Peers’ Fancy captain takes heritage to heart

At 50-feet, Peers Fancy, co-owned by Atkinson and Anne-Louise Dauphinee is one of the smaller Tall Ships in this year’s tour.

The wooden vessel is normally available for customized charters and day sails out of Hubbards, but Atkinson sees promise in the growing provincial appreciation for historic sailing vessels.

“I think the province is beginning to recognize the heritage that we have here. I’m hoping there will be a big movement towards that in the near future,” she said.

Atkinson grew up in West Head on Cape Sable Island, helping her father, David, prepare fishing gear: building wooden lobster traps, stringing burlap bait bags, and tying gangens.

She left home to study literature and the classics at Dalhousie and owned a video store in Halifax for several years.

When she returned to CSI for a summer of fishing for bluefin tuna with her father in the ‘Hell Hole’ she realized a job on the ocean held a lot more appeal.

Over the next years she fished tuna, halibut and lobster with her father and brother-in-law.

When she met her partner Anne-Louise Dauphinee from Hubbards she fell in love with sailing and tackled the steep learning curve successfully. She’s worked as first mate aboard the 154’ sail-training vessel, ‘Highlander Sea’ and as second mate on the Bluenose ll.

The first order of business after purchasing Peers’ Fancy in 1999 with Dauphinee, was to refinish all of the mahogany. The boat was well-loved and sailed extensively by former owners Don and Dorothy Peers to the Mediterranean and Caribbean after her launch in 1974.

Atkinson says although she’d like to sail the vessel down south (Peers’ Fancy was designed for the Bahamas with a shoal draft of 5’) the women are concentrating on coastal tours in the province at the present.

She’d like to see more girls and women take sail training.

“I’ve had some of the husbands approaching us in Hubbards asking us to take their wives out sailing to teach them the basics. They tell me, “Every time we go out together, we end up in a big fight.”

Atkinson is passionate about promoting the heritage and value of wooden sailing vessels, just as much to local residents as tourists.

“Down here (SW Nova) if it doesn’t have an engine in it, nobody’s interested in it. The irony of that is that most fishermen’s grandfathers all fished under sail. Now most of them wouldn’t know what a main sheet is.

“I think it’s important to maintain our heritage,” she said.