BUFFALO, N.Y. — This weekend the Buffalo Maritime Center, volunteers, and local dignitaries will celebrate a big milestone in the construction of a replica canal boat.
The traditionally-built, full-size replica of the Seneca Chief is currently housed in the Longshed at Canalside. On Saturday, there will be a "Whiskey Plank" celebration to mark the progress so far. During the free, public event, the final piece of wood in the hull will be put into place. The so-called whiskey plank got its name because it's tradition to mark this point of construction with a whiskey toast.
Saturday's event is at noon. Local and state officials will say a few words to mark the occasion. There will be live music, a beer tasting, and a custom whiskey from Buffalo Distilling for the toast. There will also be food trucks on site.
The boat building is a community-driven project made possible thanks to 200 volunteers. They've been working on the boat since October 2020, though the idea to build the replica started 20 years ago.
"We only have two full-time boatwrights working on it. They had to train the volunteers. We had 200 something volunteers that came from all walks of life. Literally all walks of life. Everyone from a heart surgeon to a carpenter or whatever. Some people just like the smell of wood," said John Montague, founder of the Buffalo Maritime Center.
Montague said the project is an impressive feat, given its size and the fact that it's custom-made.
"We got [the wood] right out of the forest, when the bark is still on it. We had to take all of the pieces and cut them down to the sizes that we need. We don't have any pre-cut things. Every piece is custom-made. There are no Home Depot two by fours in the boat," said Montague.
The replica is 73 feet long and will weigh 40 tons when it's complete.
There were no plans when the original boat was built, so the group behind the project had to do a lot of research to determine what the boat might have looked like.
"I think we got the best idea of that, and we are building it now," said Montague. "As we've gone through, we've discovered a lot. We have learned a lot. It's been a great educational program for us to learn how to build it."