Hand made pirate ship

To follow up on my blog about the Watts Towers, I wanted to write about another fascinating weirdo-with-a-vision that came to my attention last year.  This picture (from the weblog Panbo) is of a "pirate ship" named Raw Faith that was built by hand by a guy in Maine using, from what I have heard, plans he found on the internet.  The boat was named after his daughter, who overcame a lot of obstacles and evidently was the inspiration for the ship.  The interesting thing about this ship to me is how much a lot of people hated it- it got tons of criticism from the beginning.  The Captain repeatedly had trouble sailing it out of its harbor in Maine and had to be rescued by the coast guard several times.  It sounds, overall, like kind of a pile of crap boat- it just wasn't made quite right.  However, I find it amazing and rather inspiring that someone built a huge, old-timey ship all by themselves using plans from the internet, for chrissakes.  I mean, you gotta admire that dedication.  And honestly, the thing is really kinda beautiful to me- all rough and bare bones but weirdly graceful with the symmetry of the sails on the water.

Anyway, it made me think about these crazy outsider weirdo projects (I read that the Watts towers are part of a category called "naive art" and I like that name)- what makes the towers a famous and preserved example of this thing called naive art but the Raw Faith a public nuisance eyesore that lots of people, including vehement message boards dedicated to the topic, insisted should be scrapped permanently?  The vision of the guy who built Raw Faith was also singular and rather beautiful- but his project just never quite transcended the public's negative view of it.  Maybe because he insisted on doing something serious with it.  Maybe weirdos cross the line when they insist that their creation is a valid thing that should be given the same respect as, for example, boats that are built to specific standards by professional companies and trusted to carry people around safely.  But we would miss out on so much if no one ever took a chance to make something crazy and different, all on their own, just driven by guts, determination, and a dream (even if that person is a lunatic who alienates everyone around them).  I feel like maybe we should afford the failures some of the same respect and awe that we afford the victories.

Here is a picture of Raw faith sinking a few months ago.  It is weird, I almost want to send a letter to the crazy captain saying thanks for reminding me how hard and deep people can dig, and making something that was so pretty even as it sunk thousands of feet into the open ocean.