Driving spikes in schooner keels

The Dory Shop was home to quite a time on Saturday when we hosted keel laying ceremonies for the twin 48-foot wooden schooners being built outside in the boatyard by our parent company, Dawson Moreland and Associates.

More than 200 people braved brisk nor’ westerly wind and a minus 14 degrees Celcius windchill (that’s about 6 degrees Fahrenheit!) to watch Capt. Phil Watson of the Schooner Bluenose II and Capt. Matthew Mitchell, a 91-year-old seafarer who sailed aboard fishing schooners, including the original Bluenose, and skippered some of the first fish draggers out of Lunenburg, drive the ceremonial spikes into twin lengths of Mountain Gommier.

Capt. Dan Moreland described the schooners-to-be saying they will be “so pretty, they’ll make you cry; so comfortable, they’ll make you never want to come home; so fast, you’ll win every race you go in.”

Lunenburg Mayor Laurence Mawhinney acknowledged the importance of the schooner project to the revitalization of Lunenburg’s waterfront.

“Many years past, this waterfront was the beam upon which Lunenburg was built,” said the mayor. “So these two beams being laid today are significant of the revival of the waterfront that we know and love and want to see rise again.”

The vessel’s designer and builder David Westergaard and his building gang were also on hand for celebrations, as was Jay who took many compliments on the Nutshell Pram he currently has 'on the build.'

Merriment continued well into the night.

Dory Plug