International Boat Harbour at Expo 86
Expo86 was an International event hosted in Vancouver in 1986. Arkworks Boatbuilding & Repair had the contract to create and install the display of boats. The boats had been acquired by Expo. It all started months before the show began. Beginning as a dribble and increasing to handling multiple containers a day. They were stored in a empty lot with adjoining warehouse at Third and Burrard. We acted as Wharfinger during the show. Tear-down was an extra.
The first to arrive were 6 Dragon boats from Hong Kong. They came in two 40 foot containers and were built of full-length 2-inch thick teak boards. The heads and tails were removable.
Soon after arrival, they had to be transported by land to the Expo preview centre at First and Main. This was accomplished with the use of Pacific Spar’s 40' mast trailer. The move was for a ceremony to “open their eyes” to awaken them from the long voyage. After that they could be launched. It was a press event with much fanfare and many dignitaries.
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The next to arrive was a 20' boat from the NGO “World Vision”.
One of many built to house Bangladesh fishing families. When we opened the container the air coming out of it was un-breathable. An empty canister lay on the floor and everything was covered with a dusting of something to kill any critters. After a week to let it air out hazardous material gear was used for a major cleanup. the boat was fully equipped right down to the cutlery. just the people were missing.
Soon after this the early pace picked up with multible arrivals a day. A gaggle of reed boats from Peru, an Italian Gondola, and many fishing boats from throughout the world. Most were brightly painted.
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Besides the small boats there were a number of larger vessels. Some arrived on their own bottoms (Bounty & Golden Hind) and others were offloaded from ships in the inner harbour. They were towed to False Creek by Falsecreek Tugboats.
They included a 65 Ft Junk from China, an 85 Ft Dhow from Pakistan, and a 40 Ft reed & Balsa log Lakatoi. The largest was a 125 Ft replica of the first boat to sail out of sight of land from Japan in the 1400's. We had to bring a derrick barge in from Seattle to offload her. Vancouver did not have the lifting capacity.
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During the show, a group from a remote island in Indonesia built a 55-foot traditional wood construction cargo boat (Pinisi). It had no nails, natural fibre calking and used lime for antifouling. They built it on their home island, took it apart and shipped it in 3 containers to Vancouver. Expo management wanted to unload the containers and put the wood all in a big pile in some space they had. I had a look and told them that if they did that they would have some pretty mad boatbuilders and would likely not have a finished boat by the end of the fair. The multitude of bits and pieces were not touched.
Building
The Launch (Click on image for fullsize)
We re-purposed a Davidson skiff for yarding all the small boats from either
Granville Island Marina or the Kits boat ramp to the Expo site.
The wooden boat show.
One day not long before expo opened a Board member and owner of a classic wooden yacht contacted us to see if we knew of a wooden boat group who might be interested in putting on a limited time floating show. This would be in vacant space on the Expo waterfront. The first meeting of the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society was held that very evening. A presentation was submitted and approved for mid August. A selection of boats from BC and Washington State were chosen. Expo owned all the docks from the demolished Falsecreek Marina. They were stashed way up the Northarm of the Fraser river. Had a beachcomber tow in what we needed and secure them to the pilings and each other with boom-chains. The fender logs were already in place.
We had convinced Expo that in order to stand out we would have have lots of boats. We stacked them 4 or 5 wide.
The bigger and heavier boats were along side and also put on a show
The docks were not open to the public as they did not meet any code. Boat owners took turns manning the gate. Each boat was allowed guests matching the berths aboard. For security they had someone aboard 24 hrs a day. The result of this was a whole lot of wooden boat owners and friends got free passes and livaboard moorage at Expo. For a week.
One of the bigger challenges was displaying this.
This birchbark canoe was 36 feet long and was made by Chief Matt Bernard and his kin in 1957. He was 81. It was commissioned and displayed in the Museum of Man in Ottawa. It was stressed to us that it COULD NOT be damaged. An irreplaceable artifact we were told. We ended up suspending it upside down under cover above and near where the Pinisi was to be built. We attached a light but strong support system then 16 people turned it over and secured it above where the crowd could reach.
When it came time to launch the Pinisi I was asked by Expo how this was going to be done. I asked the builders and they said "Puush", with lots of people, like they do at home. The expo reps got concerned that it would tip and hit the canoe. My eye said it would not come anywhere close. Paranoia won. We were asked to give a price to remove it over night and replace it the next night. My bid was not cheap as it would use 16 people called out twice in the middle of the night. Expo in their wisdom decided to get another bid from some movie set people who would use two people and a scissor lift to do the job. This is the only picture of some of the damage which also broke her back.
The only other mishap involved the Lakatoi. When asked how it was built I was assured that it floated on 3 solid balsa logs. There was no way to check under the floor of woven Palm fronds. It was towed to the site secured to a dock and I went for another load. On return one side was under water. So much for solid logs. I quickly started our scow pump pumping false creek from one side of the dock to the other. For looks more than anything else. A half dozen people and some large inflated buoys lifted her enough to raise the gunnels above water and she was pumped out. That night it we towed to the west end of the creek and lifted out on the marine elevator. The operator who had left the bar to lower a boater at midnight thought he was hallucinating. A patch was applied and she was good as good as new by morning. An axe used to hollow the logs out had gone a little too deep.
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