Vessels Built by the Deltaga Boat Works Ltd.

compiled by John M. MacFarlane 2015

Deltaga Boat Works Ltd

Deltaga Boat Works Ltd. advertisement (Photo Western Fishermen Magazine.)

The Deltaga Boat Works Ltd. was located in Sunbury, Delta BC on the Fraser River. It was originally established by Kumetaro Tsumura from Prince Rupert BC. Kumetaro was born in Japan, and came to Prince Rupert in a sailing ship in 1899 from the Wakayama area of Japan. He was already a skilled boat builder on his arrival. Kumetaro worked for a time as the Master of the fish boat J.L. Card before opening his own boat yard.

During the Second World War the whole family was interned, passing through the assembly at Hastings Park in Vancouver, moved on to road camps in the Slocan Valley and finally on to Ontario. This was a painful period which the family endured stoically. In Ontario Kumetaro worked at the Richardson Boat Works in Meaford Ontario before moving together to Toronto. His son Kei relates that his father, anxious to keep building boats, constructed one in the basement that required the foundation to be breached so that it could be extracted. Once the Federal Government allowed Japanese Canadians to return to the coast (around 1949) the Tsumura family joined family members, veterans of Second World War service in the Canadian Army, who were already located there.

Together they purchased 7 acres in Sunbury, Delta, on the Fraser River and constructed a full shipyard there. In Delta, Kumetaro worked with his four sons (Andy (Isao); Johnny (Teiji), Sub (Suburuo) and Daniel (Kei) and his two daughters (who worked in the office) Mary (Sachi) and Grace (Takeo). Johnny trained as a naval architect in the USA. He was highly skilled and designed all the vessels built by Deltaga Boat Works Ltd.

The first boat built was the Phantom Thrush which was a planing hull gill netter in an adaptation of a sport boat. This created quite a stir on the coast as all previous gill netters had been displacement hulls. The early boats were wood planked. They experimented with fibreglass over wood in what Kei Tsumura recalls as the first attempt on the coast to build a glass fibre hull fish boat. Soon most vessels they produced were glass fiber hulls.

The early customers included a lot of Japanese fishermen wishing to resume careers fishing on the coast. Kei Tsumura acknowledged that at first there was a harsh bad feeling toward the Japanese who had returned to the coast. But he says: "You are tested by the quality of the work you do" and soon they saw that the prejudice was diminished and orders started pouring in from a wide part of the marine sector. The company was very productive and he says that one year they produced 50 vessels. Most were fishing vessels: gill netters, trollers and drum seiners. They also produced a number of small racing boats and a class of specially designed fish boats for use on Great Slave Lake.

Kei Tsumura spent a year running his own gill netter and another season working in the crew of a troller. He had other ambitions though and returned to Toronto to write for the Star Weekly magazine writing feature articles, some of which drew upon his experiences as a fisherman on the Fraser river. He then was appointed as editor of the New Canadian, the national Japanese Canadian newspaper in Toronto.

Deltaga Boat Works Ltd.

