2025 marks the monumental 100th birthday of our beloved pier and 37 years of celebrating Wooden Boats on the West Coast at the Cowichan Wooden Boat Festival.
We are thrilled to announce that on Sunday June 22nd we will be having our 37th Annual Cowichan Wooden Boat Festival! The festival is a free, fun and family friendly event put on by the Cowichan Wooden Boat Society to engage boat lovers and our community in a day of celebration of the rich history and culture of Wooden Boats on the West Coast!
Come down to the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre for a day of play on the water!
Participate in Seagull (motor) racing, Brown Bag Dinghy Races, kids boatbuilding, watch Steam Engine demonstrations, listen to live music and more fun that is sure to engage lifelong seafarers and landlubbers alike!
Seagull Racing is BACK! 11:00AM is the Start of the Poker race, then the all out race starts at 2:00. Get a your seagull motor fired up and race through Cowichan Bay! The Seagull races are a time honored Festival Tradition and a unique Cowichan Bay Race! Get a fun costume or a super-soaker water gun and get ready to compete!
is your seagull ready for racing? Connect with Tony for a tune up before the race! Want to race but don’t have a seagull, we have a few to lend out!
Appreciate the craftmanship of a collection of Wooden Boats in the water and on the hard including , The Oldest Canadian Built Sailboat SV Dorothy, The Iconic Canoe Cove Built double-ender Torhavn and more.
Don’t go home empty handed - Our silent auction will be STOCKED FULL of incredible local gifts, gift cards, experiences, local goodies and drinks, memberships and more with a raffle basket, 50/50 draws and chances to win prizes in the Brown Bag Dingy races and Seagull Races!
There will (of course) be good eats at the festival;
The day will kick off with a Pancake Breakfast Hosted by the Maple Bay Ocean canoe club. Get a plate of True Grain Bakery Pancakes with local sausages and enjoy breakfast on our waterfront patio for only $10/plate.
Lunch is not just one bowl of Seafood Chowder but a Chowder tasting adventure! Get your tasting passport for $10 at our info tent and then explore the many lovely local restaurants in Cowichan Bay, sample the different seafood chowders and vote for your favorite.
The event will wrap up with a special Indigenous Salmon Dinner catered by the Joseph family. who will share snuwuyulh 'i' tthu s'ulhtun 'i' stilum ( our teachings, the food, and song)
Tickets are $65/per person and must be pre-purchased, limited tickets available.
The dinner event will start with a cocktail hour featuring a $5 local beer and wine bar. Cherry Point Winery is generously supplying the wine. at 6:30 attendees will be invited to get seated on the patio for an opening traditional Hul’q’umi'num' welcome prayer, drumming and song, Festival acknowledgments will follow including announcing event highlights like Seagull Race winners, fastest brown bag dingy racing times and a few words on the 100 years of our pier. at 7:00 dinner will be served. the meal will be a beautiful plate of BBQ salmon fillet, Skuw bread, salad, wild rice, potatoes, seasonal vegetables and dessert is a Skuw Shortcake with whipped cream. included with dinner is hot coffee, hot tea and herbal iced teas.
Get a behind-the-scenes preview at our newest ‘In progress’ exhibit that will be launched later in the summer "Traditional Wooden Boats in BC, then and now". The exhibit features two boats that are reinterpretations or reconstructions of historically important BC small boats. One is a reinterpretation of the jolly boats (a.k.a. ships' boats) used to chart the Salish Sea during Captain George Vancouver's exploration of these waters in the 1790s and that have inspired community boat building projects in the Pacific Northwest. The other is a recent replica of a handliner, as used by individual fishers in the 1930s and 1940, and more recently as an excellent recreational rowing craft. The eventual exhibit will tell their stories, accompanied by historical and contemporary photographs and information about traditional wooden boat building.
Our Incredible Festival Sponsors and Collabarators! As a small community based Not-for-Profit we could not put on the Festival without the generosity of these folks.
Silent Auction Donors - The funds raised at the silent auction help us to re-coup the costs that go into throwing a large community event, we are so grateful for these folks! Check out the silent auction on the 22nd and bid generously on the many fantastic auction items!
Robs Lighthouse Eatery - Cow Bay Pub - Cow Bay’s Pirate Shack - Wildish Wear - Jim Webster - Joe Murphy - Craig Darling - Susan Quinton - Jeff Quinton - Mike Jones
We acknowledge with gratitude that we operate on the traditional lands and waterways of the Quw’utsun People. They have cared for these lands and seas since time immemorial. We thank them for their hospitality, stewardship and continued collaboration.
