Old Landing Road’s Mistress to be memorialized

For nearly four decades, a sailboat named Mistress stood cradled on Old Landing Road north of Rehoboth Beach. An early-May windstorm knocked the 86-year-old vessel on its port side, prompting owner Mike Collins to do something he had been putting off for years – breaking it down and getting rid of it.

Sandra Hildreth and Dave and Janet Sewell couldn’t let that dismantling happen without saving some of the landmark. Just two months later, the three Rehoboth Bay Mobile Home Park residents have begun to memorialize the sailboat in their own special ways.

Prior to Collins’ ownership, the boat was built for a Scottish lord and launched in 1935. Collins and his wife, Ann Jane, who died in 2010, purchased it in 1980. The couple arrived in Lewes in 1983. The boat was moved to Old Landing Road in 1986, where it was put in a custom-made crib and stayed for the better part of the last four decades before being knocked over in May.

Moving here from Texas, Hildreth has lived at the end of Old Landing Road for two years. The whole time, she said, she’s always thought how cool it would be to have the Mistress in her front yard. The day she drove by and saw Collins demolishing the boat, she said, she knew she had to save some of it. She was able to convince Collins to preserve the boat’s bow stem. He even dropped if off at her house for her.

“I wanted to save it just because of the history. It was such a landmark,” she said, of Mistress. “It was so well put together, it couldn’t be disassembled very easily, so most of it ended up in the dump. At least that part of the history has been saved.”

Hildreth has covered the ends of the bow and a gouge caused during demolition with copper sheathing. She said she didn’t cover the rest because she likes the look of the old wood.

“The copper is already starting to oxidize, and it shouldn’t take too long because of how close we are to the water,” said Hildreth. “It should patina up nicely.”

In addition to the bow, Hildreth was given a winch from the boat’s main sail. She’s attached the winch to a bench on the patio leading to her front door. She added a cleat on the other end of the bench and put a line connecting the two.

“I still need a nautical rope, because it looks a little wimpy right now, but you get the idea,” she said.

The Sewells, especially Dave, have a long history of salvaging old wood and giving it new life. During a visit to their house in the mobile home park, Dave proudly showed off a guitar and a dulcimer that he made from pieces of wood he found on various beaches.

“I let the wood talk to me, to tell me what shape it wants to become,” said Dave.

The Sewells, who live in Baltimore, saw on the mobile home community’s Facebook page that the boat had been knocked over. It was Janet who saw Collins in the process of removing the boat.

“I came home and told Dave that if he ever wanted a piece of that boat, now was the time to get it,” she said.

Dave said he quickly got in his truck and made his way to the site.

“I’m not a psychologist, and I don’t think it was easy for him, but it seemed to be cathartic for Mike. How can killing your mistress be fun?” said Dave.

The Sewells spent decades sailing a 16-foot daysailer that Dave and Janet’s dad built. He said he’d still be messing with it, but back surgery in the early 2000s ended those days. Janet suggested he turn his energy and woodworking skills into making instruments.

“She said I had to do something because moping around wasn’t part of the plan,” he said. Janet confirmed this line of thinking with a laugh and a shaking of the head.

Dave said he wanted the whole pile of what remained, but that wasn’t feasible, so he pulled out a huge chunk of teak, an old electrical panel and a teak piece of the deck with two large teak cleats still attached.

“All I can picture is someone spending weeks making these cleats by hand when this boat was constructed. That’s why they’re not symmetrical,” said Dave.

The Sewells are still trying to figure out exactly what they’re going to do with the pieces of wood they salvaged. Dave wants to turn the large chunk into a musical instrument, but it will take time. The piece with the cleats will be hung somewhere at their Rehoboth home, but they haven’t figured out where yet.

“These are just some small fragments of the boat, but I didn’t want to let them die,” said Dave. “They’re mostly symbolic, but I had to do something.”