Two boats that compelled me to buy a boat.

[Peter & Judy]

Back in the 1970's and '80's the most popular show on Canadian TV was "The Beachcomber's". Set in Gibson's on BC's Sunshine coast. The star character was Nick Adonidas who earned his living salvaging logs along the coast in his tug, "Persephone". I was enthralled by the maritime scenery, so different than my home of prairie and mountains in Alberta. I loved the idea of being able to take a boat like "Persephone" and to explore the beautiful coastline of BC. In 1976 while I was in the 9th grade our school offered a weeklong cruise along the Sunshine Coast on the second boat (ship) that had set a lifelong dream of owning a boat and exploring BC's coastal waters. This boat was the "MV Edgewater Fortune", a 1950's era mine sweeper that had been converted into a charter yacht. Me and about 40 classmates and teachers spent a week cruising around the Sunshine Coast and learning to love the marine environment. A life changing week for sure. I was determined to one day own a boat that I could cruise around the west coast in and share adventures like Nick did.

Fast forward 40 years and I was planning for retirement and a boat was high on those plans. I had previously owned a rubber dingy that I bought with my own savings when I was 10. My family was planning our family vacation on Vancouver Island and I recall asking my Dad if we could paddle around the island in the rubber dingy one day. My concept of an island back then was shaped by Gilligan's Island. We never did make it around Vancouver Island. I had learned to canoe as a Boy Scout and bought my first canoe in my teens, I finally bought a sea kayak in my 50's. Then came time to look for a boat.

I knew that I wanted a boat that I could sleep aboard in and that I could pull with a trailer. Beyond that I did not know much about boats. I started off looking a Bayliners, because I had seen lots of those around. In my search for information about Bayliners, I read a suggestion in a chatroom that the C-Dory might be a boat worth checking out. This was a boat I had never seen or heard of, I began to search and joined C-Brats. On subsequent trips to the coast, I did get to see a couple, I visited Les and EQ Marine and he told me all about them. I was hooked and one Sunday morning in 2016 I was looking at C-Brats and there was my boat for sale in Whitehorse, Yukon. It had everything I thought I needed and was accompanied by a good set of photos. I called the owner and had a long chat with him and three hours later the boat was mine. I had considered a quick drive up to Whitehorse to bring it home, but instead decided to put it into storage in Whitehorse and make a holiday out of this long drive. We did our maiden voyages in the Yukon and northern BC on Teslin Lake and Atlin Lake. Since then we have had 'Mistaya' on the the west coast several times and also down to Lake Powell in 2018. We have done a major refit on her and she has become the perfect boat for us. The only problem is that we still live on our bison ranch in Alberta where there is a definite lack of suitable water bodies to boat in. So the easy to haul C-Dory really is the perfect boat for us. We look forward to returning to the coast next spring to explore more of the beautiful waters of BC. We also hope to attend the Friday Harbour C-Brats gathering in May and spend some time in the San Juan Islands.

Dreams do come true, they might take decades to achieve, but in the end they can become reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beachcombers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Fortune

[Robert H. Wilkinson]

Peter, enjoyed your story. Used to enjoy watching the Beachcombers as well.

Like the Beachcombers there is a guy with a company that salvages old cypress logs and he has a Cdory that he uses to explore and find them. He is a member on the Facebook Cdory owners site. The name of the company is Congaree Champions - they do some beautiful projects with the cut logs.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=connagee%20champions

Regards,

Rob