Monterey's last large wooden fishing boat getting TLC
The last remaining large wooden fishing vessel in Monterey has been hauled out to dry dock for renovation.
The San Giovanni has been at home port in Monterey harbor for almost 60 years and the boat has become a piece of history in the community.
The vessel can be seen all over town, in photographs and paintings at local restaurants, and it's even part of the logo for Royal Seafood.
Until four years ago the crew was still taking the boat out on commercial fishing expeditions, making it the only wooden boat, of it's size, still operating in Monterey. The San Giovanni is just under 70 feet long and when she is fully loaded weighs about 100 tons.
Misty Sherman at Monterey Boat Works said it took more than one try on the boat lift to get the vessel out of the water. The crew removed everything from fuel tanks to kitchen drawers to lighten the load, taking the boat down to about 65 tons.
After the work is completed on the San Giovanni this spring her captain plans to put her back in action.
"Once she is painted it will be like a brand new boat," said Jiri Nozicka.
Nozicka married into the boat after he met his wife Elizabeth Pennisi-Nozicka back in the late 90s. Originally from the Czech republic Nozicka said he was traveling around the states when he first came to Monterey.
"I came here accidentally almost 20 years ago and I fell in love with family and with my wife and with the boat," he said.
The San Giovanni was built in Oregon in 1943 using Douglas Fir. In 1959 the Pennisi family bought the boat and brought it down to the Central Coast.
The family used the boat to build a fishing empire in Monterey. The San Giovanni helped Giovanni Pennisi to pioneer ground fishing in the area. Pennisi and his sons went after many of the fish still served and sold in Monterey today, rock fish, sand dabs, and petrale sole.
"He himself with the boat became an icon on the West Coast he really developed the local dragging industry, and his sons started after that," said Nozicka about his wife's grandfather.
Today the San Giovanni looks a little worse for the wear. It's been hauled out of the water and is dry docked so Nozicka can do repairs. He said it needs to have about 250 feet worth of wood planks replaced, some patching, and some new paint.
Nozicka said sitting in the water unused for four years was one of the worst things that could have happened to the San Giovanni.
"They need to fish, they need to be moving around," he said.
Sitting in the mooring gave time for worms to get in and eat away at the wood like a termite in a house. Nozicka said once the work is done at the end of May, he plans to get the San Giovanni back out and fishing by summer or fall.
Despite all the work that comes with a wooden boat Nozicka said he wouldn't trade the San Giovanni for a new steel boat.
"It sound different when it is in the water, and it sounds different when it is loaded" he said.
The San Giovanni was part of a fleet of three wooden boats operated by the Pennisi family, but like many wooden boats built in the last century they've all been wrecked or retired.
The largest boat in the fleet, the Diana, was destroyed in a ship wreck a decade ago. Nozicka said a container ship hit the Diana off the coast of Big Sur but the wooden vessel was able to get her crew safely back to port.
Nozicka said that is the other benefit of a wooden boat is that even with a leak they float.
