43-foot Grace Quan Sails from China Camp State Park at 8:30 am Tuesday, August 30

Replica Will Tour Delta, Stopping at Historic Ports, Through September 11

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park 's Grace Quan , a 43-foot replica of a Chinese shrimp fishing junk, will sail from China Camp State Park at 8:30 am Tuesday, August 30, for a three-day journey to Sacramento , where she will be celebrating Gold Rush Days at the Sacramento waterfront over the Labor Day weekend.

The Grace Quan was built in the summer of 2003 at China Camp State Park by staff and volunteers of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park . The crew used traditional material and techniques to construct as accurate a replica as possible of the type of fishing vessel used throughout the Bay Area by Chinese shrimp fishing companies between 1860 and 1910. This year, extensive work was done on the Grace Quan's traditional sail rig in preparation for her voyage upriver to Sacramento .

The Grace Quan will be on display and open for tours during the Gold Rush Days celebration, Friday to Sunday, September 2 – 4. Following the celebration, the Grace Quan will continue her tour of the Delta, docking first at Walnut Grove September 7-8, and then at Isleton, where she will participate in the Isleton Multicultural festival, September 9 – 11. The Grace Quan will return to her fall mooring at China Camp State Park on September 12.

There will be opportunity for press access to the voyage of the Grace Quan via press boat at numerous stages of the journey, as a motorized vessel will be accompanying the vessel throughout. For further information, please contact Lynn Cullivan at 561-7006, 859-6796, or John Muir, at (415)859-6786.

The Grace Quan during sea trials in April 2004.

The Grace Quan and a historic image of a shrimp junk sailing past
the San Francisco waterfront in the late 1800s.

A photo from the late 1880s of a shrimp junk sailing on San Francisco Bay.

Grace Quan A San Francisco Bay Shrimp Junk
The Grace Quan is a reconstruction of a San Francisco Bay Shrimp Junk. Between 1860 and 1910, these were the workhorses of the Bay Area's Chinese–owned dried shrimp industry. The San Francisco Bay Shrimp Junks closely resembled vessels from the fishermen's home waters in Guangdong Province , China . Most carried a single, five-batten lugsail, a rig that is both efficient and easy to control. The junks also featured a daggerboard forward of the mast, and a rudder which could have its depth adjusted. The diamond-shaped holes in the rudder serve to ease weather helm, or strain on the tiller. When wind was calm, the fishermen could use oars, rowed from the bow, and a long sculling oar, called a “yuloh,” worked from the stern.
BASIC FACTS:
Length: 42 ft. 3 in.
Beam: 10 ft. 4 in.
Draft, daggerboard, rudder down: 5 ft.
Draft, daggerboard, rudder up: 1 ft.

The Grace Quan was built by a team of National Park Service volunteers and staff in the summer of 2003 at China Camp State Park , the site of one of the largest of the historic Chinese shrimp fishing villages in San Rafael . The design for the Grace Quan was derived from historic photographs and archaeological information. Traditional materials such as redwood planking, forged nails, and caulking made from lime and linseed oil, were used by the boatbuilding crew as were traditional Chinese boatbuilding techniques such as bending wood with fire, and nailing planks to each other along the plank seams. The cotton canvas sail was treated using the traditional method of boiling the newly made sail in a vat of hot water and the crushed dried bark of tanbark oak trees.
BASIC FACTS:
Keel, Planking, Frames, Decking: Redwood
Mast, Stem, Thwarts, Oars: Douglas Fir
Date Keel Laid: April 24, 2003
Date Vessel Launched: October 25, 2003

Bending and twisting a garboard plank with fire.

The following photos were taken by Inka Petersen.

Grace Quan anchored in Collinsville, August 31, 2005. First stop in the Delta on the way to Sacramento for Gold Rush Days.

Frank Quan steering Grace Quan in Suisun Bay, August 30, 2005.

Grace Quan passing Steamboat Slough Bridge into the Sacramento River, September 1, 2005.

Crew member Chester Jung looks on as Grace Quan sails into Old Sacramento through the raised Tower Bridge, September 1, 2005.

John Muir and crew members with a group of school children in Sacramento's Old Town during Gold Rush Days, September 2-5, 2005.