The home-built vessel crafted by a blind man in Garden Grove was to sail from California to the Great Lakes, traveling more than 7,000 miles through open and inland waters. Instead, the hull of the schooner named Visions sits landlocked amid a cluster of canyon oak trees, covered in dust, dry leaves and dead branches. The original quest began miles from the ocean, as Don Baumea shaped the boat’s keel and watertight bottom by feel in his backyard.
When he died, Robert Heerdt — an accountant turned fishing lake manager — bought the unfinished craft, vowing to complete the work and fulfill his predecessor’s dream of sailing it through the Panama Canal to the Great Lakes and beyond. In April, however, Heerdt died without finishing the boat, leaving the watercraft marooned in the front yard of his Trabuco Canyon home. Now, Visions is awaiting its next adventurer willing to carry the dream forward.
“I don’t want to destroy it. I want it to live on,” said Tracey Marcyan, the real estate agent tasked with finding a new owner for the 50-foot-long, blue and white hull fashioned from fiberglass planks. “If someone were to take it, that would be a really happy ending for me .
.. and (for) the family.
” To sell the property, Marcyan must dispose of boats, motor homes, rusting farm implements and a collection of personal treasures Heerdt, 89, left behind on his rambling 6-acre estate. So, she’s offering the dry-docked craft to anyone willing to haul it away, perhaps to co.
