A Community Project
This restoration project was only made possible through the generous donations and funding by people who shared the vision and understood the importance of this boat.
“One grey winter night in early 2017 she sank and would have been written off or towed to a Viking Funeral if not for the efforts of a small group of people that saw her heritage value. The boat had to be removed from Kootenay Lake one way or another. With a visit from the Ministry of Environment, it became a do-it-today or forget-about-it operation.” (Ian Fraser)
Marty Lynch of Kaslo Shipyards and Michael Steinmann of Diversity Marine were able to refloat her, along with the able assistance of Richard De Cruyenaere, Marty Lynch and Hamish Shaw.
To get the Merriwake, heavy and newly refloated on a large enough trailer to hold her and alter the trailer to support the craft, Kit Ashenhurst and Hamish Shaw of Kootenay Towing were there to help. Heather, Jennifer and Michelle Handley stepped forward to provide the boat a home for over a year on a level lot they owned.
The “Friends of the Merriwake” which included Joy Kogawa, Ian Fraser, David Jackson and Barbara McBride were the first to identify how its story reflected the journey of the thousands of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. With donations from these Friends and a grant from Columbia Basin Trust we started on this journey. The Copper Nail Boat Shop was engaged, and the boat moved from Kaslo to Bonnington.
Dave Sicotte and one of his biggest self-loading logging trucks, along with help from Kit Ashenhurst, Hamish Shaw, Patrick Guy and Eric Chevalier got the boat moved to The Copper Nail Wooden Boat Shop in Bonnington, where the restoration would begin. Ted Fitzgerald – the last private owner – was especially happy to see the “old girl” be restored.
More than $13,000 was raised from private individuals including through the Vancouver Foundation – the Kogawa-Nakayama Fund and Howard C. Green Memorial Fund. A further $10,000 from the Boag Foundation. Partnerships were formed with the Village of Slocan and the Slocan Valley Heritage Trail Society as a location for its final resting place was identified. Regional District of Central Kootenay provided funding for the Conservation Plan.
The final funding for the restoration was provided by the Heritage, Museum & Archive program through Heritage BC and supported by Columbia Basin Trust.
In addition, we had a donation of period nails and other hardware from Vancouver Island Waterjet. The Copper Nail Boat shop kindly waived their storage fees while they waited patiently for us to arrange funding for the project. Former owner Bob Farrell donated the original driveshaft and propeller to the project. This was taken off the boat during his restoration of the craft in the late 1990s.
An unexpected bonus – we were approached by Shaw Spotlight – they wanted to do a documentary on the restoration of wooden boats and feature the Merriwake.
