MV Deerleap

I mentioned yesterday that Labour Day weekend sees the Inner Harbour hosting the Victoria Classic Boat Festival. There are dozens of beautiful wooden boats of all sizes but for me the most interesting are always the big luxurious ones with lots of history. All today's photos are of one such boat, the MV Deerleap, built in 1929 in Vancouver, especially for excursions to Alaska. There's lots of history, film stars and other famous names associated with this boat, but you can read all about her on her website. Below you can get an idea of just how elegant life aboard can be. This is the combined sitting and dining room. To the right you can see the spiral staircase that leads down to the master stateroom and guest rooms, all with en suite plumbing. My thanks to the current owners for letting us get a glimpse of this lovely vessel and also to the sponsors of the Classic Boat Festival, Canoe Cove Marina and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.

Victoria Classic Boat Festival

For the last few days there's been more teak in the Inner Harbour than you'd find in a log jam on a Borneo river. And lots of maple, oak, mahogany and other expensive exotic hardwoods too. Labour Day Weekend here is marked with one of my favorite shows, the Victoria Classic Boat Festival. It's a treat to walk around the docks and look at these beautiful heritage boats and yachts but it's even nicer that so many of them welcome the public aboard to look around and see what it's like to live on one of these floating palaces.

From the photo below it's easy to see that I'm not the only one who came out yesterday to walk around and enjoy the boats. The Inner Harbour Causeway was a bustling scene of activity. If you look carefully you can see one of my favorite local bloggers, in her usual spot under the red umbrella on the left. Tomorrow we'll take a closer look at some of the wonderful old boats that came for the festival.