By Tamara Condie
If the attempts at rebuilding the RMS Titanic have spiked your interest, then sit tight for another captivating restoration story. Rich in its 60 plus years of history, the Canadian Cutter #7 boat has been restored and was rigged up for its inaugural sail at HMCS QUADRA on August 10th. If Cutter #7 proves to be as tenacious as it once was, she will be well on her way to retracing some old waterways with her rightful owner, HMCS QUADRA.
Built during the trying times of WWII, this boat is one of several in the Cutter series that was being turned up by the hundreds in support of the war effort. Specifically, Cutter #7 is a 32-foot naval cutter and features an 8-and-a-half-foot beam, which is the standard according to universal cutter sizing. The boat is legendary for its seaworthiness: cutters are recognized for being large, strong, and extremely safe. After the war was terminated, the specific fleet this cutter was a member of ended up in the hands of HMCS QUADRA, a Sea Cadet training centre that was known before 1952 as the home of “Goose Spit,” a former Royal Navy outpost. HMCS QUADRA stands strong and proud today, and is em-barqueing on its 67th year of Sea Cadet
training.
Although these boats are fundamentally robust, between the years of 2013 and 2014 the Department of National Defense (DND) began to decommission the cutters for refitting needs. Following this, DND made the executive decision to retire wooden boats entirely and dispose of the cutters that remained. However, one tenacious cutter survived the disposal process: you guessed it, Cutter #7. The boat was then sold by the government, purchased by a group of HMCS QUADRA alumni, and gifted to the Navy League of Canada for restoration.
The rechristening of this sailboat has brought forward nostalgic enthusiasm from a plethora of former HMCS QUADRA Sea Cadets. A community of once-upon-a-time Cutter #7 affiliates has been formed by a Facebook group, which functions as a platform to post daily updates on the progress of the boat’s reconstruction. A shipwright who has been employed by QUADRA for 22 years and who is an expert of all boats wooden has rejuvenated Cutter #7, which included performing updates that ranged from cosmetic work to refurbishing spars, and everything in between.
One thing this boat was memorable for among Sea Cadets was the role it played in a Practical Leadership course offered by QUADRA. This course was designed to challenge cadets to unprecedented levels by sending them into the Pacific ocean’s abyss. An ex-Sea Cadet named Richard Greenwood and his twin brother, Nigel, both set sail in these Practical Leadership courses aboard Cutter #7. Richard’s memory of his experience as a Sea Cadet on these expeditions washed ashore alongside Cutter #7’s revival; Richard described the Practical Leadership course as being an integral precursor to who he is as a person and leader today.
“The hardest challenge is leading your peers, not your subordinates.” – Richard Greeenwood
Greenwood set out on Cutter #7 for the first time in 1973 and remembered being perceived as what some might call a “secret weapon;” him and his twin brother lived on the West coast, which allowed them the opportunity to sail nearly every weekend. The purpose of the Practical Leadership course was to send 12 Sea Cadets out for two weeks on a cutter to navigate the waters and develop nomadic leadership skills. Each cadet was allowed to embark with a few oranges and an additional amount of food that could fit into a cigarette pack, and each crew had to bring back evidence that demonstrated they hit each destination on the course. The course was rigorous and put these teenager’s survival skills to the test:
It was an opportunity for cadets to emerge as leaders in an organic fashion. Different from being a CO in charge of a group of cadets, all Sea Cadets on Practical Leadership courses began on a level playing field, which made the success of the course contingent on one cadet stepping up to skipper duties in order to keep the rest of the crew operative. Richard indicated that this course was exactly that experience for him—an opportunity to explore the bounds of his aptness to be a leader. Coincidentally enough, Richard and his brother went on to join the Royal Canadian Navy, and today, Richard works as a naval architect.
Unfortunately, the Practical Leadership course at HMCS QUADRA lost its sail along with the decommissioning of cutters. However, Cutter #7’s resurrection might indicate a future of intensive leadership development for Sea Cadets at QUADRA, which would be supported by a monumental community of Sea Cadet alumni out in B.C. Now that the boat is back in the water, the Cutter #7 community awaits her reemergence as the HMCS QUADRA prophet of leaders.