Suva, the iconic sailboat — or schooner — that can be seen gliding across Penn Cove every year, is hitting the big 1-0-0.

To celebrate one of the oldest surviving boats of its kind, the Whidbey Island Maritime Heritage Foundation invites community members to check out the Suva exhibit at the Island County Museum.

At the exhibit, which kicks off at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, people can learn about the vessel’s history and the changes it went through over the years, and perhaps feel inspired to join its crew of devoted volunteers.

Suva’s story began in 1924, when Coupeville resident and lawyer Frank Pratt tasked a Seattle naval architect with building a cruising sailboat for his family and business, according to schoonersuva.org.

This “pioneering” pilot house schooner was built in Hong Kong in 1925 during British occupation and was later barged across the Pacific Ocean to Victoria, B.C., where the sails and Sitka spruce masts were installed before the boat sailed to its owner on Whidbey, according to the website.

Pratt kept the boat in Penn Cove until 1940. In the following decades, Suva went through four more owners until Mark Saia, the founding member of the Coupeville Maritime History Foundation, found it on Craigslist, anchored in Port Townsend. Seeing the potential for educational and tourism opportunities, he sealed the deal in 2015 with the help of community donations.

According to Senior Boson Jason Magee, Suva came with a price tag of $110,000.

The foundation, which rebranded to the “Whidbey Island Maritime Foundation” in 2021, has owned and operated the vessel ever since, taking people of all ages on little sea adventures aboard a piece of Whidbey history.

Despite some changes, Suva has maintained some of its Gatsby-era opulence, said Captain Brian Vick.

“This thing is a gorgeous boat,” he said, surrounded by its wooden interior and the brass and round window frames.

The approximately 68-foot-long schooner was built with old-growth Burmese teak, a particularly expensive wood that is now estimated to be about 500 years old, according to the foundation. Most of the original nails are still screwed in, volunteer Larry Rose said.

Vick believes the sailboat has lived an unusually long life considering that wood tends to decay due to the constant contact with the water. While there are a few similar boats in Washington that are around the same age as the Suva, he said, they were built out of state.

“Any boat that survives 100 years,” he said, “is miraculous.”

While staying as historically accurate as possible, Suva has had to go through various improvements and repairs, which are in part behind its longevity.

Like all sailboats built a century ago, Suva was initially built with a gaff rig, which is a four-sided sail. Later, it switched to a triangular shape. Additionally, the original gas engine was replaced by a 140-horsepower diesel engine, according to the foundation.

Among other maintenance projects that took “hundreds and hundreds” of hours of work, Captain Gary McIntyre said, the original tiller was replaced with a steering wheel, and just last week, a new deck was added just in time for the upcoming sailing season that runs May through October.

During this period, the Suva crew sails every weekend, taking guests on two-hour-long trips in Penn Cove or on longer, private charters to other destinations in the area, all while sharing facts about sailing, wildlife and history against the backdrop of a memorable sunset.

To provide the best experience to guests and introduce aspiring boaters to the joys of sailing, the Whidbey Island Maritime Foundation has been training volunteers of all experience levels.

Over the past few weeks, Suva’s captains, including Vick and McIntyre, have been giving free trainings to new and returning volunteers. Monday, Vick gathered a group of apprentices at the Oak Harbor Marina to go over various emergency procedures, including how to respond to a person who has fallen overboard, how to abandon ship or how to address a flooding.

Eventually, depending on their comfort level, volunteers may be able to take over the steering wheel, said Vick, adding that children can also learn the basics of sailing aboard the vessel.

Suva has been responsible for instilling the love for sailing in many children and adults. McIntyre, a captain who joined the crew in 2016, got emotional when he recalled many kids’ excitement and described how life-changing the experience can be, whether they’re learning about the Penn Cove Shellfish mussel rafts or how to tie knots, read charts or steer the boat.

As Suva celebrates a century of memories, community members can be a part of many more. To learn about volunteering, joining day trips and hosting special events, visit schoonersuva.org.

(Photo from Schooner Suva’s Facebook page) The schooner Suva, built in 1925, has hosted numerous weddings and special events since being operated by the Whidbey Island Maritime Foundation.