COVEY HERITAGE MARINE WAYS

In 2005 the Cowichan Wooden Boat Society started the construction of their marine ways with completion in 2006. These marine ways were donated to the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre by Ron Lindsay of Covey Marine.  Ron built, owned and operated Covey Marine ways for the past 20 years in Cowichan Bay. This project was supported by volunteers and most of the materials came from local donations. 

The ways are the traditional railway type, of which there were more than 5 operating since the turn of the century in Cowichan Bay.  Only two are left today.  All wooden boat enthusiasts are encouraged to come and watch the ways in action.

The ways are an integral part of our interpretive displays, demonstrating wooden boat maintenance and restoration.  Visitors can view boats being pulled up the ways, out of the water, where they will ‘sit’ while being worked on.

In honour and appreciation for his generous gift the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre has renamed Ron Lindsay’s ways the “Covey Heritage Marine Ways”.

Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre is proud to preserve these marine ways as a part of Cowichan Bay’s maritime history.

Lance Underwood has operated the ways for the Maritime Centre since June 2011. He has hauled a variety of vessels—from fin keel sailboats, to long keel fish boats. Lance loves to work on the boats he hauls as he welds, is a good marine mechanic, and fixes seams.

Lance came to Southern Vancouver Island in 2007 from Kodiak, Alaska, where he was a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. He has fished for herring, salmon, cod, rockfish, black cod, halibut, king crab, and snow crab. He was usually the engineer on most vessels.

Lance and his wife Colleen live on a float home in Genoa Bay where they also keep their 71 year old Fraser River Gillnetter “Raven”. When Lance is not running the ways at the Maritime Centre, he runs whale watching and sport fishing charters or he is in his wife’s pottery studio.

[Video supplied by Chris Banner and Lenore Hietkamp]

After washing the bottom, applying a fresh coat of anti-fouling paint, fixing a few nicks in the fibreglass hull, and adding a new zinc in front of the propeller, the sweet Contessa 26 is going back into the water on the ancient marine ways still in use at the Cowichan Bay Wooden Boat Society, British Columbia, Canada. The movement of the boat going back into the water is very slow. August 2011