Author Barrie Farrell book signing: Chapters Nanaimo

add to outlook add to google calendar remind me

Saturday, April 9th, 2016
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Join Nanaimo author and boat building legend Barrie Farrell at a book signing and reading from his new book Boats in my Blood.

The 81-year-old still works on his boats in Nanaimo and was ready to return to his workshop to do some finishing work on a craft after his interview with the News Bulletin.

Despite only attending school until Grade 6, Farrell became sought after for his boat designs and is known for being a pioneer in the B.C. boat building industry, He didn’t receive any training to learn how to create boat designs.

Many people call him up today and ask for his creations. “I guess, I’m an artist. I was just natural at it. I found my calling,” said Farrell. The gillnetters and trollers he constructed and designed were staples in the B.C. Salmon Fleet in the 1970s and ’80s. By the 1990s he had built more than 300 boats. Farrell said he decided to write his memoir because he felt the history should be “written down on paper.”