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#1
19-02-10, 03:02
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Canada's Last Fairmiles B
I noticed recently in a Canadian boating magazine that a popular cruise boat operating in the Toronto area was up for sale and that it started out life as a Fairmiles B built in Canada during World War Two. Cannot remember the name it now operates under, but was wondering if anyone knows the boat and what has happened to it. The photo showed extensive rework from the deck up and I think the original V12 R/R marine units had been replaced with deisels.
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#2
19-02-10, 03:08
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I'm here, downtown. Find out a bit more (it's a big harbour) and I'll look-see.
__________________
SUNRAY SENDS AND ENDS :remember :support
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#3
19-02-10, 03:09
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Farmile B
Quote:
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#4
19-02-10, 19:14
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Hi Bruce. I am not sure it's the same boat. I think the Sarnia one was hauled out of the water back in 2003 or 2007 to be worked on, with funding at that time being a very critical issue. That boat was aslo built in Sarnia during the war so had a strong preexisting connection to the area.
What I recall seeing in the magazine this winter was a pair of photos of the boat still in the water. From the wheelhouse area forward, the look of the Fairmiles was still there, but aft of that point there was an entirely new second deck level running to about the fantail. One of the photos of it was taken at Toronto Island, not sure about the second one. The new look of the Sarnia boat was quite different. A new second deck ran full forward to the focsle area and it appeared a new wheelhouse had been put on top of that structure. That boat also had a post war French Name I believe about three words long. The Toronto boat had a longer name. I did a quick check of the Canadian Boat Registry and got four or five hits for Fairmiles sized craft. The Sarnia one was still actively registered, the others were all recently dropped and no details were available. Peter Ford has a chum in Montreal when he worked for CBC there in the late 1950's early 1960's who had purchaed a surplus Fairmiles. The engines, generators and com equipment were all gone, but this chum lived on it for several months tied up somewhere along the river and powered by a landline. Incidentally, there is a British built Fairmiles currently for sale in Greece, converted to a yacht, It served as a downed airmen rescue craft during the war. An early pattern Canadian Kit Boat is also for sale in the USA...Texas???. It is likely one of the 8 such Fairmiles kit boats sold to the US Navy early in the war. Five of those were subsequently sold to the Mexican Navy after the war.
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#5
19-02-10, 20:18
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Fairmiles
there used to be a Fairmiles shipyard here in Berwick on Tweed...if you google berwickshipyard you should get some usefull information as to ships.boats.trawlere/yaghts etc...constructed by this company...best regards from a very cold snowy north-northumberland.malcolm
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mally B
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#6
20-02-10, 02:10
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The Fairmile....
...that was in Toronto was eventually bought by Howard Hughes and the entire hull was fibreglassed, It is now a houseboat on Lake Erie. The Sarnia one was used as a tour boat there for many years and is now being refurbished, There is another at Black Creek Marine on the North Shore of Lake Erie. It is beached and used for storage. The Collingwood one disappeared to parts unknown. It too was a tour boat. There is another sunk in Georgian Bay. For the real enthusiast two are in the breakwater on the North shore just west of the Burlington Bridge.
Finally the Dundas Fairmile was cut up and burned by the Cadet Corps using it in 1965. It was just beside the Dejardins Canal. Peter Simundson
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#7
20-02-10, 03:18
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Peter, that wouldn't happen to be the Black Creek Marine in the Port Dover area would it? Was in that area a few years back, but maybe the Fairmiles had not been beached then and if it had been but was extensively reworked, I may not have recognized it if it rolled over on me!
David
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