From The Supply Post Archives: West Coast’s Haida Stower

Sep 2, 2021 - 4 years ago

There were two interesting boats parked at the main entrance of the Bayshore Inn at the Truck Loggers Convention in January.

From The Supply Post Archives West Coast Haida Stower — *A lot of power in 16 ft. of boat! The Haida Stower is shown above on trials prior to shipment to MacMillan Bloedel’s operation at Juskatla in the Queen Charlottes.*

One was the well-known West Coast Winder used for sorting and stowing logs in the booming grounds. The other was the Pod bottom dozer boat. This vessel is a unique West Coast, British Columbia design, especially developed for booming and all types of yarding and towing. The hull has a flat bottom with canoe shaped pod enclosing the engine gear and drive shaft. This configuration provides a very low centre of gravity, making the vessel very stable and able to work in close quarters. This positioning of the engine, with appropriate gearing also allows for larger size propellers than conventional boats of the same size and provides consequently, greater power. When a nozzle is incorporated, even further thrust of up to an additional 25 per cent is obtained with the same engine. Steering is also greatly improved, especially in reverse. West Coast Salvage & Contracting of Vancouver, build these boats in a range of sizes starting at 16 ft. with power ranges from 100 to 300 horsepower.

This article first appeared in Supply Post, February 1973