By Madeline Kerr

Pic II, the tugboat-turned play-structure that’s sat outside Chelsea Elementary school for the last 30 years, briefly took flight on the morning of Friday, Sept. 29.

Before the school day began, Roy’s Crane Service from Gatineau was gearing up to hoist the 60-year-old, 15-tonne boat onto a flatbed truck to be moved to a designated spot in Morrison’s Quarry — a temporary resting place before it is moved to a more permanent location along the community trail in north Chelsea sometime next year.

The move was paid for and coordinated by the Western Quebec School Board. Former Chelsea Elementary principal, Andrea Gage, was instrumental in ensuring the historic boat would be preserved, after the school board deemed it unsafe to stay on the school playground, where it was beloved by generations of children.

Pic II was originally used to help the log driving that took place along the Gatineau River until the early 1990s. When the log drive ended, a group of parents at Chelsea Elementary worked to have the boat saved and brought to the school grounds. This past June, students gave a heartfelt farewell to the old boat with a school-wide ceremony.

Cynthia Boyko is a former student of Chelsea Elementary and now the parent to third-grader Gabriel. She said her son loved the boat and was sad to see it go. Boyko took videos of the Pic II being raised into the air to show her son later. “It meant a lot to the students here,” she said.

Sentier Chelsea Trails board member and Les Amis de la Voie Verte Chelsea president Sandy Foote was present as well and remarked that his two grown-up children also had fond memories of playing on the boat when they were young. He said he is pleased that Pic II, emblematic of the region’s history, will remain in the community.

The Pic II has seen it all now: from water to land to flight. After so many years of service, it’s easy to imagine the old boat is looking forward to its retirement overlooking the Gatineau River from the edge of the Chelsea trail.