Boat Building Classes and Maritime Heritage Lectures

The Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society offers classes and lectures on topics related to Boat Building and Maritime Heritage.

Classes

The ever popular Cedar Strip Boat Building class offered by the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society and taught by Rick Crook, emphasizes the utility and versatility of this technique. Using cedar strips, epoxy and fibreglass cloth students construct a "Wee Lassie" solo canoe over one full day and six evenings. The class boat then becomes available for purchase by one lucky class member for the cost of the materials. All participants learn all the steps in this boatbuilding method and are able to take this knowledge home to begin work on the boat of their dreams.

In addition to the Cedar Strip class, the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society has offered a Stitch-and-Glue boatbuilding class and another constructing a strip-planked Handliner fishing boat. It is our desire to continue to put forward classes in various boatbuilding techniques and we are open to suggestions from the community about which classes and what formats would be useful to present.

Lectures

In November 2005, The Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society presented a lecture by noted marine archaeologist Charles Moore to a full house at the Pender Harbour Music School. Titled "Traditional Boats of the BC Coast," Charles' talk described and illustrated many of the little-known boats of the West Coast from the era of oarlock and sail. His depictions of handliners, gillnetting skiffs, sailing gillnetters and sealing skiffs caught the imagination of the 80-odd attendees and sparked spirited discussion during the  refreshment time that followed.

In the future, the Society intends to offer up to 2 lectures per year on various maritime heritage subjects.

Watch this space!

Michael Poole lecture

Getting Around the Northwest Coast, circa 1700

On October 20, 2007 the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society presented a lecture by Halfmoon Bay author Michael Poole at the PH Music School. Michael kept a group of maritime heritage enthusiasts enthralled with his vivid descriptions of the building techniques and uses of coastal First Nations canoes. He illustrated his talk with photos of both historic and modern canoes and went into detail describing regional differences in design, and in the uses for different sized craft. He even brought an adze and several crooked knives so attendees could handle them and perhaps imagine what it would be like to construct a boat with such simple tools. The group then broke for refreshments, with many lingering to discuss the talk and to socialize.