Both the Maple Leaf and the Swell are at our annual shipyard haul-out on the shores of the Fraser River.
This winter, captains Greg Shea and Tavish Campbell have been managing a major piece of scheduled work on the Maple Leaf that includes replacing her stern and inspecting her masts.
This work included pulling the masts and rigging down, inspecting everything and repainting the masts. Ashley and Matt have also been helping this winter.
The blocked timber stern had served us well over 30 years and it was time for a pro-active rebuild.
The Process
Over the last three months, the Maple Leaf crew alongside the shipwrights from Commodore’s Boats pulled the old stern apart and rebuild with new. In some areas they confirmed it was definitely time for this work to be done, and in other areas they were impressed by the quality of the original build and how things were still in good shape.
Of course in rebuilding the timbered stern, many of the stanchions and many of the curved hull planks were also replaced in beautiful Douglas fir.
“Maple Leaf Adventures keeps their boats ship-shape,” says Bo Spiller of Commodore’s Boats. “Kevin wanted everything done to the highest quality with no shortcuts.”
We are confident that Maple Leaf at 112 years old is in the best shape of her life.
The shipwrights who help us maintain the ships are the team at Commodore’s Boats, lead by Bo Spiller. Ten years ago Bo led a team of 20 people to rebuild the Swell , and has been providing shipwright services for the Maple Leaf for the last 15 years.
His team of Terry, Dwight, and Sunny are talented shipwrights. The skill and experience required to rebuild the Maple Leaf‘s stern is very high – from steaming and bending planks to very complex shaping and fitting of the blocks for the timbered stern.
Now the team of Terese, Lindsey, Grace, Ashley, and James MacKinnon are joining them for other regular ship maintenance, along with Dave, Jordon, Alex, Jeff, Miranda, and Dan on the Swell. Feeding them all is chef Steve – an important member of the team. And overseeing it all are Kevin and operations manager Given.
We’ll share the work we’re doing on the Swell in a later report.
Want to learn more about the ships?
View the SV Maple Leaf page | View the MV Swell page | View the trips