142 matches. 3 pages. Max 50 records per page.
Page # 1
Name Registration Vessel Type Year Built
Adriatic Queen 346995 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1972
Algoma (III) 371924 (Canada) Fishboat, gillnetter 1977
Alta Viking 372738 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Anita 2 370737 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1976
Ansa 370737 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1976
Arbutus Point 313758 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1961
B.L.O. 323488 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1965
Babieca 811856 (Canada) Fishboat, general (nk)
BC Maid II C02480BC (Canada) Fishboat, troller 1980
Bearcat (III) 345924 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1972
Bette C III 320359 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1970
Blossom Point 319336 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1962
Blue Comet 370744 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Blue Harvester 369630 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1975
Bonnie Jean 348813 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Bonnie Jean II 348813 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Cantal 347825 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1973
Cherish 346983 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1973
Come Ocean 369064 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Comeback (II) C02614BC (Canada) Fishboat, troller 2013?
Comrade (II) 345927 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1973
Copper Sunrise 346974 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1973
Coste-Isle 392192 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Coste-Isle No. 1 392192 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Crossroads 331098 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1969
Cyril Lin C23573BC (Canada) Fishboat, general (nk)
Cyril Lyn C23573BC (Canada) Fishboat, general (nk)
Darby I 344618 (Canada) Fishboat, gillnetter 1970
Darby I 344618 (Canada) Fishboat, gillnetter 1970
Deborah Mary 371907 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Deltaga 348762 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Devon Rex 331100 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1969
E.D. Lee 371907 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Easy Rider III 370205 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1975
Erica Lin 348745 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Erin Isle 348527 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Ethel K. 195734 (Canada) Fishboat, gillnetter 1953
Fairdays 331099 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1969
Flash 331103 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1969
Flora James 371844 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1976
Flora-A. 372610 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Foxy Lady II (I) 348778 (Canada) Yacht, power-cruiser 1974
Fun Seeker 370658 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1976
Gibraltar (I) 330875 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1969
Haida Pride (II) 392192 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Happy Time V 346565 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1972
Harbor Girl 348528 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1974
Harrison Chief 347864 (Canada) Fishboat, combination 1973
Hat Trick 371199 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1976
Heidelberg 392224 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979

1 2 3 Next Page >

Deltaga Boat Works (1977) Ltd.

46 matches. 1 page. Max 50 records per page.
Page # 1
Name Registration Vessel Type Year Built
Alaina 394178 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1980
Algoma 2 393355 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Amber Sunrise 372373 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
C-Fin 803609 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1983
Carolanne 393871 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Cherish II 392260 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Darlenda 391690 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1980
Debra Mar 393392 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Donna Y 393887 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Exclusive 391397 (Canada) Fishboat, misc. combination 1978
Flying O 393476 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Golden Harvest (II) 383871 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Happy Time 392213 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Hecate Star 393382 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Hobson's Choice 395384 (Canada) Yacht, power-cruiser 1979
Irish Sea 395386 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Island Mistress 392252 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Jessica (I) 801513 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1981
Kruise 'n Oakley 392202 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Lady Luoma 800080 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1981
Lisa Jess 383993 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1977
Lucky Star No. 1 (II) 393986 (Canada) Fishboat, troller 1979
Marial 392202 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Marian G II 807726 (Canada) Yacht 1988
Minato 393585 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Miss Ganhada 392790 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Miss Miranda 393503 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Miss Robbie 372378 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Miss Valerie No. 1 (II) 801073 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1981
Ocean Story 7 393585 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Pacific Gull 384057 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Pacific Schooner 800103 (Canada) Fishboat, combination 1981
Porlier Princess 372409 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Possibility 393575 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Princess Kathy 391397 (Canada) Fishboat, misc. combination 1978
Sea Lord 391269 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Second Wind (II) 392241 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
September Isle 395384 (Canada) Yacht, power-cruiser 1979
Severn Mist 393365 (Canada) Fishboat, combination 1979
Skeena Dawn (I) 372367 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978
Smiths Pride 391690 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1980
Southwind IV 393907 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Taleomy Girl 392790 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Traveller II 392241 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Trident Isle 801632 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1979
Wild Freedom 393519 (Canada) Fishboat, general 1978

Author’s Note: This is a partial list (work in progress). I am indebted to Kei Tsumura (4th son of Kumetaro Tsumura) who generously shared his memories and knowledge to make the history narrative more accurate and complete.

Vessel Images: Can you help us fill gaps in the vessel images in the database? If you have pictures of missing vessels that you have taken and would be willing to contribute to the database to make it more complete all our users would be very grateful. Please send them to admin(at)nauticapedia.ca


Note to Reader: Vessel names containing Roman numerals in parentheses (e.g. Floater (II)) indicates more than one vessel in the database with the same name. The numerals in parentheses are NOT part of the vessel name but are used to distinguish one vessel from another in the database.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2013) Vessels Built by the Deltaga Boat Works Ltd. Nauticapedia.ca 2013. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Vessel_Builders_Deltaga.php?Page=1

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