COOS BAY — When Eugene resident Stewart Young laid the keel of a 30-foot sailboat in 1969, he likely had no idea the vessel would be his legacy.

Over 45 years of painstaking work, Young sought out the finest materials to build his dream boat.

From custom bronze fittings to mahogany furnishings he cut and finished by hand, he spared no expense.

After Young died in October, his wife Virginia heard about the Coos Bay Boat Building Center from a friend who lives in the area.

Now the boat, dubbed “Empire City,” is set to become the center’s flagship once volunteers get it finished.

The center, started with funds from the city of Coos Bay, is dedicated to building and restoring wooden boats of all kinds.

On Thursday morning, an army of volunteers rolled the boat and its trailer off a shipping truck into the center’s boatyard.

The Empire City is a twin-masted design, analogous to a smaller version of the tall ships that visit Coos Bay each spring.

Volunteers say it’s already about 90 percent complete.

“It’s got a new diesel engine, a plumbed-in head,” said Jim Berg, president of the center’s board of directors. “The work on it is just meticulous.”

The vessel looks slightly weathered, but that’s because it’s only received a primer coat of paint.

Virginia Young said the meticulous bronze metalwork her husband ordered from Washington’s Port Townsend Foundry has never been fitted to the boat.

After a stint as a cropduster after World War II, Stewart Young made his living in the sawmill industry as a salesman and consultant. That left little time for shipbuilding.

“I’m sure that originally he thought (the work) would be short term,” Virginia said. “When we got married, his priorities changed a little.”

Young didn’t start work on the boat in earnest until the mid-1970s.

“He built a 38-foot by 42-foot shed, specifically to work on the boat,” his wife said.

A stroke in 2005 and heart surgery in 2006 slowed work on the vessel.

“He didn’t really do a lot on it after that, because he wasn’t supposed to climb the ladder,” she said. “But he would do it anyway.”

Stacks of old photos show Stewart working on the boat with friends.

One depicts the only time the boat’s been in the water, at Fern Lake Reservoir west of Eugene.

Berg says the group wants to use the boat to give visitors their own nautical experience. The center’s volunteers are seeking private and corporate donations to pay for the remaining work.

They’re also making sure the woman who made the project possible is kept in the loop. Berg said Virginia Young is now a lifetime member of the boat building center.

“Definitely I’ll be down there to take a ride,” she said.