By John Francis,
Bruce Peninsula Press
On the evening of Thanksgiving Monday, the Coast Guard vessel Cape Commodore towed what appeared to be a floating cabin into Tobermory harbour, then handed it off to their rapid response vessel (Zodiac) which pushed it into a berth on the harbour’s outer north wall. Coast Guard personnel tied the raft in place, in consultation with Harbour Master Carla Watson.
The raft/cabin in question is actually registered as a motor vessel, known as the Neverlanding.
Built in Harrow, Ontario by Steven Mylrea, the Neverlanding was launched in the spring of 2025. The owner/designer/builder sailed it around for more than a year before selling it to Brandon Fasan. At that point in time it was “anchored” in Goat Island Harbour, near Little Current on Manitoulin Island. Some accounts use different words instead of “anchored”, such as “stuck” and “abandoned”.
Google “Neverlanding” and you’ll find as much as you could possibly want to know, on Facebook and elsewhere.
Fasan hired his friend Michael “Captain Mick” McGrath and another man to bring the boat down to Windsor, where he intends to moor in the Canard River and live on it.
It did not go well. The first challenge was to free it from fouled mooring lines, but that was just the beginning. They got three of the four outboard motors running and sailed almost as far as Cape Smith (the easternmost point on Manitoulin Island), before all three engines failed, leaving the vessel adrift. The Neverlanding has four ancient two-stroke outboards, none of them dependable. On this leg of the voyage, Capt Mick discovered that even with three engines running, the vessel “struggled to maintain two knots” unless he ran all engines at full throttle.
The Coast Guard rescued them and towed the Neverlanding to the nearest safe harbour — Killarney. This was the third or fourth time the Coast Guard had rescued the Neverlanding.
Leaving Killarney (against the advice of the Coast Guard), the Neverlanding got as far as Club Island before running low on fuel. Capt Mick had thought he had enough fuel to make it to Tobermory but found himself needing to run all engines at full throttle to make any headway into the breeze and waves. They spent several days at Club Island Harbour — waiting two days after they ran out of food — before conceding defeat and calling the Coast Guard again.
Once again, the Coast Guard towed them to the nearest safe port; from Club Island, that was Tobermory. In an interview, Capt Mick told me that the Coast Guard fed them and treated them very well. He feels badly to have needed their services. He now realizes that the boat is only safe on “a gentle river or a flat lake”. Sailing the Neverlanding to Windsor is an impossible task.
Photo: The Tobermory Coast Guard towed the Neverlanding in from Club Island on October 12.
Photo: The Neverlanding in Tobermory harbour on October 12.
The owner’s latest plan is to tow the Neverlanding to Windsor behind a small boat with an outboard motor. Capt Mick resigned in protest; he feels this would not work and would be dangerous to try. He is aware that many of the Tobermory shipwrecks happened in autumn.
But he hates to disappoint his friend, who is counting on the boat as living quarters in Windsor for the oncoming winter. Capt Mick flips back and forth; one moment he’s admitting that it’s impossible and dangerous, the next moment he’s back to trying to figure a strategy to brave the November storms.
But he can’t see any way to do it without investing tens of thousands of dollars, either for new, larger motors or a professional tow. He doesn’t think the owner understands that yet.
Jeremy Hennessy works in Communications for the Canada Coast Guard. In an interview, he told me that the Neverlanding has a history of “mechanical failures, groundings and fuel exhaustion” (aka running out of gas). “We’ve responded to them a few times and towed them back in.”
Does he feel that they shouldn’t be out there in the first place? The Coast Guard’s role is Search and Rescue, he replies. “We are first responders, like police and ambulances.” The Coast Guard can offer advice but cannot forbid people from sailing and can’t refuse to help (although they can refuse to tow a vessel if it cannot be done safely).
There is a consensus in Tobermory’s nautical community that there is no way to get this raft safely to Windsor this fall. Some wags have renamed it the “Neverleaving”.
