In 1792, the Spanish twin schooners Sutil and Mexicana sailed north from Mexico and arrived off the coast of B.C.
Built specifically by the Spanish navy to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the ships were 15 metres long and weighed 45 tons – far smaller than Capt. George Vancouver’s Discovery at 340 tons. Despite its diminutive size, the Sutil, captained by Dionisio Alcala Galiano, successfully circumnavigated Vancouver Island.
To commemorate the bicentennial of European charting of the West Coast of North America, volunteers from the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society built a reproduction of the longboat from the Sutil, which would have explored the shores of the Pacific Northwest. Designed by master boat builder Greg Foster, Juanita was completed in 1991 and participated in a 1992 re-enactment of the meeting of the Spanish and British longboats in the waters off Point Grey.
Today, the 5.3-metre-long boat is the flagship vessel of the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society and a favourite attraction at maritime festivals, including the recent Hollyburn Sailing Club Wooden Boat Show in West Vancouver.
“It’s traditionally built. There’s very little different in this boat that would have been done 200 years ago,” explains Rod Tait, president of the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society.
Juanita is a six-oared, lapstrake, sprit-rigged ketch framed with yellow cedar and featuring red cedar planking. The rest of the boat incorporates mahogany, gumwood, Douglas fir and Sitka spruce and the Vancouver Woodworkers Guild completed the detailed carving that decorates the body.
Juanita recently underwent her first major overhaul in a quarter century. A shipwright opened up all the seams, cleaned out the sand and gravel that had accumulated between the joints, re-riveted some of the planks, and put on a fresh coat of paint and varnish.
“Other than that, there’s very little maintenance been done on this boat,” Tait says.
He extols the virtues of wooden boats, which can last for many decades with a little tender loving care.
“There’s not any part of this boat that, if completely damaged, broken, rotten, can’t be replaced,” he says. The same patchwork fixes can’t always be done on a modern boat with a fibreglass hull.
“There’s only so much that can be repaired before it’s not salvageable.”
Tait explains the only thing between Juanita’s riveted, overlapping planks of wood is pine tar. “What prevents the water from coming in is when the wood gets wet, it swells up,” he says. “A boat like this should stay in the water for the most part of the year because the wood needs to be staying wet. What happens is the wood swells and that’s what tightens up the joints.”
The worst thing you can do is to leave a wooden boat out in the sun, which will cause the varnish to peel, or keep it in storage so long that it dries out.
Hollyburn Sailing Club commodore Mike Bretner, who sits on the executive of the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society and was involved in its overhaul, owns a 50-year-old wooden boat that’s still in prime sailing condition thanks to regular upkeep. Bretner appreciates wooden boats not just for their looks and longevity, but because they are relatively easy for a layperson to make.
“Anybody can build a wooden boat and end up with something that’s very reasonable, very functional, and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to do, especially a small one,” Bretner says.
Juanita has had her share of adventures over the years, and Tait and Bretner tell the tale of the time she was stolen just shortly after she was built. One summer’s night, someone snuck into the harbour and took off with Juanita. Eventually, the boat washed ashore in a storm in Washington state. Authorities realized Juanita was from Canada because the labels on the food cans onboard were in French and English. She was eventually returned to the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society with only minor damage caused by staples driven into the wood to secure a tarp.
When Juanita isn’t impressing wooden boat enthusiasts at festivals, her historical authenticity makes her an in-demand prop in the film and television industry. For more information about the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society, or to donate to Juanita’s upkeep, visit vancouverwoodenboat.com.
