with a childhood friend in Los Angeles, he was introduced to Bob Gilbert, the builder of Bob Dylan’s home in Malibu. Impressed by Bowman’s story of building a boat in the Caribbean, Gilbert proposed that Bowman design and construct a 65-foot schooner that would be called Water Pearl. This new boat would belong to a partnership made up of Gilbert, Dylan and Chris Bowman.

 

But before Water Pearl was completed, Gilbert left the partnership and traded his equity in the schooner for Bowman’s Bequia. Gilbert then had the boat shipped to Los Angeles, where he improved her spartan interior and modified some of her deck arrangements—replacing the tiller with a wheel, for instance.

 

After completing Water Pearl in 1980, Bowman, his wife and their daughter moved on board and began promoting the boat for day charters when Dylan was not using her. The partnership worked well. Dylan never had to worry about the management or operation of the boat, and when his busy tour schedule allowed, he could fly down to explore the Caribbean islands with Bowman. For Bowman, cash was solid and a special friendship with Dylan was formed. Water Pearl worked as a charter boat throughout the Caribbean until she sank in 1988 near the Panama Canal after striking a reef.

 

Now, at this point it had become, beyond question, that this guest speaker had yet more experiences that will require scheduling for a third appearance to allow the next set of adventures to be shared with us.