Zodiac (schooner)

Zodiac is a two-masted schooner designed by William H. Hand, Jr. for Robert Wood Johnson and J. Seward Johnson, heirs to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals fortune. Hand intended to epitomize the best features of the American fishing schooner. The 160-foot-long (49 m) (sparred length; 127 feet on deck), 145-ton vessel competed in transatlantic races before being sold to the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association during the Great Depression. Renamed California, she served actively as a pilot boat before being retired in 1972. This makes her one of the last three sail-powered pilot vessels in the United States, along with the Boston-based schooner Roseway, which was retired sometime between 1971 and 1973, and Adventuress, also once a San Francisco pilot boat, which was retired in 1952, and is also a registered National Historic Landmark.

Zodiac was sold in 1973 and, in the late 1970s, the private Vessel Zodiac Corporation was formed to operate and maintain her. She was professionally restored, and her rig, which had been altered during her time as a pilot boat, was returned to its original configuration. Zodiac now operates for charter in Washington State's San Juan Islands and British Columbia's Gulf Islands. The not-for-profit Northwest Schooner Society partners with the corporation to provide sail training programs for youth and adults. Trips such as the Brewery, Winery and Nautigals tours are currently the most popular.

There was a large gap in her history until recently. It has been discovered that the schooner was sold to a family in Canada and renamed .

Recently the Schooner was dismasted while sailing with "Edmunds Homeschool". At 13:25 her main mast shattered and fell to the leeward side of the vessel. The main and fore masts were replaced and she is now homeported, staying there winter and summer, in Bellingham Washington.