New Hope for Lord Jim

It’s been five years since the Sausalito-based schooner Lord Jim hit an uncharted rock and sank off the coast of Brazil. It turned out that raising the 44-ton vessel and repairing her hull damage was easy compared to battling to free her from the seemingly corrupt owners of the boatyard in Mangaratiba where she has been held captive ever since. 

As regular readers will recall, an extensive refit was completed nearly three years ago, but after a disagreement with the yard’s owners — who literally dismantled their own marine railway in order to hold the boat hostage — Lord Jim has languished, with her longtime owners Holger Kreuzhage and Tracy Brown unable to access her.

Less tenacious sailors probably would have given up and walked away long ago. But Holger and Tracy were determined to fight back against their beloved vessel’s corrupt ‘jailer’, and recently won a game-changing victory. "The judge gave us a big Christmas present!" wrote Holger recently. "We won an enormous victory in that he ordered our opponents to repair all the damages to the boat which were caused by holding the boat hostage for the last three years, and get the boat in ‘navigable’ condition for launching at the expense of the yard." This, in addition to substantial monetary penalties, may finally inspire to the yard’s owners to act, whereas they ignored previous court orders.

Once the pride of Antigua’s luxury charter fleet, this 72-ft gaff tops’l schooner also has the distinction of having circumnavigated more times than any other San Francisco Bay-based vessel — as far as we know, anyway. Look for more details on this uplifting turn of events in future editions of Latitude 38.