A 96-year-old woman ticked off an item on her bucket list when she sailed into Victoria on what is believed to be British Columbia’s oldest locally built sailing vessel still in active service.
Dorothy Zimmerman, who came from Minnesota to Victoria specifically to see SV Dorothy, said she fell in love with the vessel when she learned of the 127-year-old boat’s restoration project.
“I’m just 30 years younger than [SV] Dorothy,” said Zimmerman, who turns 97 in October.
The Victoria-built sailboat had been sitting in a shed on Gabriola Island for more than a decade as the Maritime Museum of B.C. gathered the funds needed for a refit.
Angus Matthews, who sits on the museum’s board of directors, said he and Zimmerman struck up a lively three-year correspondence over email about the 30-foot wooden sailboat.
When Zimmerman found out that SV Dorothy was coming into Victoria, she was determined to visit.
“I’ve got to live long enough to get out here,” she said.
She would do more than just see the boat. On Wednesday, Zimmerman donned a pink puffer jacket and sun visor and steered SV Dorothy into the Inner Harbour as part of a five-person crew.
She navigated with just her left arm, as her other arm was still recovering from a broken bone.
Matthews said special permission from the harbourmaster was required to sail SV Dorothy into the harbour.
On Friday, Zimmerman, who has sailed for more than six decades, was still basking in the experience.
“When you get out there on the water, you’ve got something with Mother Nature that gets in your soul,” she said.
SV Dorothy returned to local waters in 2023 after a 21-year hiatus following extensive restoration conducted by Gabriola Island shipwright Tony Grove and volunteers at the Ladysmith Maritime Society.
Matthews said since SV Dorothy was relaunched, it has been used at yacht clubs across South Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands this summer for young sailors to train on for their first sailing certifications.
“Most of them are age 11 to 12,” he said. “It’s been wonderful just showing off maritime heritage and the vintage days of sail.”
Commissioned in 1897 by William Henry Langley, a barrister who would go on to be a clerk of the Legislative Assembly in 1922, SV Dorothy was built before construction of the Empress Hotel and the Inner Harbour causeway.
Langley owned and raced SV Dorothy for 47 years.
The vessel went through another dozen private owners before being donated to the Maritime Museum of B.C. by Kim Pullen in 1995.
Matthews said SV Dorothy is now under the care of Robert Lawson of the Ladysmith Maritime Society when it is docked in Ladysmith.
The museum hopes that SV Dorothy can eventually find a permanent home in Victoria’s Inner Harbour, he said.
But for now, SV Dorothy will be at the Inner Harbour as part of the Classic Boat Festival, which started Friday and continues until Sunday.
Close to 100 boats from across the Pacific Northwest are on display. Festival admission is a one-time suggested donation of $5 per person for the whole weekend.
All the vessels that are part of the show will sail past the Ogden Point Breakwater at 11 a.m. Sunday, a highlight of the festival, Matthews said.
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