Bob tackles Skeena
with plywood craft

By BOB REEDS
WHEN YOU’VE played hard,
chased women, enjoyed good
food and drink along with 18-
hour work days can you ex-
pect ta live past 80? :

Well here I am in Terrace al-
most 80 and preparing for
. What could be the last great
adventure of my life.

I am camped with a tiny
dome tent in the Ferry Island
municipal campground where
['m building an eight-foot
boat, I plan to drift down the
Skeena to Prince Rupert, add a
driftwood mast, a picce of
plastic for 2 sail and on to
Kitimat.

When I make Kilimat —
whoa — IF I make Kitimat,
around the end of September,
Pll head back ‘to my winter
_ Stamping grounds where I’m
the only gringo in a Mexican
village,

The boat isso simple a
younger man handy with tools
might knock it together in a
day.

It will make an ideal car top
carrier with a lid added, a fish-
. ing boat for two —~ in calm
waters,

As a hammer-on-thumb car-
penter not as strong as I ‘‘used

to was’’ it may take a week or
mare,

The boat will come from two
sheets of quarter inch

plywood, exterior grade, good
one side, about 100 feet of one
by one inch for frames, a few
pieces of one-inch thick by 12
inches wide for the bow, stern
and a seat.

The seat will have boards at-
tached to the ends, Turned
downward they will act as
leeboards for sailing. The seat
will slide for adjustment, be
held in place by clamps once
set.

Every piece of wood will be

- glued together, a simple rec-
tangle with the forward two

feet sloping upward four in-
ches. It will weigh a little over
25 kilograms and with a 150
kilogram ivad will draw about
two and half inches.

The only reason for boats to
have pointed bows is because
people think. they should,

Square bows provide. greater
stability.

If I was planning to add a
motor I’d slope the stern in-
ward, with a bit of beveling.

Instead Ill go the easy route,
make the boat conform to her
name, KISS — an acronym
for ‘‘Keep It Simple Stupid,’’

How did I pick Terrace, a
place with which I’ve fallen in
love?

“Every piece of wood
will be giued together, a
simple rectangle with
the forward two feet
sloping upward four in-
ches. The boat will
weigh a little over 25
kilograms and with a
150 kilogram load will
draw about two and
half inches.”

A few weeks ago I left the
Village of Maneadero, south
of Ensenda in Mexico’s Baja
Califomia, two hours from the
border at Tijuana-San Diego.

I was driving my VW beetle
rigged out to be what I called
the world’s smallest motor
home. The passenger seat was
replaced with a bed of

plywood covered by five in-- .

ches of foam,

On top was an even smaller
boat, six feet long and three
feet wide, named Bitsy. With a
lid it made a carrier for life
preservers, fishing rods, elec-

tric cords, a-three month SUpp-

ly of paper towels. -

The motor was newly rebuilt
and the plan was to tour for
12,000 miles in northern Can-
ada — Inuvik, Yellowknife,
Churchill and perhaps both
Ontario and Quebec,

This was planned for a
budget of $700 a month for
gasoline, food and one day a
week in a motel.

But a funny thing happened
as 1 drove north past Los
Angeles. Nicely starting up a
steep mountain grade with no

Service station for 25 miles,

the motor quit. _

I had picked up a tank of
gasoline in San Diego full of
water and dirt. I blew out the
filter and Rosa, her pet name,
Started, ran half a mile, quit
again. Five hours later I
reached the service station,
syphoned out all the gasoline I
could, replaced it, bought a
new filter and was on my way.

Alas, the rest of the story is
too long and complicated to
tell. Rosa sits now in a north-
em California backyard awail-

ing my return with enough -
money to fix her properly.

So what to do this summer? I
had my smali pension, no
other real income, 20 pounds
to lose and a fervid desire to
spend time in the land I love,
the best country on earth. Why
not build another boat for less
than $100 and cruise Canadian
waters? | ~

I considered the Shuswap
Lakes, drifting down the
Mackenzie, the British Colum-
bia coast where in more
prosperous times I had owned
a 72-foot. yacht.”

