Victoria Classic Boat Festival
More than eighty classic boats tie up in the Inner Harbour for the Labour Day long weekend, September 4 to 6. The docks are open to the public, with live music, food on the causeway barge, and a Sunday sail past and race.
The Maritime Museum of BC brings more than eighty classic boats into Victoria’s Inner Harbour for its 46th festival over the Labour Day long weekend, and you can walk the docks among them. Friday and Saturday run 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday closes at 6 p.m. Two of the boats are the museum’s own: SV Dorothy, an 1897 gaff-rigged sloop built in Victoria and registered for the sail past, and the Rainbow skiff-gig, a circa 1890s boat off HMCS Rainbow, the first vessel in the Royal Canadian Navy’s Pacific Command.
Live music runs all three days on Deerleap at Dock D, with the Hounds of Cuchulain and the museum’s own Salty Singers among the acts, and Yacht Dogs sells hot dogs, ice cream, and snacks from the barge beside the causeway entrance, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., cash or card. Moments to plan around: Rainbow Row goes out around the harbour on Friday at 2 p.m., the Victoria Harbour Ferries do their ballet by the Steamship Building at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and the sail past begins Sunday at 11 a.m., running with the race to 1 p.m. The Ogden Point causeway and Clover Point are both good places to watch the Sunday sail from shore.
The docks are open to the public. Note that the museum’s own building at 744 Douglas Street is closed September 3 to 8 while staff run the festival, reopening Wednesday, September 9, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.