This morning while literally "plugging away" on our antique yacht in a Seattle boat yard, a beautiful 1950 Shane, Sea Holm, pulled in with an engine problem. In talking to the delightful owner, Peggy Holm of Seattle, I mentioned that our boat was built in Canada. She told us that she and her skipper had just returned from a month's cruise in Canada, spending some time in Victoria where Peter Vassilopoulos spotted her boat tied up in front of the Empress Hotel, which led to including the Sea Holm in a forthcoming article in your magazine. Then she proceeded to produce several copies of your magazine borrowed from Canadian friends. It was really a treat to discover a magazine of such caliber and published right in Vancouver!
Needless to say, the Sea Holm's minor problem was cured in just a couple of hours and they left all too soon, but not before I got the necessary information from Peggy to write to you in hopes of getting some information on the "roots" of our soon-to-be-beautiful-again boat and also for a subscription to your magazine. We can use the cruising information in your area next year, we hope.
We bought our 64-ft. yacht in 1975, built by Hoffar Motor Boat Company of Vancouver in 1917. We are in the process of restoring and should be cruising her for the first time next year.
The earliest yacht registry we have found with our boat listed was 1920 as Walithy I, owner W. R. Heyneman. The name was changed to Odalisque while still owned in Canada. It came to Seattle in 1948. Since U.S. ownership, it is reasonably easy to get information from the Coast Guard on U.S. owners, but we just don't know where to begin tracing her first 31 years in Canada and her builders. There is a gasoline license card dated 1945 for owner Dr. Duncan E. Fox of Nanaimo and a 1939 compass deviation card with the current name of Odalisque on it.
Possibly you have readers who remember the boat or the builders or can tell us where to begin our search for this information.
Dick and Polly Sowle,
Seattle, Washington
