Family Of Late Peabody Man Finds Sailboat Savior

PEABODY, MA — The family of a Peabody man who died in 2017 before he could finish the passion project of building a sailboat he started in 1984 has found a captain willing to finish the job. Lisa Hanselman, the daughter-in-law of Wilson J. Lobao Jr., and her family have been looking for someone since last August to take the boat for free from Lobao's property on the condition they finish work on the 45-foot Roger Simpson Liahona Trimaran. The family has agreed to try to raise half of the $20,000 needed to move the boat from the Lowell Street property to water.

"If we can't raise the money by August, we're going to have to cut it up," Hanselman said Tuesday.

Last August Hanselman contacted Patch to tell her about the family's attempt to honor her father-in-law, who many knew only as the Boatbuilder of Lowell Street. The family had sold Lobao's home, starting the clock on a contingency in the sales agreement that the boat would be removed from the property within one year. Since then, the family has been looking for someone to give the boat to that would be capable of getting it ready to sail.

More on this story: See the family's GoFundMe page.

The plan now -- if the family can raise the money through a GoFundMe campaign to help defray the cost of removing the boat from the property -- is Garth Birdsey, the potential new owner, would tow the boat to Maine this summer to complete its construction, then sail it back to his home in North Carolina.

Hanselman said her father-in-law was well known in Peabody. His catch phrase was "Simply marvelous" and, she said, he was the type of guy who whistled Christmas carols year-round. The family was devastated when he was crushed by boulders while clearing brush in his yard in 2017. Investigators believe Lobao, 76, was working near a culvert separating his property from a neighbor's when a retaining wall collapsed.

In January, Lobao's widow, Peggy, died from brain cancer, prompting the family to put the house up for sale and wondering what to do with the boat.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with a degree in mechanical engineering, Lobao enlisted and tested rocket engines for the Air Force during the Vietnam War. After the war, he returned to the North Shore and took a job with Ted Hood Sailmakers in Marblehead, which started his obsession with the sea and sailing.

And not long after that, the boat started to take shape in the yard of his Lowell Street home.

The family posted ads on Craigslist and Facebook groups for boat enthusiasts hoping to find an owner. "It was his dream to sail the boat and with his passing it became our dream to see it sail," Hanselman said.

Previously on Patch: For Sale: Famous Peabody Boat For The Astonishing Price Of $0

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).