Three years ago my
girlfriend Betty from. San
Diego and I had taken the B.C.
ferry from Port Hardy to
Prince Rupert and had driven
up the Skeena to Terrace and
on to Stewart-Hyder,

Terrace, I shamefully admit,

. was then to'us only.a bump on

me theme aan RATA ERENT Wn eum it ete re YI RETE Enbdnnatimtintegnts Reiner senses uae = ter

HURRY EN TODAY
THIS SALE WON'T
LASTFOR LONG] |“

Totem’s Countr

wot

SOME EXAMPLES
$55.

Leather Loveseat

a month

All taxes due at time of purchase,

reg $1099.95

Sale 659"

$659 + 12= $55 per month

GRANGE CHYROPRACTIC JADE —

Queen Boxspring
& Mattress

15 year full guarantee.

reg $999.95

Sale $599"

a CD ES EE:

CENTURY HOUSE
Sofa & Loveseat

reg $1999.95

Sale 5] 1 99%

KROEHLER
Sofa & Loves

One set only!”

EOE SR Ee Ee

“req $2199.95

sale 1 399%

Uniit July 29, 1996, O.A.C., Minimum purchase $499.95
All Applicable Taxes due at time of purchase

- SINCE 1963

, ywide
Furniture & appliance Lee

Owned and Operated. by Totem Furniture & Appince Lt, Ltd, .

MANY KINDS of craft have plled the Skeena River over the
interesting as the plywood boat being built by Bob Reeds.
Reeds will make his way to Prince Rupert and then to Kitimat,

years’ but perhaps n none has been as
A Canadian’ who winters: in Mexico,

the map. But we loved the
drive up the Skeena, figured it
rivaled Banff-Jasper.

Back to now. On my way
home to my legal year round
address with friends in Vernon
I stopped: at the new Van-
couver public library to re-
search steamers on the Skeena.

They ran, I learned, to
Hazelton.
So to Hazelton I’d go but I'd

shop around Vernon for a few
tools. Most would be unavail-
able or tao expensive up north,

I figured. .

I bought a large bag for $3 at
a thrift shop, some knives and
cutlery, a pot and frying pan

and baked a cake of bannock.

to eat enroute.

I could afford to send two
big bags to New Hazelton by
bus but not myself. I’d hitch
hike, With two small bags and
a big roll with sleeping bag,
foam and the dome tent it
wasn’t easy,

my second day, my last ride
from Houston with a delight-

ful, intelligent, well educated |

gentleman, Walter Raedeke,
who lives here in Terrace.

I -soon learned that ‘the

Skeena _— between New
Hazelton and Terrace might be
O.K. for steamboats, but not
for eight-foot shells. —

Terrace has been a surprise.

After 33. years in British.

Columbia I have yet to find a
place with better, kinder or
friendlier people.

The campground has to.be' -
the best: municipal I’ve seen.

anywhere, The Manager, Tom
Wade, a pleasant, polite, un-

assuming young man is oblig-

ing and helpful. .

The place ‘should. be . over- .

flowing with’ tourists: and
would be if mote knew about
it. a
Stores were better than o ones
I shopped. in. Vernon. I’ve
bought cheaper — from

; Vancouver. "The groceries T've ”

the «
a4 Bargain store: than: 1-could in .
I made New Hazelton late 6 on .

chosen from | both Safeway and

.Overwaitea come from some

of-the best selections I’ve seen
anywhere, “

Pil be living mostly on
beans, tice, oatmeal bannock
and fish.

I have bought marine glue
and paint from Irly Bird and

‘lumber cut- to measure from

Terrace Builders: Do It Center.
The Dart service for seniors
has been a life: saver. Jim, the
driver, couldn’t be more oblig-
ing.
How long will it take to fin-

ish KISS? Vm -not sure, but a

am sure I’m in no hurry.
I want to enjoy the’ seniors

center and: how could I-ever
‘leave without carefully explor-

ing the Terrace liquor . store

_and beer parlours? * ;
A retired ‘Ontario ‘newspa-

perman, Bob Reeds ‘has: be-
come completely familiar with
the computers and. fax ma-
chine . at.. The Terrace. Stan-
dard. . as E
"He su sai ltr thi week;

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