HISTORY
In
April, 1984, SALTS received a donation of a
partially completed hull and undertook to complete
the vessel construction. Symbolic of the ships
sailed by our forefathers, this new vessel was
rigged as a brigantine (with four squaresails on the
foremast), as was the historic Cadboro, the first
such rig to enter Victoria Harbour in 1837 under the
command of Captain Brotchie.
The hull design was based on a Gloucester fishing
sloop, with lines taken off and recorded by Howard
Chapelle. Alex Spiller, formerly of Dodge Cove near
Prince Rupert, had already lofted the vessel and
prepared the moulds at his shop in Dodge Cove, when
it was decided to transport them and many of his
shipyard tools to Chemainus.
The first phase – construction of the hull – was
supervised by Spiller aided by shipwrights Paul
McLennan, John Leekie, John Knowles, Wayne Loiselle,
Andrew Remple, Grant Urton, Tom Ellis, Don Corfield
and Tom Spiller. The second phase – fitting out of
the interior – was undertaken by Bob Down, assisted
by David Keeble, John Homer, George Weeks, Barry
Coombs and Bill McAnn.
The Spirit of Chemainus was launched on the 14th
September 1985. Built entirely of wood, primarily
mahogany and Douglas fir planking on steamed oak
frames and yellow cedar beams. Deck houses, hatches,
bulwark caps, transom and trim of mahogany and
gumwood. Her sparred length:- 92’ (28m), length on
deck:- 65' (20m), beam:- 18' (5.5m), and draught:-
9' 6" (3m). Sail plan was by Robert Lally and
Associates, after typical 19th century practice,
with sails by Shay and Greg Foster of Whaler Bay
Boatyard.
After launching, the hull was delivered to Victoria
for final fitting out and rigging. This last phase
was supervised by then executive director, Martyn
Clark and involved Gerry Fossum (Spirit of Chemainus
first skipper), Tony Anderson, Mark Wallace, Ron
Polmear, Chris Maloney, Lars Junker, Harry Leeder,
Fred Rempel, Bert Haupt, Gerry Boy and others. Sail
plan was by Robert R. Lally and Associates after
typical 19th century practice with sails by Shay and
Greg Foster of Whaler Bay Boatyard.
The Chemainus represented her birthplace, the
Chemainus Valley, as official "Tall Ship of
Vancouver Island" in 1986. She then served as a sail
training vessel for young people for several years
before being sold. She was sold for several reasons,
the primary one being that she could not accommodate
enough trainees to pay for the maintenance and crew
neccesary to keep it sailing as a sail training
vessel. Nevertheless, she proved an excellent
training ship for SALTS crews to learn the handling
of a square rigged vessel, and was instrumental in
Expo officials inviting SALTS to build the Pacific
Swift at the Expo ‘86 world’s fair in Vancouver.