126-year-old B.C.-built sailboat ready to take to the sea once again

A sailboat that first launched 126 years ago in Victoria, B.C., is set to take to the sea once again.

Dorothy is a 30-foot (7.41-metre) sailboat built between 1896 and 1897 by John J. Robinson in what was then the James Bay boatyard on Vancouver Island, currently marked by the Laurel Point Inn.

The Maritime Museum of B.C. says Dorothy is considered the oldest sailing yacht in the Pacific Northwest. It went through nearly a dozen owners before being donated to the Victoria-based museum in 1995.

After a decade of restoration work, Dorothy will be launched into the ocean from Ladysmith on Saturday, making it the oldest B.C.-built registered sailboat in use, according to Angus Matthews, one of Dorothy’s previous owners and board chair of the museum.

“She’s absolutely gorgeous,” Matthews told CBC All Points West host Jason D’Souza, crediting red cedar harvested from B.C., along with oak and mahogany touches, with keeping Dorothy seaworthy for so long.

A restoration is now complete on Dorothy, a 30-foot sailboat built by J.J. Robinson in 1897, after it was donated to the Maritime Museum of B.C. Angus Matthews is one of Dorothy’s previous owners and a board chair for the museum. He shared the story with Jason D’Souza.

Matthews explained that Dorothy was one of roughly two dozen sailing yachts built in the 1890s to help launch the European-style sailing scene in British Columbia.

Over the years, it participated in many races, and the museum houses multiple trophies won in regattas held in the first half of the 20th century.

The museum also has logs of its travels around Vancouver Island and B.C.’s south coast, including a sworn testimony from a previous captain that he had witnessed Cadborosaurus, a sea serpent that was rumoured to have lived in the waters of Victoria’s Cadboro Bay.

“It was an amazing career,” Matthews said.

Decade-long restoration

The refit of Dorothy was a joint project between the Maritime Museum of B.C. and the Ladysmith Maritime Society.

Volunteer boatwright Robert Lawson used early photos to help him restore the boat back to its original design.

Roughly 80 per cent of the original hull is still in place, with Lawson repairing seams and caulking and stripping layers of paint away before refinishing the exterior.

WATCH | Tony Grove explains the refitting process:

Volunteers took part in restoring the deck and other aspects of the boat, said Maritime Museum of B.C. president Jamie Webb in a statement, adding that “without them, we would not have come to this happy day so soon.”

Dorothy will be launched into the Ladysmith Harbour on Saturday at 1 p.m. After that it will stay on display in the Ladysmith Community Marina. It will eventually be moved into Victoria’s Inner Harbour once a berth can be found.