Guest blog: Sailing ahead at the Maritime Museum of BC with 1897 sailing yacht Dorothy 

It’s a beautiful day on the Salish Sea aboard the Maritime Museum of BC (MMBC)’s 1897 gaff-rigged sloop Dorothy. She’s steering away from crowded anchorages with a pair of youth sailors crewing aboard, and in a moment, one of them will take the tiller.

 

There is a flash of marine magic when our youngest sailors take on the mantle of skipper, and joins generations of Dorothy’s stewards charting the same course in the Salish Sea. 

Built right here in Victoria in 1897 before the children’s great-grandparents were even born, Dorothy is a restored icon of Victoria’s yachting scene from 1897. She’s the MMBC’s very own darling of the Salish Sea, and her volunteer skippers spend their summers travelling between boat festivals to visit youth sailing programs on the coast. 

As an active sailing vessel, and accessioned into the museum collection, Dorothy’s legacy has intertwined generations of sailors. 

A mid-life refit project supported by community, corporate, and private donations took her from the Gabriola Island shop of shipwright and artist Tony Grove to the workshop of Ladysmith Maritime Society. A team of volunteers led by boatwright and historian Robert Lawson finished her refit, and re-launched her in 2023 when she was just about to turn 127. 

This refit project received an award in 2024 from the prestigious, UK-based Classic Boat Magazine, naming Dorothy Best Restored Vessel under 40 ft. 

The best conservation for a wooden boat is to keep her sailing and ongoing repair and maintenance is necessary to continue Dorothy’s Salish Sea adventures.  

With a long-established endowment at the Victoria Foundation for museum operations, the Maritime Museum of BC established a new endowment fund specifically for Dorothy’s care in perpetuity. Founded by a single private donor in 2024 with $10,000, the SV Dorothy Endowment Fund continues to grow. It provides sustainable funding to keep Dorothy sailing; it’s a community outlet for a shared legacy of the era of classic sail here on our coast.  

Thousands of visitors meet Dorothy on festival docks every summer, and up to 50 youth in pairs from local sailing programs climb aboard to experience sailing like it’s 1897. She’s a unique vessel on this coast not only for her design and handling, but for her historical connections.

Built for BC Legislature clerk W.H. Langley by Victoria boatbuilder J.J. Robinson, she’s the oldest Canadian vessel still sailing. She’s a Salish Sea vessel through and through, never having travelled beyond 75 miles from her home harbour in Victoria. 

The MMBC maintains an interim gallery space at 744 Douglas Street while we pursue a permanent home on the Victoria waterfront through the Future of History Project. Dorothy spends her summers out on the Salish Sea, but the museum is home to rotating feature exhibits, hands-on activities, and programs every weekend.