Chester Race Week a century-old tradition
Thursday September 4, 1856 was a festive day in the little village of Chester, Nova Scotia. The community hosted a grand regatta that day. Everything that could float was pressed into service: gigs of four oars, whaleboats, flats, punts and canoes all competed for cash prizes and bragging rights. Sailboats raced as well, nine boats [...]
Read moreInventive spirit: The Bras d’Or Yacht Club
It’s a popular summer event, one that swells the tourist town of Baddeck to capacity on the first Sunday every August. Sailors and landlubbers alike take their places on the Water Street wharves and beaches that line the shore of Baddeck harbour, to watch a parade of boats – fiberglass racing sloops, wooden schooners, classic [...]
Cruising the Saint John River
The Saint John River is Atlantic Canada’s longest river system, and a natural highway through the heart of New Brunswick, carrying river traffic, saw logs and water to the towns and farms along its bank. For much of its length it forms the border between the United States and Canada. And for boaters, it is [...]
The Gateway to Bras d’Or
The big blue sloop bobs patiently at it’s mooring, waiting, not for a storm to pass or a race to start, but for a red light to change to green. Plenty of sailors spend a lifetime on the high seas and never heave to for a red light. Not so for those lucky enough to [...]
Read moreReviving the Bluenose class
For more than a decade she sat, rotting away in the corner of a Lunenburg County barn. By the time boat restorer Matt Durnford got ahold of it two years ago, only about 15 percent of Bluenose 15 was still in salvageable condition. “She was in totally wrecked condition,” Durnford recalls. “Everywhere she had been [...]