Handliners going by and visiting Lasqueti June 23 or 24

Handliner Replica Visits Lasqueti
On the 23rd or 24th of this month, a replica wooden handliner boat will be rowed to Lasqueti Island from Nanaimo by Larry Westlake.  This boat was built in 2005 for the Sunshine Coast Museum in Gibsons.  The boat it replicates was built by Canadian author Hubert Evans in Roberts Creek in the 1930's and is known to have fished at Lasqueti.  Both original and replica are 14'-7" long with a 44" beam, and carvel planked.  Handliners or hand trollers used to fish commercially for salmon under oars, off Lasqueti, Cape Mudge, and many other places in the province.  They are a unique west-coast type from the days of sail and oar.  Larry would like to meet with anyone who is interested in the history of these boats.  Larry will show the boat and talk about what he has learned about handliners, and is eager to hear anything that you can tell him about them.
The replica is stopping at Lasqueti as it is returning to the Sunshine Coast from a Handliner Rendezvous at Nanaimo that Larry organised.  It was rowed across the Strait of Georgia from Davis Bay to attend that event, in company with an original handliner built in 1937.  Larry will also talk about the Nanaimo Handliner Rendezvous and his goal of reviving BC's nearly-forgotten handliners for recreational and sport rowing.
Larry is requesting photographs of his visit so that he can put together a talk/show about his trip showing him in the boat at all the communities and locations he visits.

I was forwarded an email enquiry by Larry Westlake, and here is some further information from him about his trip to and past Lasqueti:

I am down to the crunch for this trip and will be leaving early this Saturday morning for the first part.
I will probably not be at the computer after Friday morning.
 
It's a bit hard to say when I will get there, though.
 
Lasqueti has a history of Handline fishing, and I would LOVE that to be celebrated.
If my arrival is an excuse to celebrate it, I will commit to staying for a visit.
If I have an escort at Lasqueti I will be delighted.  Tickled pink, actually.
Since arrival time is uncertain, a sendoff may be more workable than a welcome.
A potluck would be great.  I'm travelling very skimpy, but if you have a way to show JPGs I could bring a CD with images showing the replica I am rowing being built.  But the boat speaks for itself to some extent, and I can talk freely for extended periods off the cuff, and can sketch if there is one of those big flip-pads and feltpens, if we get into constructon details, how-this what-that and such-like.
If necessary or desirable, the boat can be carried to a location.  It only weighs about 150 lbs soaking wet and will go in a long-bed pickup with some padding against bounce.  I will have about 100 lbs of gear along.  No big deal.
 
All of your suggestions are generous and I would like to go with them, with one item excepted:
A shower would be great, but I wish to continue to sleep beside my boat, or under it (upturned) when it rains.  This is how the old fishermen did it, and I get a big kick out of it.  Please just send me to a good location (beach or a field close to the shore) for this.
 
For photographs, I am particularly interested in getting some of arriving and departing, showing the location, that people will allow me to use to document the trip and show publicly.  On these solo trips, it's very hard to get shots of myself coming and going or at a distance - I can do the out-of-body thing OK, but the darned camera refuses to come along.
 
Arrival time and exact approach route are uncertain, depending critically on weather conditions.
The only certainty is that I will depart Nanaimo early on the 22nd, and will yield to adverse weather.
I expect to reach Ballenas easily if winds are not strong NW, or hard if they are.
Roughly, in a persistent moderate to strong NW I will probably be approaching from French Creek to Boat Cove on the 24th, having hauled upwind to French Creek for a safer downwind run at Lasqueti so I cannot be blown out into the open Strait if things pipe up.
If conditions are mild or light-moderate, I will be approaching on the 23rd from Ballenas to Young Point.  Ditto in a calm.  My habit is to wake at dawn and launch if there is a calm, so arrival may be very early.  Sometimes I must wait till afternoon for good conditions.  You will have to watch the weather and think like a rowboat to guess what I am doing.  To help you, here are my performance parameters:  In a flat calm I can do 4.5kn for about an hour, 3.5kn for up to 4 hrs.  Every 5kn of headwind reduces boatspeed almost 1kn, so bucking a 20kn headwind is very slow going and I avoid it.  Beam winds don't slow me much, but if seas build over 2ft they do.
Winds over 15kn or seas over 2ft will probably prevent me from making the crossing till conditions abate.
I carry no VHF or cell phone.  I can be signalled with a mirror from Lasqueti, and will signal back with one as a greeting.
 
Once I make landfall at Lasqueti, I will row or sail along shore to Squitty Bay or another location that you say suits.  Squitty would be good for historical reasons because it was a handliner haven during their heyday.  But  there are others such.  If there's a payphone at Squitty I can call a contact number if my arrival has gone unnoticed.
 
If the dock or beach suits, people can try out my boat.
 
You will know if Lasqueti people are flexible enough to respond on a day's notice.  To help make it workable I suggest this - if I arrive early am, call the "do" for that evening.  If I arrive late in the day, call the "do" for the next day, early enough to allow me to scoot for Texada by mid-afternoon.
 
That's all probably far too much data - apologies.
 
 
You decide the location, times, any additional events, potlucks, pixshows, talk, try-rows, escort rows, photo-ops, etc.  Basically, you've got me for a day if you can use me, and can decide what will work for you.  Just be sure to let me know to bring the image CD if you want it.  Rowboat travel is too soggy to bring any other media.  If you need images for a page you can link to  any on my website at www.westlakeboats.com (default homepage)
www.westlakeboats.com/replica  (page about the replica project)
www.westlakeboats.com/courses/migration.htm (page about 2005 Migration Project)
 
Cheerio and good morning.
Larry Westlake
 

Larry also sent me this email about an authentic, old-time handliner rowing past Lasqueti:

One of the Handliner people invited to the Nanaimo Rendezvous is 70?80-year-old Will Thomson of Savary Island.
He used to handline commercially in the 40's, starting out with a boat built in '37.
When he wore out the '37 boat, he built a copy in '64, which he still has.
 
Will intends to sail and row the 1964 boat from Savary to Nanaimo and back for the Rendezvous event, and will be passing along the Western tip and Southern shore of Lasqueti.  This Saturday.  I didnt get details,  but I assume he will hop from Savary to Harwood, Harwood to Texada, Texada to Lasqueti, run alongshore Lasqueti to about Sangster, and hop to Ballenas and the main island.  He may leave at first light.
If anybody can get pix of this guy and his boat they will make a great story.
 
Keep your eyes peeled for a little double-ender red rowboat with a triangular (leg-o-mutton) sail, unless he's changed it. 
(drawing and pic below)
 

 
For guessing/calculating his speeds and locations from Savary for ETA at Lasqueti, use my performance figures from a previous email for my own boat.  For sailing with favouring winds, anything over 12kn wind will max out his boatspeed at about 5 to 5.5 kn even in hard and dangerous blows - the "hull speed" limit phenomenon.
 
This guy is for real.  He used to do this for a living.
He may think better of it if winds are SE - I mean, he is getting a bit old to row the whole way - but if winds are NW I expect he will do it.
He's a tough bugger.
And ornery.
 
I know he would get one hell of a kick out of boats going out to escort him past Savary.  Especially since he's not expecting it.
That's all I can do from here, over to you.
 
Larry