Oarlock and Sail Wooden Boat Club
Vancouver’s Heritage Harbour, part of the Vancouver Maritime Museum houses a wooden boat shop. Every Saturday morning, the floating workshop hosts members of the Oarlock and Sail Wooden Boat Club. The club caters to people who enjoy sailing and building wooden boats.
Oarlock and Sail was started in 1994 by Alison Knowles. It was her desire to build a wooden boat for herself that led to the formation of this club. Today the club is over 30 years old and serves as a meeting point for wooden boat enthusiasts in Vancouver.
While wooden boat building can be a niche hobby, Oarlock and Sail is the perfect place to start. The members of this quaint club have a wide range of experience. There are some who own wooden boats, some who have woodworking experience, and others who are new to both. The club welcomes all.
Individuals with no prior experience are trained about the craft. They are started off with simple tools like sandpaper and a hand-saw as they “gradually build their skills and confidence”, says Daniel, Vice President of the club. “We don’t do formal classes but we do small workshops once in a while”.
The members with more experience guide the newer members through the layered process of building a wooden boat. This informal method of sharing information has seen a great response. As people learn to do the basics, they get excited about picking up more advanced skills. Eventually they “come in one week and say that I bought my first saw and I am making a shelf”.
Daniel joined the club nine years ago and has rarely missed a Saturday. Before joining, his woodwork experience was limited to furniture, but he had experience sailing windsurfers and small sailboats. “It’s very different from furniture making, where if it's a square piece then you can precut everything and just assemble it. Whereas with boat building every piece is shaped to the piece that comes before it.”
Wooden boats are a common interest among the members of the club, but Oarlock and Sail is more than just a boat club. “We are a social club that gets together to build a boat,” says Daniel. The social aspect of the club is what makes it special and is integral to its identity.
“I equally enjoy both the boat building process and the social aspects. It’s just great that the club has both these things to offer”, says Chris who is one of the newer members of the club.
Chris has prior boating and sailing experience. He once built a 16-foot motorboat with a friend and has owned a few small boats. When he moved to Vancouver from Yukon, six months ago, he had to sell all his boats.
“I’m fascinated by being on the water… and I do quite like the look of traditional wooden boats.” Four weeks ago, Chris found both of those things on his walk down at the docks when he bumped into Daniel and other members of the club at the Heritage Harbour.
The current project for the club is to build the “Bus Bailey” by the Luomo brothers. As the build goes on, the community built by the members grows. Oarlock and Sail is not just a “social boat club” - it embodies the spirit of curiosity and adventure that wooden boat enthusiasts share.
Oarlock and Sail members meet every Saturday from 10am at the floating workshop in Heritage Harbour at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. For more information about the club, check out the links below.
Built with Shorthand