April 26 will see the 22nd iteration of one of Pender Harbour’s favourite events, the April Tools Wooden Boat Challenge! Builders will have one hour to plan a boat that will meet this year’s “twist,” using the materials they have only just seen for the first time. They’ll follow this with three hours of working with hand tools and battery-powered drills to fashion their race boats. Last year’s challenge required them to incorporate two trash cans into their designs, which resulted in quite a number of swimmers. While this year should be a bit drier, we think the “twist” will be both interesting and fun to do.
But the day is not just about the adults. Members of the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society will have gone to the secondary school to help the kids build their own spiffy skiffs in the school shop using donated materials. The teens will give the adults a needed break at the end of their construction period to enjoy the youth races which often include some (purposely) damp moments. There are also fun times in store for the little kids. They will hammer up and paint their mini-boats, have their faces painted and participate in other activities — all for free!
When the teen races are finished, the adults will hop into their boats and have a couple of preliminaries followed by the big finale. With the addition of food vendors and cookie sales it adds up to a good-time, community-oriented day every spring at the Madeira Park government wharf!
If you would like to enter your team of up to four, go to apriltools.ca for an entry form. The fee is $200 per team (or $180 if received before April 1!) but the prizes are worth it: $700 for first, $400 for second, $250 for third. Plus there are the always unique Broken Paddle and Spiffy Skiffy trophies to be snagged by deserving teams. The price covers all the building materials and team members will all get April Tools T-shirts.
Even if building a boat doesn’t appeal to you, come down to the Madeira Park wharf from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 26 and just enjoy the day.
