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Students build futures while embracing past on USS Lucid

STOCKTON — At first, restoring the USS Lucid may have seemed like a mad dream. After all, it’s an all-wood, 60-year-old minesweeper, 171-feet long and weighing 775 tons. Who thought transforming the decrepit boat into a maritime museum on the Stockton waterfront would be doable?

However, with significant help from San Joaquin County Building Futures Academy students, the Lucid’s restoration has made remarkable progress.

“When the Lucid Maritime Museum is downtown on the waterfront near Weber’s Point, it will be a spectacular addition and a major attraction,” said John Van Huystee, a general contractor who is the students’ instructor and the Maritime Museum’s first paid employee. “And all these great people and students who’ve worked on it will be part of something entirely unique in the world.”

The project began in March 2012. Since then, crews have restored the galley, the crew’s mess and battle dressing station, the top level passageway, CPO quarters, bunk area and officers’ wardroom. The porthole covers have been cleaned and polished. Electrical wiring has been installed in many areas. Holes have been patched in the decks, walls and bottom of ship. The septic tank has been installed beneath the stern deck.

If the project keeps its current pace, it will be finished sometime in 2017.

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Posted: 2/24/2015