Homebuilt Beauty/Blight

After years of getting the dirty eyeball from waterfront residents, boat owner is calling it quits

By MIRANDA MINASSIAN The Packet & Times

CLASSIC REPOST

 

With his stocky build, rough hands and early-in-the-season tan, Karl Thonfeld certainly looks like a sailor.

More than a ship-hand, Thonfeld is responsible for building Orillia’s most infamous homemade boat.

“There are milestones in your life and you have to show an interest in what you like to do,” he said regarding why he built the boat.

Called a “tin can” and “eye sore” by some, Thonfeld designed and built the vessel from the drawing board up, taking the time to consider his needs for the size, speed and details he wanted in his long-distance vessel.

The passionate mariner spent a year building the bulk of the boat, and an additional two to three years tailoring it to his tastes. The inside of the vessel — which most opinionated mainlanders have never seen — features British Columbia cedar wood finishes and hand-picked velour carpeting.

The eccentric captain has a clear love not only for the water, but also for the engineering and technology that makes boating possible — an interest he believes more young people should share.

“This technology is our history and it is our future,” he said. “More kids should be interested in what it takes.”

Thonfeld and his boat have not always been well received in Orillia.

Over the last decade, he has been the victim of repeated vandalism, including broken windows and stolen anchors, he said.

In previous years, Bay Street residents in the Borland Street area — where Thonfeld used to anchor his 30-foot-long boat in Lake Couchiching — lobbied municipal, provincial and federal departments to see the ship set sail from their high-end neighborhood.

He has also ruffled feathers with his yearly practice of hitting up the Port of Orillia for free water and electricity during their post-Labour Day free month of mooring.

Jim Hay, an employee at the marina where the boat is now anchored, doesn’t understand why residents would complain about the “beautiful vessel” when it was moored off-shore.

“He’s obviously a craftsman,” he said. “I don’t think I could build that.”

On May 23 of this year, the boat was towed by the OPP from Shannon Bay, after residents….. READ MORE

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Author: Bryan Lowe

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