Journal de bord

Conservateurs contre NPD, NPD contre Conservateurs. Ça ne vole pas haut…

Bluenose II was initially scheduled to launch in early July, coinciding with the the busy summer tourist period.

Philip Snyder, head of Snyder’s Shipyard – one of the three firms in the consortium – confirmed there have been delays.

“There may be some cost overruns, but on a project like this it’s a normal thing,” he said in a telephone interview from his cottage at Lake Mushamush, N.S.

Besides the concerns over scheduling and financial matters, the question of authenticity has also arisen.

Bluenose II was scrapped in 2010 after its bow and stern had fallen, a condition shipwrights call hogging. Only some of its original parts were kept to be integrated in the new version, including the rigging, masts and sails.

The new Bluenose II is structurally different, heavier, uses steel and is built to more stringent contemporary safety standards. And there is no locally harvested wood used this time around. Instead, rot-resistant hardwoods with exotic names like angelique, from South America, have been imported.

That has prompted some critics, notably Joan Roué, a great-granddaughter of Bluenose designer William J. Roué, to take issue with the extent to which the new and improved Bluenose II diverges from the original blueprint.

Mr. Snyder says the new vessel was never intended to be a replica.

“It’s a brand new boat. It’s not a restoration,” he said.

The Globe and Mail, Bertrand Marotte : “Reborn Bluenose II trapped on dry land”.

Je ne comprends toujours pas l’acharnement du gouvernement néo-écossais à vouloir nous faire passer le Bluenose III pour le Bluenose II (1963-2010)…

[Photo Aischrolatreia.]

Messieurs, cet été, osez la transparence !

1927.

[Via The Cataloguer’s Desk: “A Rare Film Programme for Fritz Lang’s Masterpiece.”]