Good morning! Well I looked at the date and instantly remembered September 17, 1966. It was a beautiful Saturday, perfect for the boat ride from home, to the Manitoba Yacht Club for their annual fall corn roast. Mom and Dad had put their souls into the wooden planked whitefish hull making it into a well-appointed party room on water. The hardwood floors, porthole windows and wall sconce lighting made it feel like a nautical bar. The “Ark” spent it’s last summer at Gimli pier making a comfortable home away from home for our family.
When we pulled up to the Yacht Club, the main dock was full leaving space at the fuel dock for one 44’ named “Archie’s Ark”. The dock spot was perfect as Dad wanted it fueled up before winter haul-out which would have occurred a week later. On board for the corn roast trip was my friend Linda Jonasson, my sisters Linda, Diane and Susan, Joyce and Archie Tawns, our dog Ringo and myself, Julie. Who knew we’d be the grand finale! 💥
During the corn roast, Archie’s Ark was nearly completely refueled when the yacht club’s fuel pump ran dry. It had taken on 160 Imperial gallons, 40 gallons short of a full tank.
Dad joined the party. It was a great autumn day and so good to see the yacht club a-buzz with members. Linda, son Gregg and Diane left the Club by car. The rest of the family and my friend Linda got onboard with our dog Ringo, a red cocker spaniel, to cruise home.
Here’s the Tawns family Circa 1965
L-R on sofa ... Diane, Linda, Julie, Joyce
Front ... Gregg, Ringo, Susan
Onboard, I mentioned the smell of gas was strong. Dad joked “we’re at the gas dock, what else would it smell like?” and flicked on the bilge blowers. In that instant our lives forever changed. The boat exploded 💥 and a flame 🔥 ripped down all 44 feet! The cabin roof blew into the air, a piece of wood with a nail landing on my dad’s back, an inch from his spine. Blissfully unaware of the pain, he held up the burning roof while we got out. The lifeboat on the cabin roof had flown into the air coming down and knocking my mother down underneath it. My sister Sue lifted the lifeboat off mom and helped her off the boat. My dad grabbed my girlfriend Linda and tossed her out the cabin door onto the gas dock. In slow motion I saw the moment of the explosion, the flame ripping through the center of the boat, my dad at the cabin door in the flames, my girlfriend Linda being tossed out onto the dock, hair singed to her head and my mother wandering dazed on the gas dock. At that moment, I was most worried about getting my dad off the boat. He, however, would not get off until he knew everyone was out.
Several people arrived on the dock to help; my school friends Linda Malmgren and Dawn Fraser consoled Linda Jonasson and I while Dr. Flett, a long-time yacht club member and owner of the Falcon herded us to the Clubhouse to tend burns and see us off to the emergency room. A stranger appeared who offered to drive us all to the hospital for treatment.
In the aftermath, we realized our dog Ringo was missing. We thought he had died on board or been blown into the water and drowned. Tears were shed and we were horrified. John Flett, son of the good doctor, had been looking out the back window of their boat, the Falcon, when our boat exploded. He said “the yacht club just lost another boat!” 💥
Calmer minds cut the mooring lines and pushed the blazing hulk away from the fuel docks! The flames were seen by the stranger driving the highway a quarter mile away and who came to help. Bill Harris had left for his home by boat when he heard the blast and turned his head to see the flames 🔥 100 feet in the air. Bill sped back to help, fearing we were trapped inside or dead. Bill may have been one of the boaters who towed Archie’s Ark to the middle of the Red River where it eventually burned to the waterline, it’s huge engine a moulten mass. As I watched from the hill, the 2 - 100 lb. propane tanks blew their tops, a minute apart acting like a blowtorches!
To sum up the story, “Archie’s Ark” and the Tawns family is etched into the minds of all who witnessed it. Our dog Ringo was found two days later scorched, hiding in a ditch a few miles north of the Yacht Club. The police had heard the story and were watching for Ringo! He fully recovered but never liked boating afterward! At the hospital, dad realized he had a board and a nail in his back. Even in the car ride, no one had noticed it. My mom had a nylon scarf around her hair, quite the fashion statement at the time. It had melted and burned her scalp which had to be cut away. My sister Sue had burns to her hands and the back of her neck, and is credited with saving our mom. If Sue hadn’t seen the lifeboat come down on her, no one would’ve known where mom was! Linda Jonasson was burned on her neck, scalp and hands having been near the engine room at the time of the blast. Both Ringo and I had been on the back deck, always my job to tend the lines. I’d been blasted onto the back deck rails, singed and bruised, but evidently Ringo had gone right through the rails and into the Red River.
What had gone wrong? Well, you can bet the insurance company investigated. My dad went with the insurance man on his boat to find what remained of the Ark. About 3 miles away, carried by the north flowing current, on the riverbank was “Archie’s Ark,” burned to the waterline, the engine a melted mass. Evidence pointed to fuel in the bilge of the boat, either from a leaking fuel tank or the fuel tank stem breaking away from the tank. During fueling, the gasoline had gone into the bilge rather than the fuel tank. (Had dad purchased more than 200 gallons he would have realized a problem. But, because the yacht club ran out of fuel, we never reached that point.)
With insurance check in hand, seven days later the entire family went looking for another boat. The parameters this time would be a diesel engine which would not explode in the way that a gasoline engine could. Those Tawns had nerves of steel.
Dad bought a 40’ sedan cruiser known as “Miss B Haven” in very good condition from Chuck Abramson. It had been in his storage building for a couple of years. The Detroit Diesel engine was just what we wanted!
Our first look at the replacement boat.
Here she is, now christened “Ar-Joy” which Linda created from our parent’s names; Archie and Joyce. We spent many wonderful trips aboard and summer vacations cruising the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.
