Boating museum headed to Traders Cove site Nonprofit organization still looking for donations BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer ERIC SUCAR staff Robert O'Brien, New Jersey Museum of Boating executive director, is surrounded by boats stored at the Johnson Boat Works in Point Pleasant. The museum will move to Traders Cove within the next few years. For story, see page 3. POINT PLEASANT - Don't call it the Garden State. That's New Jersey Museum of Boating director Robert B. O'Brien's take on the state's longtime nickname. He thinks it ignores New Jersey's rich maritime history, which began in the early 1600s and continues up to this day. Few people realize that New Jersey has 526 miles of shoreline, which includes not only the state's well-known oceanfront but the area along the Delaware River, O'Brien said. "New Jersey is and always has been an important maritime state," he said during a recent tour of the museum. "We are saddled with the moniker the Garden State. The maritime business has generated more money than blueberries or tomatoes. New Jersey is a peninsula state." The 8-year-old museum has outgrown its 2,000-square-foot space in building 12 at Johnson Boat Works, off Bay Avenue. PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR Above: A 1959 racing garvey shares space with a number of other antique and wooden boats at the New Jersey Museum of Boating in Point Pleasant. The museum will relocate to Traders Cove in Brick Township within the next 18 months. Right : A collection of vintage Classic Boating magazines is just one example of the exhibits at the museum. An 1890 classic Barnegat Bay sneak box made out of precious Jersey white cedar competes for space with nearly a dozen other boats. The racing scull that Jack Kelly rowed to victory in the 1936 Olympics sits high on top of a display close to the ceiling. A battered pound fishing boat leans against a wall, wellworn fishing nets still in the bottom. A 1959 Cramer racing garvey, made out of white cedar with a fiberglass top, cradles a 180 horsepower engine and has a Snoopy the Red Baron decal on the side. The walls are studded with vintage photos of pound fishermen, wooden boats, fiberglass boats, the U.S. Life Saving Service, the Coast Guard, boat builders and prize catches of the day throughout the decades. "We desperately need more space," O'Brien said. "We want to do more educational work and cater more to the schools." One of the museum's exhibits features the Morro Castle, which burned just off Asbury Park on Sept. 8, 1934. The Morro Castle fire, which killed 134, was a "deliberate act of sabotage," O'Brien said. "A wacky guy from Toms River set the fire with the idea of putting it out and becoming a hero," he said. The wacky guy was the ship's radio operator. Unfortunately, someone had secreted several illegal sticks of dynamite in the cabin where he decided to set the fire, O'Brien said. The museum is a nonprofit organization that does not receive any federal, state or local funds. It subsists solely on donations. It is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all year. Admission is free. "We are funded 100 percent by boat lovers," O'Brien said. If all goes as planned, the museum will relocate to a prime spot on 1.8 acres at the Traders Cove site in Brick Township. Preparations for the move began several years ago, he said. "It's a stunning waterfront location centered in a very desirable part of Barnegat Bay," O'Brien said. "I would hope and pray we could have a ribbon cutting in the summer of 2009." The original plans called for Brick to lease the site to the museum for a minimal cost each year. But now township officials want $10,000 a year in rent or $1.1 million outright for the property, O'Brien said. Museum officials would prefer a lease arrangement, he said. "We don't want to go into debt over this," he said. The plans call for two buildings, both exterior replicas of U.S. Life Saving Service stations. The first is a model of Life Saving Station No. 10, a Victoriantype station that was built on East Avenue in nearby Bay Head in 1884. It will serve as an educational pavilion, with a boat-building classroom, space for exhibits, museum offices and restrooms. The second building will be a replica of the 1876 Centennial Life Saving Station. The two-level building will feature a ground-floor base with a lobby, a 120- seat auditorium, an exhibitions gallery, a boat-building classroom, a snack bar and public restrooms. The second level will be built on top of the ground-floor level, and will sit 16 feet above ground level, to provide scenic views of the bay, O'Brien said. The Centennial Life Saving Station was originally built for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and was later moved to Cape May. Both the Cape May and Bay Head stations were lost to fires years ago. The replicas for both stations will be based on historic renderings, photos and drawings. Kiosks with boat displays will be scattered throughout the museum property, which will free up space inside the two buildings, O'Brien said. The museum site is currently only 3 feet above mean high water. The state wants 6 feet, so the bay will have to be dredged and the clean spoils spread over the site to meet the requirements, he said. "We are ready," he said. "We are at the point where we are starting to pull permits. We've met with CAFRA [Coastal Area Facilities Review Act]. We are ready to break ground as soon as possible." The boat museum will not be affected by the lawsuit Save Barnegat Bay recently filed against the township over the redevelopment of Traders Cove, O'Brien said. "We've had a long and happy relationship with Save Barnegat Bay," he said. The crux of Save Barnegat Bay's lawsuit is over the township's decision to allow a redeveloper to buy property on the site for a marina and then run it privately. The concept of a public marina that would be privately run on the Traders Cove site is nothing new. Brick Township has been "shopping" the idea of a privately owned marina at Traders Cove for several years, back when Joseph C. Scarpelli was mayor, he said. O'Brien's love of boats was born when his family made their first trip to the Jersey Shore in 1939, when he was 5. He is the founder of WoodenBoatsNJ, a firm that handles sales and restoration of wooden boats. And for Bob O'Brien, there is no such thing as an ugly boat. "I think boats are works of art," he said. "They are kinetic art. It's very rarely you'll see an ugly boat." Museum officials are always looking for more donations to offset the costs at the new location. Checks can be made payable to NJMB and mailed to 2007 New Jersey Museum of Boating Building Fund, P.O. Box 155, Bay Head, NJ 08742. For more information about donations, call (732) 295-2072. For general information about the museum, call (732) 859-4767, or visit the museum Web site at www.njmb.org.