Preview: A Limousine Launch named TOLKA—from Canada’s Muskoka Lakes

October 6, 2014

Avatar Maynard Bray

A couple of winters ago Anne and I spied the limousine launch TOLKA at the Sunnyland gathering of the Antique & Classic Boat Society on Florida’s Lake Dora, where this boat, in our opinion, clearly stole the show. We spent a good deal of time studying her and snapping photographs.

Sunnyland Boat Show, Tavares, FL 3

No one was nearby at the time with background information, so I was delighted when TOLKA came up again as an article in issue #237 of WoodenBoat magazine that I had the pleasure of editing. Timothy Du Vernet wrote the words and took the photos. The piece is short but filled with detailed photos and descriptions.

TOLKA is clearly of the Muskoka Lakes (with an occasional overland trip to Florida) but, surprisingly, was built 1,200 miles away by Casey Baldwin, the original owner’s brother-in-law, in Alexander Bell’s shop in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Just today, I had a third encounter with TOLKA as an e-mail reference from my friend Alden Reed. Alden is a master at digging up stuff about significant old boats, and his latest quest centered on Peter Breen who restored TOLKA from a hardly recognizable derelict buried in snow. Luckily for the boat and owners Lee and Penny Anderson, Peter dug up enough information for an accurate and very thorough restoration. Luckily for us, Alden discovered this video that very nicely covers the project.

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Someday, perhaps our OCH crew will get you onboard for a ride, and we’ll meet Peter Breen whose shop specializes in restoring those varnished beauties of the Muskoka Lakes.

Sunnyland Boat Show, Tavares, FL 2  

 

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