When the Maritime Museum of BC hosts its 46th annual Victoria Classic Boat Festival this summer a fourth vessel joins its fleet.
Rainbow Skiff is set to sail alongside Dorothy, Trekka, and Tilikum come August, in the latest museum collaboration with the Ladysmith Maritime Society.
The society, which also refitted 1897 sailing vessel Dorothy and a Dorothy skiff for the Victoria-based museum, officially transferred the hand-built lapstrake Royal Navy skiff-dinghy in March.
Bill Noon, chair of the maritime museum’s collections committee, credits the Ladysmith group’s efforts and the strong relationship between the two maritime organizations with saving the three heritage vessels.
“The meticulous restoration of the Royal Navy skiff-dinghy is yet another remarkable accomplishment of the volunteers at LMS. This is the third, and oldest, restored vessel in the Maritime Museum of BC collection that has been saved by the close partnership between our institutions. On behalf of the people of British Columbia, we thank the crew in the prolific Ladysmith workshop,” Noon said.
Built in 1898, the 16-foot skiff-dinghy made its way to the Ladysmith Maritime Society in 2010 after changes and refits by a number of owners, including society volunteer, historian and boatwright Robert Lawson. Lawson stewarded the vessel in 1999 and 2005 with more than 700 hours of refit work, before donating it to the Ladysmith Maritime Society.
Smaller vessels such as this skiff-dinghy were found on Royal Navy warships from the 1870s to 1930s. This skiff-dinghy was built in Victoria prior to the arrival of the Royal Canadian Navy’s first vessel in the Pacific Command, HMCS Rainbow, which was transferred from the Royal Navy in 1910. The skiff-dinghy was sold at auction with all of the HMCS Rainbow’s boats when the warship was scrapped in 1920. The intervening period is unclear.
Its plan for the future is less murky, the skiff is among the 100 classic vessels expected on display in the Inner Harbour when the Classic Boat Festival returns from Aug. 29 to 31.
