'Bluenose junior' launched in Halifax after multi-year restoration

A boat with ties to the Bluenose experienced a re-berth Friday at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.

The Hebridee II was designed by William Roue, the naval architect who also designed the original Bluenose. The Hebridee II was built at the Weagle Boatyard in Dartmouth. The "Bluenose Junior" was first launched in 1953 as a private craft.

Squadron member Edward Murphy bought it in 1977 and sailed it for decades. After he died, his family donated it to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 2009.

Museum boat builder Eamonn Doorly spent the last several winters getting the vintage vessel shipshape.

"It's had a fairly extensive restoration. The boat always existed, so whenever you came into my boat shop, the boat was always there. I think I was able to retain about 30 per cent of the original 70 per cent is new," he said Friday. "Whatever wood I take off, I fashion it exactly the same way as it was and I also use the same materials."

Splashes of the Bluenose

The Marconi rig schooner measures 11.2 metres on deck and nearly 13 metres in total. It weighs 13.5 tons.

While privately owned, Hebridee II was sailed extensively around Newfoundland and down the east coast of the United States.

"It's got a lot of blue-water mileage underneath its keel," Doorly said. "It's a very capable little schooner."

While the Hebridee II is much smaller than the Bluenose and Bluenose II, Roue clearly drew on the more famous boats when designing the Hebridee II.

"It's got the lovely, graceful Bluenose bow, and the stern and the overhang look very similar to the Bluenose," Doorly said. "The hull bears a striking resemblance to the Bluenose."

'I had tremendous support'

Doorly said it took 48 months to build the original Hebridee II, and it took him about the same time to refurbish it. He did pretty much the entire job himself. He did the job during his working hours at the museum, so the museum's only extra expense was for parts. That totalled $68,000 a miniscule amount compared to the refit of another famous schooner.

"It was an unheated boat shop, so in the dead of winter it can get a little lonely and cold out there. But I had tremendous support from the sailing community, who'd always be dropping by and providing encouragement," he said.

"We had some very lively experiences with the volunteers as well. Lots of camaraderie. It wasn't as lonely as you would imagine, and it was very rewarding."

Doorly will put sails on the boat and do sea trials next week. Future plans for the boat include use with the Nova Scotia Schooner Association and also the province's school system, to teach students about navigation and marine biology.

"We see the artifacts we restore as having a life, and a continued life, and the ability to create new experiences and to create new stories to tell the public. All the boats we restore at the museum, they go back into the water and they're used as sailboats," Doorly said.