Maleo is a 1964 Tugboat that resided at the docks in Tobermory for nearly 2 decades, owned at the time by Pastor Chuck Beaton – a joyful character on the dockside always willing to talk about his boat.
We saw it in 2008 when travelling in our Great Lakes double ended light house tender and my husband was smitten. Life went on and when we went back it had been sold. We found the new owners and asked them to let us know if they ever wanted to sell.
In 2017 we got a call, they couldn’t or didn’t want to handle the repairs on a wooden boat. We bought it, used it until Covid, and the decided to build a custom shop on our land where we could do extensive renovations. 826+ days later we launched at Orillia and last week started the Americas Great loop – approx. 6,000 miles through the Great Lakes and intercoastal waterways of the United States.
Most loopers go up the Parry Sound to Kilarney route, but we felt it was only right to bring Maleo through the Tobermory route and up to Kilarney. Maleo was a regular on Georgian Bay and Lake Huron and it is great she is back.
Weather permitting we will be at the dock Friday ready for some famous pizza.
Anne Hodkin
