After 35 Years, Peabody Man's Boat Heading For Water

PEABODY, MA — A boat that a Peabody man started building in the backyard of his Lowell Street home in 1984 was scheduled to launch Wednesday morning. Crews spent most of the day Monday prepping the boat for its move to Pope's Landing in Danvers, where the new owner will prepare it to sail to Florida. Once in Florida, the work Wilson J. Lobao Jr. didn't get to complete before he died in 2017 will be finished.

In August 2018, Lisa Hanselman, Lobao's daughter-in-law, contacted Patch and told us about the family's attempt to honor her father-in-law, who many knew only as "The Boatbuilder of Lowell Street." The family sold Lobao's home, starting the clock on a contingency in the sales agreement that the boat would be removed from the property within a year. Since then, the family has been looking for someone to complete work on the boat so it could set sail.

The first person who agreed to complete work on the 45-foot Roger Simpson Liahona Trimaran fell through in May, seemingly sentencing the project to the scrap heap. But a team made up of Court Taus and David Stennett emerged from Florida and agreed to move the boat and finish work on it, as the family had hoped for.

The move to Pope's Landing is scheduled for 2 a.m. Wednesday and Route 128 will be closed for a short period while the trip is underway. If all goes according to plan, the boat Wilson's Legacy should be in the water by 11 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Hanselman said her father-in-law was well known in Peabody. His catch phrase was "Simply marvelous" and, she said, he was the type of guy who whistled Christmas carols year-round. The family was devastated when he was crushed by boulders while clearing brush in his yard in 2017. Investigators believe Lobao, 76, was working near a culvert separating his property from a neighbor's when a retaining wall collapsed.

In January 2018, Lobao's widow, Peggy, died from brain cancer, prompting the family to put the house up for sale and wonder what to do with the boat.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with a degree in mechanical engineering, Lobao enlisted in the Air Force and tested rocket engines during the Vietnam War. After the war, he returned to the North Shore and took a job with Ted Hood Sailmakers in Marblehead, which started his obsession with the sea and sailing. Not long after that, the boat started to take shape in the yard of his Lowell Street home.

The family posted ads on Craigslist and Facebook groups for boat enthusiasts hoping to find an owner.

"It was his dream to sail the boat and with his passing it became our dream to see it sail," Hanselman said.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).