Hello Lisa,

Greg and Bernard Lamping of Randle Washington built the Nesika from an old Navy life boat built in 1933. Unfortunately they did not quite get her finished before Bernie died. With his death the project came to somewhat of a stand still and for several years she just sat and soaked up rain until one day I spotted it off the side of the road in Randle. It took about three years of occasional calls to Greg before he turned her over to me.  One day I met him in the grocery store and he apparently had changed his mind about the future of the Nesika. Previously he had refused all my limited offers to acquire her from him. He later told me that though he had promised his father (Bernie) that he would finish her and sail her on Rife lake, he had come to realize that her real purpose was to cause him and his dad to spend some real great quality time together and it had served its purpose and that it was now mine to serve a new purpose. I thought that was a really great perspective and I also was really excited by what I envisioned I could do with her - at least until I got her home and found out how much work was needed, LOL.

The masts and yard arms were so rotten that it was not possible to remove them from her deck to take measurements - I had to build replacements and transfer rigging as best I could from the broken up masts and yard arms. The deck is still in serious need of repair and has several large holes where I have fallen through - there would not be a deck at all if there were not still a couple fifty five gallon drums propping it up in places.

I imagine that I love her as much as did Bernie. She has been very popular with the fairs and the public and I of course love the great image she adds to our parrot and pirate show. Now I am finding it tough to work on her since partly thanks to her we are very busy during the summer (winter rains to much to get much done). We are next off to the Tennessee Mid South Fair in Memphis. This is our farthest road trip so far and it is actually a bit of an experiment to see if such trips are feasible for us. We should have great fun and I expect the public there will be just as thrilled by her as are the Washingtonians.

Thanks for your interest. With the name Rod Lamping attached to your address, I am suspecting you probably already knew most of this. Would I be right? Are you related to Greg or do you just share the same last name? As to replicas of her, there are non that I know of but what a great idea!

Parrots: more than pets, friends for life!

Chris Biro