Heritage Harbour

Free Outdoor Exhibition

Open to the public daily, Heritage Harbour is a free outdoor exhibition at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Heritage Harbour is a curated collection of vintage wooden vessels with a strong connection to the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest or the Canadian Arctic. Each heritage vessel has a sign with details about the boat.

Heritage Harbour Residents

Events at Heritage Harbour

Many events have been hosted at Heritage Harbour including:

• Reunion of B.C. Forestry boats
• Visit from the Endeavour replica
• Heritage Harbour Classic, an annual regatta of the fleet in English Bay

A non-profit boatbuilding club completes the exhibit with the opportunity for the public to watch traditional boatbuilding techniques.

Winsome III

Winsome III was designed by William Lapworth and built at the J.T. Taylor boatyard on the Fraser River in 1959. Winsome is the first boat to have won the Swiftsure Yacht race three times, taking line honours from 1961-63.

Ella Mackenzie

Ella MacKenzie is the last wooden tug built by McKenzie Barge and Derrick Co. Ltd. at the Dollarton Shipyard in North Vancouver in 1951. It was commissioned by and named for the grandmother of the president of McKenzie Barge & Marine Ways Ltd., R.R. McKenzie. A Glen Class tug, Ella McKenzie worked as a harbour tug and dredge tender along the BC coast and in Vancouver until 1971.

Union Jack

Union Jack (ex Burnaby Straits) was built at the McKenzie Barge & Derrick Company in North Vancouver starting in 1937. Union Jack was launched in 1941 as a tugboat for the Union Towing Company to serve the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Union Jack was designed by Arthur Moscrop who also designed Ivanhoe and Master.

Milo

Milo was originally used in the forestry business and previous owners include the Sitka Spruce Lumber Company and the British Columbia Forest Products Company.

Moonbeam

Moonbeam found its way west from New York in the late 1930’s and began sailing the waters from Los Angeles to Puget Sound and Southwestern British Columbia. It has also journeyed to the South Pacific, Alaska and cruised extensively through the Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound.

Mysterion

Mysterion was launched in Vancouver in 1927. Builder Russell Arbuthnot used teak and mahogany scrapped from the 1887 Empress of Japan, a luxury liner of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for exterior decks, walkways and interior woodwork.

Ruggen

Ruggen was designed by Colin Archer, the famed Norwegian Naval Architect and Shipbuilder who designed some of the most noteworthy sailing vessels of the late 19th century and early 20th century, including ships on the first excursions to the North and South poles.

Ern

Ern is a wood hull cutter built by Barkhouse Boatyard Ltd. in East Chester, Nova Scotia in 1956. Constructed with mahogany planks on oak frames, Ern is well recognized on our coast as the previous owners cruised the Pacific Northwest in Ern to create the popular cruising guide series, Charlie’s Charts.

Fantasie II

Fantasie II is one of nine Roedde Class sloops built for the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club racing fleet in the 1940s and ’50s. The design was based on the Spencer Class of the 1930’s producing a fast, trim racing/cruising sloop.

Poseidon

Poseidon is a Tartan 27 fiberglass racing/cruising auxiliary sloop. After many years being raced and cruised on Lake Erie and Chesapeake Bay, Poseiden was passed from father to son and shipped to the West Coast.

Querencia

Querencia (ex Nancy L.) is a centreboard teak yawl designed by Sparkman & Stephens. Querencia has competed in nine Swiftsure races and has twice won the “Best in Show” at the Victoria Classic Boat Show.

Molly Sparks

Molly Sparks was built in 1970 in Oregon by Whal Brothers boatbuilders. A fishing boat for approximately 15 years, it was retrofitted to yacht status over a period of about 20 years. Molly Sparks has spent most of its time in the Northwest but has been as far north as Sitka Alaska.

Anja

Anja’s design is based on the legendary Bristol Pilot Cutters of Britain. They would take the pilot out to large ships waiting in the Bristol Channel. These boats were able to weather strong storms and could be sailed shorthanded. Modern racing yachts evolved from this design.

Luna

Luna is a 12-foot scamp.