30 - North Shore News ~ Sunday, November 14, 1999

SENIORS ——

‘The North Shore Alano Club would
like to thank the North Shore Credit
Union for their generous donation.

orth Shore Alano Ciub

The

hoppe ;
‘five years in busi

‘Vohime of repeat:

ne local restauiran

‘1978.
‘Shortly after the lodge fire,

Horsesh

Fram page 2@

boats as first

At the beginning of the
war, in 1939, Horseshoe Bay
was still a summer resort.
Then, during the carly 40s,
shipyards opened up in North
Vancouver and the workers
started buying up the summer
homes at Horseshoe Bay.
Practically overnight ic became
a year-round village.

Sewell’s Marina operations
grew. rapidly and business
turned to servicing boats as

well as renting them. So, the
Sewel built a wo-storcy

boathouse on the south side of

the bay, where the tide would
come in and out of the bot-
tom floor, and a boat fift (one
of the first in Canada), which
raised boats from the water to
the next level where work
could be done on them.

At this time, Art took over
operating Bay Boats in the

centre of the bay, leaving Tam
‘torun the Marina.

By this time the buat ser-
vices and rental business
became extremely busy, so
reluctantly it was decided get

: out of the hotel business and
the Whytecliff Lodge was

leased ont to different opera-

“tors over the years.

A fire in 1955 burned the _

entire top floor of the. lodge.

Tom had the bottom floor:
roofed over and turned the:

“operation into a one-story café
‘and store, which he leased out

until he pulled i it down in

Tom’s father, Dan, suffered his

‘them how to put it on th

hooks,” ‘fom recalls. “At times

“with strips of herring cut in
‘certain ‘way, so that it would

move in the: water like a live

eC

ing areas spread
and Tom recalls:
“The post-war
boom in the “40s
brought many hig-
name stars to fish
out from our mari-
na, like Bing
Crosby, Ray
Milland, and Fred
McMurray.
politicians like
Lester Pearson,
John Dietenbaker,
and, of course,
leading sports fig-
ures. Tt was an
interesting tine.”

While dining in
Vancouver one
evening in °53,
Tom received a
message that his
floating gasoline
station had gone
up in flames.

Tom recalls
tugboat had
brought the refu-
elling scow along-
side to fill up, with -
50,000 gallons of
fuel on board. The /
deliveryinan put his
dip stick down to
check the fuel level, -

~ it created a’ >

cand the why
thing went up.”
That was only .
ne of the mishaps,

~~ tials and tribula-

tons of running a ae

’ marina. “We were:

always building, maintaining, a
and rebuilding,” says Tom.
During the 60s Tom’s *-
voice became’ a familiar one as
he hosted a radio program on

- .CKLG giving regular weather |

of.the | Seow “

“Webster, Monty McFarl ‘Al

Davidson and Pat Burns

was hectic but i interesting.
"Tom continucs::“In earlier’,

“age fa
“private. salmon fishing. ct
“we have the Sea’ Safart and