Category: News

We have a fully planked boat in our shop! We fitted and glued the final pair of planks on our Gannet on Saturday, in a satisfying whirlwind of action!

We had to start with reglueing our pattern, as the hot-glue had come apart in the warm weather. Once that was done, we cut our planks and trimmed them fair, fitting them to the rest of the hull. With a lot of our members taking part, the work went quickly, and before long, we got the planks glued up! A celebration of whiskey was enjoyed, and we sat back to admire our shapely hull.

There is still a bunch of work to do before we flip the hull – filling all the temporary screw holes, fitting the stem and keel, and cutting the centerboard slot. Lots of fun still to come!

Team Unfinished Business

One of our club members, Vojtech, has joined a team competing in this year’s Race to Alaska, an ambitious sailing/paddling/rowing race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan. Team Unfinished Business completed the first leg of the race, from Port Townsend to Victoria, finishing an impressive 10th place! With the team name Unfinished Business, you’re right in thinking that they didn’t complete the race last year, retiring with a broken mast, and have returned with a different boat and a new team member. We wish them luck in the rest of the race, which begins Thursday at noon, next stop Alaska. You can follow their progress on the race tracker.

Looking forward to the next stages of our build!

• Whiskey planks possibly June 3
• Rudder/centerboard progress
• YouTube series on North Star
• New dock piano, piano concert fundraiser for North Star
• Richochet arrives at HH
• Dorothy relaunch May 27

We’ve been having a very productive and satisfying time at the boat shed, with lots of our members taking part, and gaining new members each week! With many hands at work, we’re quickly approaching the Gannet’s 8th and final pair of planks, the sheer strakes. We’ve got the traditional celebratory whiskey ready, and we anticipate that we could be ready to fasten them on Saturday June 3.

We’ve got our rhythm of patterning, rough cutting, scarfing, gluing, final cutting, fitting, and fastening pretty well-practiced, with new hands getting involved, led by newly experienced hands with a plank or two under their belt! We currently have the 6th pair glued in place, with the 7th pair ready to fasten, and have rough-cut the sheer strakes and cut the scarf joint. Glue-up this week, and then shape and fasten next week!

The centerboard and rudder have been shaped, and will receive a fiberglass sheathing. The rudder is 3/4″ plywood, and the centerboard is 3/4″ and 1/2″ plywood laminated together. They’re looking very nice and shapely, and should perform well!

In case you’re not already aware, the Vancouver Maritime Museum is raising funds to acquire North Star of Herschel Island, to carry on her legacy of Arctic history. One of the members of our Heritage Harbour community has been recording stories by our wharfinger Bruce, current owner of North Star, to build awareness of the fascinating history of the ship – please check out Michel Duran’s series on YouTube.

The old piano has played its last notes a couple of weeks ago, after surviving a few years of sunlight and winter storms, with lots of people enjoying its music! It was dismantled (with a lot of hard work by some of our crew!), and pieces of it will be used in various new lives.

But don’t worry – a replacement was quickly found, and a bunch of members of the wonderful Heritage Harbour community stepped up to provide strong backs to move it, a crane truck for transport, expertise to tune it and to share its history, and of course, to bring out its best sounds, playing it with passion!!

There’s a plan afoot to put on a fund-raising concert in July, with Tom Arntzen leading the charge, and recruiting two other professional players to entertain the crowd. Keep an eye out for more information as it comes.

Earlier this month we welcomed Ricochet to the harbour after a through restoration by one of our members. She’s a beautiful addition to the harbour!

An even longer restoration is coming to an end over on Vancouver Island, with the long-awaited relaunch of the Dorothy coming up this Saturday May 27th. Read all about her on the Maritime Museum of BC’s site.

Hope you can join us at the shop to take part in the action!