The Legacy of North Coast Boatbuilding

Over 100 years of wooden boatbuilding on the North Coast have left their mark. While wooden boats don't last forever, if well-maintained they can live a long time. In many harbours along the BC coast and beyond, you are bound to find a boat that was built in the north, and probably built by the Wahl family.

One goal of the project was to document all the people who have built wooden boats in the north. This information can be found on the page Boatbuilders of the North Coast.

Another goal of the project was to build a database of all the wooden boats built on the North Coast, or as many as it is possible to identify. This is an on-going project, and can be viewed at this external link: Wooden Boats Built on the North Coast.

An extraordinary example of the legacy of North Coast wooden boatbuilders, and a fitting one to conclude with, is the San Mateo, a troller built by the Wahls in 1957. After a long life on the fishing grounds, the vessel was bought by Bent and Eric Jespersen, one of the most notable boatbuilding families in southern BC, based in Sidney. In 2002 they masterfully converted the San Mateo into a multiple family boat used as a cruising base for dinghy sailing and kayaking.

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