With no naysaying intent, but what would restoring rotted out replicas accomplish for the city/state? I’m sure the city could use the $ by shredding the boats and selling baggies of splinters on Ebay.
My reaction is similar to yours, although not as extreme. This might be a fun project, but it's not the business of government to do this. They just need to find more donors to support it. Perhaps develop an association of businesses that might profit from it such as tourist shops and restaurants around the area it'll be berthed, for instance.
We have several tall ships and old navy ships that the Tourist pay to board and buy signature line souvenirs that far exceeds the maintenance fee for up keep. Tourist dollars my dear! And I for one as do others think these are really cool and realistic replica ships.
They have these ships set up for tourists to visit. There isn’t a huge amount to do in Corpus (besides of course the beach). It’s a small city/town, but is growing. This is one of their Bayside attractions in a very nice and touristy area. I agree with another poster, they should come up with more doners. Although I must say this is not a huge amount of money considering the millions & billions I am hearing people pull their hands out for.
One thing I found interesting and did not know is that Spain had commissioned them in 1980.