Trevormclay
Contributor
Hello everyone, for those of you that don't know where Muskoka is in Canada it is located about 1.5 hours north of Toronto and is described as the Hamptons of Canada. The Muskokas have a rich boat building history dating back to the late and early 1900s. As a 23 year old man these old wooden boats are a history piece that I've grown up seeing driving along the lake just cruising along. Although this summer I now have a interesting piece of history of my own. My farther is a Muskoka history lover and refuses to see these old wooden boats destroyed, instead he has purchased multiple old wooden boats to save them from the fireplace. By doing this we have met some interesting and wonderful people. One of which is a local muskoka man Matt Fairbrass, who for 10 years searched the lake with side sonar to find a lost crashed World War 2 plane (Nomad). He finally was successful in the search (article is located her Planes Crash into Lake Muskoka - A True Story :: Muskoka Ratepayers' Association :: Muskoka, Ontario, Canada )
After purchasing my own piece of Muskoka history Matt was volunteering his time to assist me with the rebuilding efforts (he is the wooden boat mechanic in the area). By doing this I began discussing the history of the boats as well as other things located in the lake. He informed me of a few weaks he located in the lake in safe diving depths. The first one that I've now dove 3 times is a old Ditchburn Muskoka boat 27 feet in length. We know it was built within 1910-1915 due to the way the word was cut and the grooves. I am the first person to see the boat in person since it was purposely sunk in 1930-1940. Although some of you are wondering how this is treasure by now. Let me explain something..........The value of a Muskoka boat is priceless to many people in the area but Ditchburns that have been redone correct are worth north of $600,000. By our estimate it would be about 200,000$ to completely rebuild the boat (including bringing it up from the bottom). Here is a video i did quickly with my go pro this past summer, as you can see in the video the original white paint is still on the boat. This is not uncommon for Muskoka as the water at this depth is hovering around 50degrees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwTq8ZqcO7c
If people are interested in learning more about any of the treasures of Lake Muskoka feel free to contact me.
As a note to divers everywhere, there could be interesting artificates in your local area. Just ask around and dive safely.
After purchasing my own piece of Muskoka history Matt was volunteering his time to assist me with the rebuilding efforts (he is the wooden boat mechanic in the area). By doing this I began discussing the history of the boats as well as other things located in the lake. He informed me of a few weaks he located in the lake in safe diving depths. The first one that I've now dove 3 times is a old Ditchburn Muskoka boat 27 feet in length. We know it was built within 1910-1915 due to the way the word was cut and the grooves. I am the first person to see the boat in person since it was purposely sunk in 1930-1940. Although some of you are wondering how this is treasure by now. Let me explain something..........The value of a Muskoka boat is priceless to many people in the area but Ditchburns that have been redone correct are worth north of $600,000. By our estimate it would be about 200,000$ to completely rebuild the boat (including bringing it up from the bottom). Here is a video i did quickly with my go pro this past summer, as you can see in the video the original white paint is still on the boat. This is not uncommon for Muskoka as the water at this depth is hovering around 50degrees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwTq8ZqcO7c
If people are interested in learning more about any of the treasures of Lake Muskoka feel free to contact me.
As a note to divers everywhere, there could be interesting artificates in your local area. Just ask around and dive safely.
