Lunenburg Shipping News: Wooden boat restorations and preparing for a Lunenburg winter

In the late afternoon of Dec. 9, a German sailing vessel Aegir, arrived from the Halifax area.

On the same day, Lunenburg waterfront wanderers were treated to a neat bit of seamanship when Picton Castle slipped her lines to set her winter anchor at the Adams and Knickle wharf. This anchor will help relieve the strain on the mooring lines during winter gales.

On Dec. 12, several South Shore folks made the trek to the city for the keel laying ceremony of Electron at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic’s boat school. Electron was originally built at the Obed Hamm boat shop in Mahone Bay more than 100 years ago, and is now undergoing a comprehensive refit as part of a program at the MMA boatbuilding school. Capt. Phil Watson of Bluenose II performed the ceremonial blessing of the keel, and several local boatbuilders, historians and townspeople attended the lively ceremony.

Fishing Vessel Northern Alliance arrived at the Old Foundry Marina on Dec 16 after a 40-day transit from British Columia via the Panama Canal. The Lunenburg Shipyard will be doing some welding work on the vessel and repairing a bow thruster to get them back in shape for winter fishing. 

Last month at Gold River Marina, the team at Tern Boatworks repaired the stem of Virginia, a beautiful 1913 43-foot classic Q-Class racing yacht. 

2 Comments

  1. I read with interest the Shipping News article about Electron and its keel laying ceremony. I am not familiar with a keel laying ceremony and what I found online dealt with new ships. Can you elaborate further about the ceremony for this 100 yr old boat built in Mahone Bay, please?

    • Absolutely! A keel laying ceremony is a shipbuilding tradition that marks the formal beginning of a ship’s construction. The “keel” is the backbone of a vessel, running along its bottom and providing structural integrity. At this ceremony, Capt. Watson declared the keel “fair and true,” finding no flaws in its construction thus far. Here’s a link to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic’s recent instagram post about it: https://www.instagram.com/p/DE5sRRvSF_W/?img_index=1

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