A pirate's life for thee 

SANDPOINT — Capt. Dan Mimmack provides a sense of magic for children — and adults — when he dresses as Capt. Jack Sparrow and sails his pirate ship Wind Spirit to Sandpoint City Beach along with his pirate dog, Hunter.

“Some pirates have parrots, some pirates have monkeys,” Mimmack said. “Capt. Dan has his pirate dog Hunter who goes with him on the ship everywhere.”

And Hunter, a happy little cocker spaniel, enjoys interacting with kids as much as Mimmack does.

All children are welcome on the ship, but Mimmack said most importantly he wants the underprivileged children in the area to enjoy it, because children who feel included have a higher self-esteem. This way, he said, a kid who simply has a towel and bike can enjoy time on a boat — no fee, no time limit.

“What I do on the beach is an effort to allow children who don’t have a resort lifestyle to have a boat they can call their own,” Mimmack said.

Mimmack drives the ship onto the beach about once a week, weather and crowd size permitting, to let the kids play and plunder the treasure chest. The chest is full of pirate themed treasures, such as eye patches, flags, bracelets and pirate rubber ducks. He said the treasure chest is generally the most popular thing on the ship and every child leaves with something.

Kids come aboard and dress up in a pirate hat and foam sword. They get the run of the ship, taking over the helm and using a spyglass to look out over the water. Another authenticity about the ship is the plank. To maintain order on the ship, Mimmack will “threaten” to make the children walk the plank — in a fun way.

The ship is not a converted boat, Mimmack said. It was built as an authentic pirate-style ship and his goal is to hold onto that authenticity. He discovered it on Craigslist five years ago and purchased it, sight unseen, from Olympia, Wash., and brought it back to Sandpoint. It sat for 20 years in an equipment yard before Mimmack purchased it and needed full restoration.

“Given that I was a professional woodworker it was a task I was kind of born to do,” Mimmack said. “I found out very quickly that the magical allure of the pirate ship for children seemed to be really overwhelming — they absolutely loved playing on the boat.”

Mimmack also takes the ship out of Sandpoint to the seven wooden boat shows he attends each year to places like Coeur d’Alene, Priest Lake and areas in Western Washington. The boat has been invited to the “prestigious” Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival next week.

The ship operates as a subchapter of Creations for Sandpoint, a nonprofit children’s charity based on the Cedar Street Bridge.

Shery Meekings, executive director of Creations, said the organization does many things, but mainly serves as a children’s museum. There is a discovery area and a children’s center, as well as education classes. The organization serves 35,000 kids per year in the community open space, Meekins said. The community program is supported by Creations’ children’s boutique, toy store and candy bar. There is also a mobile unit that shares health and nutrition with the community. They also host several art programs throughout the community.

“That’s kind of our community mission right now,” Meekings said. “We create encouraging spaces.”

While Creations depends on community support, its mission is also to help support the community. Meekings said they created jobs for four teachers in the community in 2016, as well as four jobs for low or no-income women with no work skills.

Mimmack, she said, has been a big supporter of Creations.

“He believed in me,” Meekings said. “I had a vision for our community for this building and I drew a picture of it and it is still down here today. He saw that picture and called me up one day.”

Apparently, the picture had a sailboat drawn into the area Creations occupies on Cedar Street Bridge. He was in Seattle and came across a $700 sailboat and delivered it to her. She asked 70 people for $10, showing them her drawing and raised the money. They managed to get the boat inside and it has been there ever since as a play area for children.

“He is just part of our family after all these years,” Meekings said.

After growing up in California, living in Alaska and meeting the love of his life, Pamela Mimmack, in Kona, Hawaii, Mimmack settled in the Samuels area north of Sandpoint in 1993. The couple found Sandpoint during a roadtrip — on their honeymoon — and never left, Mimmack said.

Mimmack joined the Inland Northwest Chapter of the Antique Classic Boat Society based in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane about 14 years ago.

“I am a lifelong mariner,” he said. “I’ve always loved the ocean — it’s been my passion ... I’ve always loved wooden boats.”

The first year ACBS moved their wooden boat festival to Sandpoint was the first year Mimmack hosted a children’s boat building program. During the festival, Mimmack would provide small wooden hulls and add-ons and allow the kids to build their own creations. The program has been a part of the event ever since.

Mimmack retired from the children’s boat building program, though, and this year it continued through Creations as Meekings tooks over. Around 20 boats were built the first year he did the program, Mimmack said, and this year there was nearly 200.

Mimmack will keep operating the pirate ship for the time being, though, delighting children with his ship, his Jack Sparrow impression, sending them home with treasure and making them “walk the plank.”