grand opening of our Newest Exhibit “Ship’s Boats and Handliners: A Living History”

Join us for the grand opening celebration where exhibit creators will provide an overview of the exhibit, speak about the inspiration behind the exhibit, recognize key contributors, and answer questions.  Greg Foster – a key inspiration for the exhibit and builder of two of the exhibited boats - will speak on reviving interest in and use of traditional ship’s boat designs. Weather permitting, the CWBS’s cutter Zachary Mudge – a replica of the cutter from Captain George Vancouver’s ship ‘Discovery’ - will be available for rowing and sailing trips to give guests a first hand experience on a historically crafted boat. There will be refreshments of coffee, tea, and baked goods.  “Ship’s Boats and Handliners: A Living History” celebrates traditional small wooden boats important in BC maritime history and in community boat building projects today.  It focuses on two types of boats that had important roles in BC’s coastal history – Ship’s Boats used by explorers to chart the BC coastline in the late 18th Century, and Handliners used for fishing from the 1920s through the 1940s.  Both types of boats were well adapted for their historical use.  Ship’s boats and handliners also embody the beauty and craftsmanship for which wooden boats are revered. At the centre of the exhibit are outstanding examples of a recreated ship’s boat (the Jollyboat Mornalind?) and a recreated handliner designed by the Luoma brothers of Shack Island.  Both were constructed by noted BC wooden boat builders – the former by Greg Foster of Whaler’s Bay on Galiano Island, and the latter by shipwrights and students at the former Silva Bay Shipyard School.  The boats are surrounded by interpretive panels, photographs, artwork, and building plans that describe the boats’ historical and contemporary roles, traditional boat building methods for small wooden boats, and the range of contemporary community groups engaged in keeping the legacy of wooden boats alive around the Salish Sea.