‘I’m proud of the people’: Long-time Victoria pickleboat captain signs off – BC | 24CA News
After 19 years on the water, it’s the folks Barry Hobbis will miss probably the most — the passengers, and the crew.
“The one thing they all have in common is they all love people,” mentioned Hobbis, a long-serving captain and proprietor of Victoria Harbour Ferries, as he prepares for retirement.
The firm, which operates small vessels identified to locals as “pickleboats,” was based in 1990. Hobbis, a retired RCMP officer, and his spouse took it over in 2004, after he overheard the earlier operator speaking about promoting.
“I’d never been on a boat, let alone understood what to do with a boat because I was a retired police officer,” he mentioned.
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“At that point something in my head just went ‘Bing’ and we took it from there.”
Since then he’s discovered how you can change engines, restore fiberglass and nearly another job a mariner is named to do.
Over his tenure, the corporate has grown from simply two boats and a few captains to 18 vessels and 120 staff.
And there have been loads of memorable moments on the water — just like the “slow speed” marine chase in 2021 that formed up when somebody broke into one of many ferries, sat down for a meal, then headed out into the harbour.
“The boat was leaving the dock, and I thought that’s impossible, he wouldn’t know how to start one — but he studied, and apparently he did,” Hobbis mentioned.
“At several points he stopped in the water, and the police boat was about 100 feet away from him, and he talked very, very politely and calmly to the police, and then they’d say we’re going to come over and get you and he’d put it in gear. So it took forever — but it was funny, it was so funny.”
Most of the captains in his small fleet are retirees, like himself, which have the present of gab and the love of assembly new folks.
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They’ve additionally been referred to as on to step up as heroes. Hobbis estimates the ferry crews have participated in at the very least 30 rescues on the water.
“One rescue, the captain got a Royal Lifesaving award — it was just an amazing thing that he did. He wrecked the boat, but he saved a young man from drowning,” he mentioned.
Then there may be the well-known Pickle Pub Crawl — an thought Hobbis bought from native University of Victoria college students — that lets passengers hop on and hop off the vessels to reap the benefits of town’s quite a few waterfront consuming institutions.
The first yr they ran this system, 300 folks stepped aboard. The second yr, it was 11,000.
And the corporate has grow to be identified internationally for its Harbour Ferry Ballet, a efficiency that sees the ferry captains carry out synchronized maneuvers designed for the RCMP Musical Ride.
“We’re probably well over two or three million people that have seen it,” he mentioned.
“I think the Harbour Ferry Ballet belongs to the community more than it belongs to Harbour Ferries.”
Now, at age 74, Hobbis is hanging up the captains’ seat and getting learn for all times on the passenger deck — and a lifetime of household and fishing.
“It’s time, you know. It’s just time,” he mentioned, tears welling in his eyes.
“The most important thing for me was to feel confident and comfortable that the last 19 years wasn’t going to collapse … I’m proud of it. I’m proud of the people I work with. And I’m proud of the role my family has played.”
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