A museum examines Canada’s modern boatbuilding history
Issue 98: Sept/Oct 2014
This past spring saw the opening at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario, of a unique and ongoing exhibit for sailors called the New Age of Sail: The Story of Canada’s Sailing Boom.
Recreational boatbuilding is a great source of pride for the Canadian boating community as many well-known designers and builders of good old boats were once located in Canada. Perhaps the best known was C&C Yachts, but there were many others, including Whitby Boat Works, Canadian Sailcraft, and Hinterhoeller Yachts. Noted Canadian designer George Cuthbertson, the first “C” in C&C Yachts, is an honorary curator of the exhibit as is Bruce Kirby, best known as the designer of the Laser. Both George and Bruce were inducted into the newly created Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame at a gala dinner at the Kingston Yacht Club celebrating the opening of the exhibit. Co-curated by Lena Beliveau and yacht designer and Good Old Boat contributing editor Rob Mazza, the exhibit continues through November 30.
While much has been written about who was the first to build and mass-produce fiberglass and polyester recreational boats, the Kingston exhibit expands the discussion beyond materials to look at the social influences, growth of yacht clubs, interest in racing, and the development of new sailing classes. Advances in manufacturing processes, combined with the development of aluminum for masts and innovations in synthetic sail cloth, set the stage when the postwar middle class began looking for new ways to spend its leisure time without the high maintenance of wooden boats.
Two highlights of the exhibit are Bruce Kirby’s original Laser hull #1 (on loan from Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum) and George Cuthbertson’s own 8-foot Water Rat dinghy, his first commercial design dating from 1952 and built by him in fiberglass, making it the oldest known production fiberglass sailboat in Canada. Other highlights are the 11-foot towing tank model of the 1978 Canada’s Cup winner, Evergreen, repainted in her original colors; a full carbon-fiber wing sail from a high-performance foiling Moth dinghy; and a fully rigged Optimist dinghy to catch the attention of kids and their parents.
From history to hands-on
There’s something for everyone, from interactive displays of the physics of sailing, to a hiking and trapezing display for budding young (and less young) sailors, and a display showing the drafting tools used by yacht designers before the advent of computers. Models and photos from this heyday of fiberglass boatbuilding highlight the people and firms who were at the center of the boom in Canadian leisure boatbuilding and sailing.
The exhibition explores the rapid rise of recreational boatbuilding during the ’60s and ’70s and the decline in manufacturers in the ’80s. It presents an interesting discussion of the decline beyond the luxury tax typically attributed to the boatbuilding downturn. As good old fiberglass boats last longer, the exhibit suggests that their durability helped change the boatbuilding landscape. The exhibit also suggests social and familial changes that affected the decline in sales.
Another part of the exhibit was an outdoor exhibition over the weekend of July 26 and 27 showcasing a range of topics from repair and restoration techniques to boats that successfully made the transition from wood to fiberglass.
Good old boats were built all over the world and the New Age of Sail exhibit in Kingston highlights the Canadian experience in a new and entertaining way. It will continue through November 30 and is well worth a visit for its thoughtful presentation, as well as for Kingston’s renowned hospitality and excellent local sailing.
Mark Pesner started sailing dinghies as a preteen on Montreal’s Lac Saint-Louis. He has sailed the length of the Great Lakes on his CS 30 and has sailed in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and recently offshore from Fort Lauderdale to the Chesapeake. Mark is rebuilding a 1979 Finnsailer 34 and calls Kingston, Ontario, his home port.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
