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Homecoming Tugboat Festival Excitement

June 28, 2007

The Allagash TugThe Allagash

In anticipation of the amazing Tugboat Festival to be held in Owen Sound’s harbour during our city’s 150th Homecoming celebrations we here at theOwen.com have been doing some online research. In our wanderings we have come across an amazing resource on the topic that we would like to point you towards. Event organizer Dr. Steve Briggs has created a very comprehensive online archive of boats built in Owen Sound at the Russel Brothers shipyard.

The Atomic TugThe Atomic

The site is the perfect opportunity to educate yourself about an important aspect of Owen Sound’s history. It offers a registry of most of the 1300 boats built by the Russel Brothers, histories of famous boats built by Russel Brothers including the Ancaster and the Missinaibi (both of which appeared on the back of Canada’s one dollar bill from 1974 to 1989), a six-page history of the Russel Brothers company with photos from the period, magazine and product literature produced by the company, blueprints and designs for Russel Brothers boats, relevant newspaper clippings, and photograph collections that cover the boats, the shipyard and employees.

Le Sapin Comeau TugLe Sapin Comeau

The site also contains video footage of Russel Brothers tugboats in action. The National Film Board footage is absolutely stunning, shot in quality black and white with clear voice-over narration. It does a fantastic job of evoking the era of industrious labour. The Russel Brothers tugboats are seen to be really adaptable workhorse boats. The winch-powered tugging of logs was particularly clever and interesting to see. Make sure that you browse the site in Windows Explorer though as I found that the video footage wouldn’t play through my Firefox browser.

Once you’ve taken a look around Dr. Brigg’s archive you will be prepared to be a know-it-all at the tugboat festival that is being held on Saturday June 28th and Sunday the 29th. Here is a look at the schedule of events planned for the festival:

Sat. July 28

  • BOAT RACES

    • 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
    Boats on the starting line at 1:30.
    Course to be determined.

  • CHRISTMAS LIGHT RIGGING

    • 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
    Let’s pretty them up!

  • AWARDS BANQUET

    • 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
    Race and other prizes, silent auction, guest speakers and presentations.
    The Rusty Gull restaurant, 2nd floor King’s View Room.
    Not Wheelchair accessible.
    $30/ticket

  • LIGHT PARADE

    • 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
    Boats slowly navigate a circular course around the harbour perimeter.

    Sun. July 29

  • WATER RESCUE DEMOS

    • 10:00 AM – NOON
    Newfoundland Dogs rescuing people!
    West Side Boat Launch ramp.

  • BOTH DAYS – WHISTLE BLOW @ Noon & 5 p.m.
  • BOTH DAYS – PUBLIC BOAT TOURS

    • Tour the 65′ Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cove Isle. Tours of other private vessels solely at the discretion of their owners.

    The festival will undoubtedly be fun for the whole family, especially for those who have young ones with a love for big machines. I know our resident small fry will be giddy with excitement at the mere sight of these old boats. Make sure to take a look at Dr. Steve Brigg’s Russel Brothers site and you’ll be in the know when the boats come chugging into harbour. On the off chance you have trouble following our links, the address you’ll be going to is http://russelbrothers.com/. Happy surfing!

    Written by adam · Filed Under Community, Events, Get Out, Participation, The City, theOwen 

    Comments

    3 Responses to “Homecoming Tugboat Festival Excitement”

    1. Joshua Says:
      June 29th, 2007 at 4:22 am

      Tugboat races! AWESOME!

    2. theOwen.com/go : Blog Archive : Homecoming Events This Weekend Says:
      July 27th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

      [...] Russel Brothers Tugboat Festival begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday and runs through to 11 p.m. at the Marine & Rail Museum. For [...]

    3. theOwen.com/go : Blog Archive : The Tugboats are Putting Into Town! Says:
      July 27th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

      [...] Russel Brothers tugboat festival starts Saturday July 28th at 10 a.m. The event is taking place down at the Marine & Rail [...]

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