Beloved hand-built schooner still undergoing repairs a year after lightning strike

A hand-built wooden schooner called the Katie Belle was severely damaged by lightning during the storm that caused unprecedented flooding in parts of the province last July. Evan Densmore and his cousin Nick Densmore, who built the vessel, say repairs are still ongoing a year later. 

"Katie Belle was in Mill Cove in Bedford and she was struck by lightning on her mooring," said Evan Densmore. "It disabled all of our monitoring systems and kind of completely destroyed the electronics on the boat." 

He said he got a call from his father the night of the storm telling him there was flooding in the engine room that needed to be addressed. They worked on the boat to stop the leaking and stayed with it for another 24 hours to ensure it didn't sink. 

The ship was brought to Lunenburg Shipyard in October 2023 to undergo extensive repairs. Major components on the boat had to be rebuilt, including its hydraulic system, the engines and a generator, said Mike Wilson, vice-president of the shipyard.

"Any time saltwater gets into a vessel and sits in there for a prolonged period of time, it creates a significant amount of damage," said Wilson. "Fire, lightning strikes and water ingress are essentially the three worst things that could happen to a vessel. And this one had two out of three."

Wilson said repairs would've cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if insurance didn't cover it. But Wilson feels fortunate to work on a boat that means so much to the Densmore family and their community. 

"We feel very lucky at Lunenburg Shipyard to be a part of revitalizing this vessel that the Densmore family built that is a community staple," Wilson said. 

The Katie Belle is considered an icon in Colchester County, after it was hand-built over the course of five years. Both Evan and Nick Densmore hail from Stewiacke, and they set sail on the 24-metre wooden ship in 2016, stopping in South Carolina and anchoring off Ellis Island in New York. 

When they returned to Nova Scotia several months later, they were greeted by hundreds of people on the Halifax waterfront.

Wilson said they hope to have the schooner fully functioning by the fall and are just waiting for the next round of approvals from an insurance company before continuing with the repairs. 

"We are going to work very hard to [get] the boat in the water by September of 2024, so Evan and his family can enjoy the fall sailing season in Nova Scotia," Wilson said. 

Despite the ordeal, Evan Densmore always remained optimistic that Katie Belle would sail again. 

"I wouldn't have spent all the time building the boat and I would never have made it this far if I wasn't positive," he said. "I'm also positive that I will get her back in the water and sailing again."