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The Power–Cruiser Idler II
by Melodie and Grant Blundell with John MacFarlane2018
The Idler II (Photo from the Melodie and Grant Blundell collection.)
The Idler II was built in 1919 by F.C. Jones in Victoria BC. She was 9.08m x 3.6m x 1.31m (29.9' x 11.8' x 4.3') with a wooden-hull 9.66gt 8.57rt. She was powered by aa 72hp gas engine.
The Idler II (Photo from the Melodie and Grant Blundell collection.)
In 1949 she was owned by Bessie Norton, Victoria BC. In 1958 she was owned by Ole C. Petersen, Glen Lake BC. In 1961–1989 she was owned by John T. Dobson, Dundas BC. In 2003–2010 she was owned by Melvyn J. Butler, Richmond BC.
Grant Blundell states that "A vessel that we hauled and maintained was the Idler II. The Cowichan Bay Shipyard handled many vessels of this size on our two marine slipways. Typically a vessel like this one had to be hauled out at peak high tide. The Spring season was a busy one for yachts whose owners were preparing for a summer cruising season. We used to do this in the evening to coincide with the tide tables and then undertake the work the next morning."
To quote from this article please cite:
Blundell, Melodie and Grant Blundell with John MacFarlane (2018) The Power–Cruiser Idler II. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Idler II.php
Site News: January 14, 2025
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,957 vessel histories (with 16,337 images and 13,935 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3998 images).
My thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of the vessel histories in the vessel database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he continues to contribute to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.
My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Thanks to John Spivey who is beginning his 4th year of fact checking all of the entries in the vessel database.