BIGFORK – Before lowering the Questa to her berth on Flathead Lake, shipwright Jon Derry christened the sleek old racing boat, delivering a short but spirited nautical toast and spritzing the mahogany bow with single-malt Irish whiskey, a gesture to ensure safe travel and good luck.
“To those long since gone, who built, commissioned and sailed this boat, and to those who still do,” said Derry, his voice choked with emotion as he raised his own glass, knocked back the whiskey and turned to face his crew.
“Now let’s go to work,” boomed the boat builder, bedecked in a pair of chambray work shirts, Carhartt pants, and a carpenter’s cap, and wearing a loon-festooned handkerchief slung around his neck.
After more than a decade of restoration at Derry’s hands, the 1929 thoroughbred sail racing boat — designed to specifications that made it the fastest sailboat in the world in its era — has rejoined its sister ship, the Nor’Easter V. Thanks to the time and talent of a small crew at Flathead Lake Lodge, the boats are stronger than ever.
Both boats have undergone rigorous overhauls to prepare them for a summer of sailing, and to preserve the rich history surrounding the rare vessels.
The story of the Questa’s journey from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Montana began with a brilliant early-20th century boat builder, hinged on a barroom handshake with an intemperate junk dealer at a yacht club in Milwaukee, and culminated in 1984, when the old sailor made good on the deal, trailering the massive boat across the country on a makeshift semi-hitch.
“We didn’t know what a great boat we had at first,” said Doug Averill, who owns the dude ranch and the historic boats. “We just thought we’d put some lipstick on it so our guests could enjoy it.”
After some initial cosmetic attention, the Questa was first launched with a crane from a cow pasture at Flathead Lake Lodge, where cowboys and sailboats coalesce, Averill said.
“The old guy who sold this boat to me was something of a barroom drunk,” Averill said. “We never really thought we’d hear from him again, but periodically he’d call us from a bar pay phone to negotiate a price. Then one day he showed up with the Questa and asked to go hunting.”
Horse-trading for sailboats was a new experience for Averill, but he knew a fair bit about old boats, and so did his guests. One of them told him that the Questa was built to race alongside a sister ship, the Nor’Easter V, and Averill began canvassing yacht clubs and the sailing community for information on its whereabouts.
It turned up in Seattle, where an old hippie had run a stovepipe through the decking and was living in the historic boat. Averill began laying plans to buy the beleaguered ship and bring it to Montana, and restore both boats to their original plans.
The rarity of the boats derives from blueprints drawn up by renowned naval architect L. Francis Herreshoff, who designed them as Q-class racing boats to compete in the world’s biggest sail races.
Herreshoff favored a design that featured a narrow hull and extreme overhangs, and while the boats are built to identical lengths, the Nor’Easter, completed in 1928, is equipped with a needle-sharp stern, giving her the narrow, streamlined appearance of a hot rod.
Made to compete against one another in the America’s Cup, organizers of the vaunted race changed its rules to disallow the Q-class formula shortly after the racing sloops were built, and neither boat was ever allowed to compete.
Today there are fewer than 10 Q-class boats in restored condition, and the Questa and Nor’Easter remain the only Q-class boats Herreshoff ever built.
“He was like a NASCAR designer, the amount of time and attention to detail he put into them,” Averill said. “Every curve is designed to race at the highest level. His innovation doesn’t stand out to the untrained eye, but it was like redesigning the space station or something.”
As the preciousness of the boats sank in, Averill grew determined to restore the vessels. He tracked down Herreshoff’s original plans for both boats at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, and through a stroke of serendipity, Derry arrived at the Lodge soon after.
Having completed a three-year apprenticeship in wooden boat building in Maine, Derry heard about the old boats on Flathead Lake; thinking Montana an unlikely home for the historic sailboats, Derry’s curiosity was piqued, and he wrote Averill a postcard offering to trade labor as a carpenter for some free sailing time.
He arrived at the Lodge in 1989, and never left.
“She was certainly in need of some assistance,” Derry said of the Questa.
On June 15, having completed a third restoration of the 52-foot, 22,000-pound ship, Derry watched as the 11,500-pound hull alighted on the lake for the first time in more than 10 years.
He estimates he’s spent six years in and around the boat, devoting nearly all of his time to restoring the vessel to museum-quality perfection. Derry knows the Questa with unrivaled intimacy, having replaced thousands of bronze screws, cedar planking and ribs of Douglas fir.
“Every little piece has to be perfectly fitted,” Averill said. “It’s incredibly complex work.”
Derry, striding across the Questa’s narrow deck with a broad grin after inspecting the galley for leaks, celebrated the monumental morning with characteristic humility.
“I’m just a boat builder,” he said.
But the Questa and her sister, he said, are far more than just boats.