Yvon Lehoux is ramping up his model ship building.
After a story on Lehoux ran in the Cloverdale Reporter earlier this year, he’s had numerous requests to build ships—one that had him already build a model of the Titanic.
Now he’s finishing a model of the Bluenose and he’s started another Canadian warship.
“I’ve had a lot of interest since the article you wrote about me,” said Lehoux. “The interest has been phenomenal. I’ve gotten calls, text messages, emails from all over.”
Lehoux was even asked to join the Steveston Maritime Modeller Club; a request he gladly obliged.
He’s currently building a replica of the Algonquin (HMCS Algonquin, DDG 283, commissioned in 1973), which Lehoux served on from ’81 to ’85. He’ll then build a Second World War Flower-class corvette for a man in Dubai.
After the corvette, he’ll start working on a three-foot long, wooden-hull minesweeper for a man at the Cloverdale Legion. Lehoux will make the Chaleur, one of two Bay-class minesweepers to bear that name. The Bay-class sweepers, which had mahogany planking overtop an aluminum frame, were in service from 1953-1998. They replaced the all-wooden Second World War-era Llewellyn-class minesweepers in service from 1942-1953.
“They made these minesweepers out of wood so they wouldn’t attract mines, even if they accidentally touched one,” explained Lehoux. “So I’m looking forward to building it out of wood. And the guy who wants me to build it actually sailed on one.”
SEE ALSO: Labour of Love: Cloverdale’s Yvon Lehoux builds replicas of Canadian warships
Lehoux, who retired from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2006, said he’s had so much interest in model ship building, he’s going to be shipbuilding straight through to next summer.
“I’m unusually busy,” he added. “But I enjoy the work so much, it doesn’t become work.”
Lehoux builds the ships from scratch. He contacts the Naval Museum of Halifax and requests each ship’s blueprints, which are not classified, he said, although you do not get details on guns and armaments for ships still in service.
Then he sets to work cutting all the little pieces he needs to build the replicas—right down to smallest details.
Lehoux drifts back to his navy days while he plugs away at the builds in his garage/workshop. He feels himself walking the decks of his old ships as he works. Sometimes he’ll close his eyes and his thoughts feel so real, he can almost touch the past. He feels the sea pitch the ship and the waves crash. The memory of smells drift back to his mind too, like he’s there on the vessel. He can hear the sounds of orders being yelled out and fellow sailors responding to instructions. If he’s building a ship he actually sailed on, it can become almost like a time machine for him.
“It brings back such memories,” he said. “I am there. I feel like I go back in time, back to that place. And I remember every piece of equipment that was installed on them. It’s so real sometimes.”
Lehoux said it’s almost like a photographic memory for him, he turns a corner in his mind and he remembers where a tiny light was or where a fire extinguisher hung on wall in a hallway—each turn on a deck or stairwell or entrance through a doorway carries him back.
After he finishes this current crop of ships, he’ll build the Yukon, a Mackenzie-class destroyer he served on from 1989 to 1991.
He jokes that he’ll build the Annapolis, another destroyer that he served on (’95 to ’96), if he’s “given enough time to live.”
Lehoux loves working with his hands and his passion for building these exhaustive replicas is only increasing with each new ship he completes.
“I pay attention to detail,” explained Lehoux. “I put my own touch on each one. Being in the navy, I know how ships are fitted, so I put the extra detail into each ship. It may not show on a drawing, but I know it was there. I remember it.”
He says the Algonquin is a beautiful ship and the version he’s building is coming along nicely. He thinks he’ll be done within two months.
Lehoux first joined the Royal Canadian Navy at 19. He left his home in Thetford Mines, Quebec in 1975 and spent 30 years serving as a shipwright on Canadian warships on both the east and west coasts of Canada.
Lehoux said if anyone wants to commission a ship, he can be contacted through the Cloverdale Legion, Branch 6.
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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