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Maple Leaf (schooner)
Encyclopedia
The Maple Leaf is a schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
built in 1904, making it British Columbia's oldest tall ship
Tall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
. In 1906, the Maple Leaf was the only Canadian vessel to qualify for the first ever Trans-Pac sailing race, which was slated to take place in San Francisco but never took place due to the massive earthquake that occurred in that year. From the 1930s to the 1970s, the Maple Leaf was a halibut
Halibut
Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...
longliner on the Bering Sea
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
, making it one of the longest-running ships to fish.
Now a sail training vessel and ecotourism
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of tourism visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism...
schooner, she has a rich history of operation on the coast.
History
In 1904, a VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
businessman named Alexander MacLaren wanted the fastest and best sailing yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
on the west coast. He hired Capt. William Watts, shipbuilder and founder of Vancouver Shipyard (now Vancouver Shipyards) to build it.
Construction
Originally built by Alexander MacLaren, Maple Leaf has many features that make it a very unusual ship. The ribs are made of coastal Yellow Cedar wood. The planking, decks, and beams were constructed of coastal Douglas fir wood, making the ship a true vessel of the coast. Made of mahoganyMahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
, the bright work of the ship was a gift from the builder's relatives. It is all the more distinctive by being the first ship North of San Francisco to have electric light. It is also one of the first ships on the coast to have an external, lead keel. The rigging of the Maple Leaf consists of a gaff rig
Gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar called the gaff...
ged fore sail, a Marconi
Bermuda rig
The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats...
main sail, a jib
Jib
A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast...
, a staysail
Staysail
A staysail is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit or to another mast....
, and a square fisherman's staysail
Fisherman's staysail
A fisherman's staysail is a staysail placed between the fore and main masts of a sailing ship, usually a schooner but also including brigantines. All four of its sides are typically set flying. The purpose of a fisherman is to catch light winds aloft, as it is a large sail set high on the masts...
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