DATE: Tuesday, August 26, 1997              TAG: 9708260101

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   38 lines

TO GET UNDER WAY WILL TAKE MONEY AND MOMENTUM

IT WILL TAKE almost $3 million to build the Virginia and run her for the first year, but the ship's promoters believe she will more than return the investment to the state and region, as the Pride of Baltimore has done for its home city and state.

So far, only $65,000 has been raised, but Rick Boesch, director of the Schooner Virginia Project, says the real money will begin to flow as interest in the vessel grows. ``Fifty percent of your fund-raising comes during construction,'' he says.

Melbourne Smith, the boat's designer, agrees. It's momentum, he says, that moves projects along: publicity surrounding the laying of the keel, the securing of the first planks, then the frames, then the masts, then the deck. ``Everything is an occasion,'' he says. ``Pretty soon, everyone in the state knows about it.''

Plans call for construction to begin a year from now, with completion by June 1999, when Operation Sail 2000, one of the largest-ever gatherings of tall ships and character vessels, arrives in Hampton Roads.

The project recently added several new board members, including Richard Barry, director of the Landmark Foundation; Conrad Hall, president of Trader Publishing Co.; John Hightower, president of the Mariners Museum; and John Munford, former chief executive officer of Union Camp.

Others are Capt. L.D. Amory, president of the Virginia Pilot Association; Morton Clark, a Norfolk maritime lawyer; Benjamin Cuker, a Hampton University marine science professor; Doug Forrest, vice president of Colonnas Shipyard; Harry Glenn, chief operating officer for T.C. Consultants of Norfolk; Arthur Johnson, a retired harbor pilot; Palmer Rutherford, a lawyer with Willcox and Savage of Norfolk; Janie Whitehurst, wife of former Congressman G. William Whitehurst; and Dan Winters, a Hampton sail maker. MEMO: The Schooner Virginia Project can be reached at (757) 496-4110 or

through its World Wide Web site, www.schooner-virginia.org.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu