Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre

09/01/2026

Remember the pair of Kayaks we built with our New Horizons Group back in early 2025? These two-person kayaks were built with love by a group of seniors in the shop for our community to enjoy! CWBS Members can sign out the kayaks during centre open hours (weather dependent). Thanks to Myles, Don, Mike and George launching the kayaks is a breeze with the new launch platform.

Of course you need to have checked in with the front desk and filled out your safety waiver and trip-plan forum then you are good to go on a Cow Bay paddling adventure.

Take full advantage of the beautiful early September weather and your CWBS membership and consider signing out a kayak!

09/01/2026

Becoming a member of the Cowichan Wooden Boat Society just got easier! We now have a way for you to become a member or renew your membership online, we hope adding this option makes it super easy to keep your membership up-to-date.

Membership not only support the Maritime Centre to keep our doors open but gives you lots of awesome perks like complimentary use of our rowboats and kayaks, free museum admission, access to our nautical library, marine ways and fully equipped shop, invitation to member only events, membership pricing on events, courses and facility rentals and more! You also become part of a community that is unlike any other.

Membership is $45/year or $60/family and every dollar helps us to keep our centre alive

Our new membership platform is through Zeffy, they are a safe, secure and Canadian owned tool that supports non-profit fundraising. Zeffy is new to us so if you run into any hiccups please reach out, we'd be happy to walk you through signing up. You can still of course join as a member in person and get a physical membership card if that is more your speed.

Pictured is 5 CWBS Presidents (Lew, Judy, Dave, Ron and George) all of them would suggest that you become a member and take part in supporting our centre!

https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/cowichan-wooden-boat-societys-memberships

09/01/2026

We always love having SV Dorothy on our docks for the summer, Thank you to the team from for trusting us to be a safe harbour for Dorothy over the summer months! We welcomed many folks to the museum and our pier who were in awe of the craftmanship and stories from the SV Dorothy.

We said goodbye this weekend as she sailed away to the inner harbor for the Victoria Classic Boat Festival The festival is the place to be this labour day weekend and the beautiful collection of classic boats is something boat seafarers and land-lubbers will be in awe of!

09/01/2026

⚓️ Welcome to the Victoria Classic Boat Festival, Tyee Skiff!

The Tyee skiff is a well-known traditional lapstrake design created in the 1920s by shipwright Ned Painter for his sport fishing business in Campbell River, BC. Victoria boatbuilder Mark Reuten developed the plans based on measurements and construction details taken from surviving original boats. The hull was constructed in November 2025 during an intensive two-week traditional lapstrake boatbuilding course at the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre. The course was taught by Mark Reuten, and volunteers at the CBMC completed the interior fit-out and painted the hull in spring 2026. The Tyee is later being raffled off to raise funds for the CBMC.

Check out who else is joining the fleet on our Current Participants page: https://mmbc.bc.ca/classic-boat-festival/current-participants/

08/31/2026

Its that time of year where summer turns into fall, tourism slows down and the kiddos go back to school. This means we are moving into our fall hours here at the centre. We take our weekend on Monday/Tuesday and the facility is closed, you can visit us Wednesday-Sunday from 10-4 each day.

New hours effective Sept 7th

08/28/2026

08/28/2026

We got crafty last night!! Big thank you to our lovely summer student Dani for leading this super fun paint night! All the participants had a lot of fun and learned a little bit about painting. (Also big thanks to True Grain Bread for supplying us with goodies!)

08/27/2026

Junior Captains Camps are the highlight of our summer! Big thanks to all the many amazing folks who make this program happen!

08/25/2026

Another beautiful wooden boat has found its perfect home!

Our boat donation program matches boats ready for their next adventure with loving homes and new caretakers so the boats can continue to be cared for and sailed all while raising much needed funds for the Maritime Centre.

We are excited for Rob and all the great adventures he will have on his new boat!

08/24/2026

The Tyee is a traditional boat designed in the 1920s by shipwright Ned painter for his sport fishing business in Campbell River, BC. Each season, he built new boats for guests to fish for "Tyee" salmon (over 30lbs).

Interested in this little piece of Vancouver Island history? The CWBS offers Traditional lapstrake boat building courses every fall! Running through September 21st - October 2nd, you can learn every step to creating a beauty like this.

Visit our website www.classicboats.org or call the centre for more information!