Re-floating a Canadian Icon
 

I'm an east coast boy, so this is for me the one Canadian symbol that is instantly recognizable. I grew up on a river, and have seen it sail up many times.

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/illustr...%20dime(1).jpg

A little background:

The Bluenose was a Nova Scotia fishing schooner that also happened to race boats, mainly out of the US.

Meh. Let's let video do the history.


For the past couple of years, the replica, Bluenose II was under going a major refit, and was re-launched today.

http://i.imgur.com/QLDQA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4Bbkm.jpg

Some more pictures courtesy of a friend in attendance.

Photo Album - Imgur

The refit was taking place in the town near where I grew up.

kept hearing about the bluenose ii in the news...thought it was some naval ship or sthing :badpokerface:

I remember hearing about it when I was really young.. did it make a trip out to the west coast during the 80s?

Gridlock is bluenoser eh, from where abouts in the bay?
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Bluenose II

"In 1963 a replica of Bluenose was built at Lunenburg using the original Bluenose plans and named Bluenose II. The replica was built by the Oland Brewery as a marketing tool for their Schooner Lager beer brand and as a pleasure yacht for the Olands family. Bluenose II was sold to the government of Nova Scotia in 1971 for the sum of $1 or 10 Canadian dimes. The replica schooner is used for tourism promotion as a "sailing ambassador". In honour of her predecessor's racing record, Bluenose II does not officially race. The replica has undergone several refits to extend her life including a major rebuild that began in 2010 which aims to make the replica look more like the original Bluenose."

Bluenose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I grew up on the LaHave River, which is about a 20 minute drive from Lunenburg, where these photos were taken.

I was talking with my mom about the re-launch, and we were talking about what a great, I'm going to use the cheezy term "ambassador" for Nova Scotia that the Bluenose really is. Any major function near water, the Bluenose would be there. Personally, my favorite was looking out at the water and randomly seeing it sailing up the river to go to Bridgewater.

When I first moved out here, and people would ask where I was from, and I'd tell them, "where the Bluenose was built" and I'd get, "the what?" So I guessed its popularity was limited to an east coast thing. I'd add, "the boat on the dime", and in return, "there's a boat on the dime?"

fellow maritimers eh, lol im from New Waterford Cape Breton.

That's a little depressing, though not entirely unsurprising. I've got a picture of the original Bluenose hanging up on my wall in my rec room downstairs. :D

Wow you met some really ignorant people when you moved here. Hopefully you eventually met some people who weren't complete idiots!

what happened to the original?

It was sold off to be a cargo ship, hit a reef and sank.

I stayed in Lunenburg for 3 months while in Katimavik back in 2002. I used to walk down and check out the Bluenose II all the time. My work placement was in Bridgewater restoring the HMCS Fraser which was moored on the LaHave. I also remember a good bakery which was right next to the LaHave cable ferry. I do want to want to back and visit the area again some day.

My house was on the exact opposite side of the river, on the other side of the ferry. It docked across from my front yard. Grew up there for 18 years.

And that bakery is all that and more. There is a cool canteen in Green Bay about 45 minutes from that bakery that sits right by a beautiful beach with awesome food.