Cowichan Bay Pedal Powered Potlatch, June 10, 2000
Here are some pictures I took at the Cowichan Bay Pedal Powered Potlatch, located at the town of Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, B.C. This event was organized by Bob Stuart in conjunction with the Cowichan Bay Maritime Festival.
Here are some pictures of the "Fast and Furious Boat Building" contest. These teams of chickens, pirates, Jurassic Ark (Fred & Barney), B.C. Fairies and accountants are trying to build boats in as little time as possible using only $75 (Canadian) worth of materials. No power tools are permitted, either!
The Marine Ecology Station was ready to show one and all the wonders of sea and tidal zone marine life, both live and simulated.
There was also a fishing derby for the children. The object is to catch the largest bullhead while fishing from the docks. As luck would have it, the first fish my son Christopher ever caught turned out to be the largest bullhead in the contest! This guy weighed in at about 5 ounces, and almost a foot in length.
My Escapade made an appearance, and was taken for numerous rides by the public.
Werner Vogel brought his latest craft, made from door skins, aluminum and nylon.
Here is another view of Werner's boat.
Here is a closeup of one of the pontoons.
Here is a closeup of one of Werner's drive units. This one uses plywood for the overall structure rather than machined aluminum as is used in his other version.
Larry Smith enjoyed cruising about in Mark's Current Designs pedal kayak.
Exploring the area near the boat launch in the Current Designs pedal kayak.
Mark is demonstrating Bob Stuart's Spinfin, which is used to propel the Current Designs kayak.
MPEG Videos of some of the events are listed below. Note that due to an
error in the conversion process the videos play about 30% faster than reality:
Escapade and
Current Designs Kawak driven by Larry Smith and his wife (8.1 MB)
Escapade and
Current Designs Kawak - same as above but 160x120 format (3.1 MB)
Current Designs
Kawak with Larry Smith driving (10.6 MB)
Current Designs
Kawak and Escapade with Larry Smith and his wife driving (4.5 MB)
Christopher Lampi
and his prize winning bullhead (1.8 MB)
Mark demonstrating
a SpinFin with Larry Smith watching (3.0 MB)
The Fast and Furious
Boat Builders, or at least some of them (2.5 MB)