These photos show the interior of Belle. All the antiques have been in the family for at least three generations. The old photos are of my family.

Belle was designed by Ron Bell and built in 1981 by Ron and two friends in Richmond, BC. She is one of three sister ships built at the same time; the other two are Hot Rum and Inside Passage (both are docked in Spruce Harbor Marina next to Granville Island). Belle’s home is Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island.

Bell is 47’ long and 12’ wide, her hull is fiberglass but her heart is mahogany. She is powered by an Isuzu 120 diesel and cruises easily at 9 knots using less than 2 gallons of fuel an hour. She can cruise at 13 knots under full power. She is a traditional bridge deck cruiser typical of vessels built in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1920’s.

Belle was used as a liveaboard for almost 20 years, and almost never left her dock. She had only 94 hours on her engine when we purchased her. Belle is currently undergoing an extensive renovation and will be cruising the Gulfs and the San Juan’s from June through October each year. Although Belle has never left the Pacific Northwest, she is easy to recognize because of her Hawaiian flag; her “home port” is our winter home – Lahaina, Hawaii.

For photos of other classic boats go to: www.fotki.com/alarmist/classics

For most of the month of September we cruised on Belle from Cowichan Bay, our home port, to just above Desolation Sound and back.

Cruising with us were our friends Grant and Mel with their sailboat Margaretta II. Mel took the photos of Belle underway and many of the nature photographs.

These photos were taken at three classic boat shows in September 2003: one at Granville Island, one in Victoria and the third in Port Townsend.