One of the most beloved boating-themed TV shows is about to be rekindled in British Columbia.
More than 30 years after The Beachcombers went off the air, one of the show's best-known vessels, HiBaller II, has been rediscovered and will be restored to her former glory. The show had an incredible run from 1972 to 1990 and follows the exploits of log salvagers on Canada's west coast.
The show followed the life of Nick Adonidas, a log salvager in who earned his living by traveling the coastline with his partner Jesse Jim aboard their logging tug Persephone. Their lives revolved around tracking down logs that broke away from barges and logging booms, while simultaneously dealing with the constant pressure from business rival Relic (aka Stafford T. Phillips) and his boat HiBaller II.
The show was beloved not only among Canadians, but with boaters across North America. The production somehow put together an incredible 350 episodes that were broadcast on CBC in Canada but also major tv networks in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, and around the globe.
The show was filmed predominantly on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast around the small coastal town of Gibsons.
The Persephone, run by the protagonist Nick Adonidas, has long been displayed in downtown Gibsons in ode to the success and influence of the show. After the series ended, the engine was removed and Harry Smith, the boat's builder, donated the vessel to the town of Gibsons in 1991. In 2003, the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives Society in Gibsons took ownership of the boat and has kept it ever since.
But the HiBaller II, operated by his rival and fan favourite Relic, has been missing for over 30 years.
According to Global News, HiBaller II went through several owners after the show ended before eventually disappearing altogether.
As it turns out, it's been sitting in storage in Vancouver Island.
Sunshine Coast resident and Beachcombers superfan Deano Fatovic had been searching for HiBaller II for over a decade, according to Global.
“I’d go to all the commercial docks because that’s where the working boats would always be, and I just asked the guys, the old timers that were there, and they’d been there for years with their old fish boats and work boats and stuff like that,” Fatovic told Global News.
“It’s Canadian history, right? And, you know, that’s what I thought all the time … this is too iconic for the West Coast. It has to be brought back and restored,” said Fatovic.
After finding what he believed to be the HiBaller, Fatovic had to connect with the boatbuilder's son, N. John Smith, to confirm its origin. Once Smith confirmed its identity, another piece of the iconic tv show was set to float again.
“The boat was built to be a Beachcomber. That’s what I did for a living,” said N. John Smith, to Global News.
“The television series was only in Gibsons for a few months of the year, but I beachcombed the rest of the year with the boat, so it was my normal workboat.”
Fans of the show will remember HiBaller II as being the focus of many intense scenes, several of which involved the jetboat going airborne. Smith served as a technical advisor for the show, inevitably taking the helm for many of the stunts because of his firsthand knowledge of the boat and its capabilities.
“There was another episode written where I had to jump over 12 boats and land on the 13th,” he told Global. “So I just took the boat and measured how far I had to run to get it up to speed to go on certain distance and came down and we did it in one take – got it in the first time.”
While HiBaller II needs some TLC, both Smith and Fatovic are hopeful it will once again become part of a display showcasing Gibsons history. A section of the local museum is already dedicated to the show, and Persephone is also due to be restored again in the near future.
“People can kind of take ownership of the show … The beautiful thing about Gibsons is that it hasn’t changed,” said Jackson Davies, who starred in the series as RCMP Const. John Constable, to Global News.
“When you have things like the jetboat there and the Persephone and Molly’s Reach (a cafe featured heavily in the show), there are memories on every street, it’s not a studio; Gibsons (itself) was a character in the show,” he added.
The plan for the future is to have both Persephone and HiBaller II displayed together -- both refurbished to look exactly as they appeared on the show.
You can check out the revival of HiBaller II in the video below:
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