The Shuttlecraft Galileo has been moved from storage in Ohio, where it has been for 20+ years to Master Shipwrights, a professional boat restoration facility in New Jersey where it will undergo a massive, ground-up restoration.
The decision to use Master Shipwrights was two fold:
1) It was decided a boat restorer was the perfect entity to restore the Galileo. Galileo was built by Gene Winfield in the 1960s of wood on a metal frame. A boat builder has expertise in working in these materials.
2) We needed the Galileo restored in a facility close to Adam, who is undertaking the entire cost of the restoration by himself. This way Adam can monitor the entire process
While the move itself from Ohio was uneventful, the Galileo, and Master Shipwrights were victims of Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in October. Master Shipwrights facility was flooded with two feet of water. Fortunately, Galileo was up on a trailer and was unaffected! How terrible would it have been to make it through 45 years of travel and neglect to suffer a dismal fate in a hurricane?
Master Shipwrights, owner Hans Mikaitis
Down to the metal frame as the wood gets replaced where needed.
Hans and his crew are working to a very high standard. Recently, teh process of restoring the Galileo was reviewed by the curator of one of the largest air and space museums in the country and we were told Hans and his team were doing EXACTLY what a museum expects in a restoration of this type. So you know Galileo is getting the treatment it deserves.
And Galileo was noted in a New York Times article naming the Galileo one of the top 10 most interesting items at auction in 2012.
More to come, so stay tuned!
Alec and Adam