Walter Wallace makes one thing clear from the outset: he doesn’t like to talk about Neil Young.

Yes, Wallace bought the sailboat he’s now selling from the Canadian rock legend. Yes, he’s met him. But if you’re looking for stories about when Neil Young owned the boat, how he used it, what rock luminaries might have been entertained onboard or anything along those lines, well, you’re out of luck.

“I don’t play that card,” Wallace says.

Wallace’s reticence is understandable. As a yacht broker and the owner of Wallace Yacht Company in Port Townsend, he’s in the unusual position of agreeing to sell the boat for Young a few years back and then unexpectedly becoming its buyer. He’s discreet about his famous client, but also, he’d just rather talk about the boat.

And what a boat it is. Built in 1913, W.N. Ragland is a two-masted, gaff-rigged schooner owned by Young for more than 35 years. Originally built of oak and used to haul granite, Ragland is outfitted with a railroad car full of mahogany in her hull. The ship features solid teak decks and deck structures up to four inches thick. Her standing rigging is all stainless steel. Yacht braid rope is used for her running rigging and lines, as opposed to the more common triple-strand line.

A spiral staircase leads below, where old-growth timber, brass and beveled glass abound. Everywhere there are intricate curved lines, old-school workmanship and cozy spaces. It’s easy to imagine a 19th century explorer onboard, jotting down notes in a logbook with a fountain pen as the ship sails to distant ports.

W.N. Ragland's master stateroom, which features a fireplace and elephant tusk trim.

The ship’s master stateroom, which takes up close to one-third of the cabin space, has a wood-burning fireplace, a desk, seating areas and a private head. The mast is stepped through a large redwood burl table in the middle of the room, which is accented with elephant tusks.

Open to the public over the weekend at the inaugural Tacoma Schooner Rendezvous, along with about a dozen other historic schooners, Ragland drew its fair share of admirers. Visitors marveled at the ship’s construction, its unusual details.

Unlike some historic vessels used for educational programs and charters, Ragland has not been divided into what Wallace refers to as “floating bunkhouses.” And she’s ready to sail anywhere in the world, he says.

“Her quality’s absolutely unbelievable,” Wallace says. “She’s just a very special boat in a lot of ways.”

Wallace, 51, had no intention of buying Ragland when he first noticed the ship moored a few slips down from his at Boat Haven marina in Port Townsend. But when a representative for Young approached him a few years ago, Wallace was intrigued by the opportunity to sell the distinctive ship.

Wallace admits he isn’t a big fan of Young’s music, and believes that actually worked in his favor.

“I’m not starstruck and he knows that, which is part of the reason he wanted me to sell the boat,” Wallace says. “He didn’t want the boat to be sold as Neil Young’s boat, as an entertainer’s souvenir rather than it just being about the quality of the boat.”

Ragland's main salon, which features a table made from an old whale blubber chopping block.

Wallace found a buyer, but the deal went sour when it became apparent that the man couldn’t come through with the financing. The boat was seized from the would-be buyer. By the time attorneys straightened matters out, Ragland had been languishing in a Seattle slip for about six months. Wallace went down to Seattle, had the boat hauled out and got it ready to sell again.

Then he called Young. When he heard what Wallace had done, an appreciative Young made a suggestion, Wallace says.

“Why don’t you buy the boat?” he asked Wallace, who was taken aback by the idea.

“Thirty thousand people don’t pay to see me play,” Wallace responded. “I’m in a different income bracket here.”

Nonetheless, it was an offer Wallace couldn’t pass up. He sold his two boats, a 65-foot, 1936 restored tugboat and a modern fiberglass powerboat, bought Ragland and moved aboard. He’s lived on the schooner for about two and a half years, sailing her in regattas, entertaining friends and family aboard, and making her his home.

Wallace brought Ragland to Seattle last year for the Center for Wooden Boat’s annual festival and says while he enjoyed it, he isn’t much for the festival scene. He considered using Ragland for charters, but says he’d have to substantially modify her interior to meet Coast Guard standards for charters of more than six people, which he isn’t willing to do.

“Why would you take a chainsaw to the only boat in the world that is like this boat?” he says. “That’s just not who she is.”

Ultimately, Wallace started feeling like Ragland should have a different owner, maybe an organization, maybe a family who would take her long-distance cruising. For Wallace and the ship’s only other occupant, a Jack Russell terrier, Ragland began seeming like a lot of boat.

“She’s too nice for just a dude and a dog,” says Wallace. “For me to go home and build a fire and watch TV and go to work the next day, it just isn’t right. It’s a waste of a boat. There are other boats that are suited for that.”

Walter Wallace onboard Ragland. Photo courtesy of Walter Wallace

And operating and maintaining the boat, which Wallace says previously had a budget of about $250,000 annually, is costly. So Wallace decided to put Ragland up for sale a few months ago. It’s listed at $695,000 – less than its market value, Wallace says, because he doesn’t want her sitting on the market for long. He may have found a potential buyer, a French man with a wife and three teenage daughters. Discussions are underway.

If the boat doesn’t sell over the summer, Wallace may sail it to Mexico and operate it as a charter or show it off to Hollywood for possible film work. He might miss the grand old dame, but he won’t miss the yahoos who come sauntering down the dock, see Wallace eating dinner on the deck and blurt out, “Hey man, is Neil onboard?” as if they’re personal friends, or ask Wallace if the boat belongs to Neil Diamond or Neil Sedaka.

“When I bought the boat, I really wasn’t prepared for the attention part of it,” Wallace says. “That’s not why I bought it.”

Still, he has no regrets. Wallace says he bought Ragland because he was drawn to take care of her, and, well, because he had no good reason not to.

“I didn’t want to look back in 10 years and have some stupid-ass bar story about how I could’ve bought the boat,” he says. “It would’ve been one of those ‘I coulda woulda shoulda’ stories, and I’m not that type of person.”

As for Young, Wallace says he knows Ragland is on the market and is okay with that.

“Neil was very attached to this boat. It was his family boat. It’s special to him,” Wallace says. “The boat’s in the best condition she’s been in in a long time, and that’s what he cares about.”

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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