When the casting department for the movie "Free Willy 3" required a solid looking vessel with a rugged West Coast flair, the word went out up and down the coast. They wanted a passagemaker that would represent a personal research vessel for the "good guys". A go anywhere, any time vessel for tracking whales. They found all that and more in the motor vessel "HI DAD". The deciding factor was the high quality yacht finish both "Inside and out, and the spacious, practical interior. This was not to be a work vessel, scarred and rusting (unlike the villain's boat, the "Arctic Fox", altered from her usual immaculate finish to a shabby scow for her movie role); this was the "good guy" boat. It was to gleam 'In the sun, have a beautiful teak interior with a spacious wheelhouse for research equipment, and motor off into glorious sunsets for horizons unknown after saving the day.

Leasing the "HI DAD" for a movie role was the furthest thing from Rick Cockburn's mind when he returned from a May cruise and was approached by Warner Bros. Not only was she the vehicle to some of Rick and Lenore's best adventures, she had also been their home since launching, as she'd slowly and thoroughly been outfitted for her true purpose in life; world cruising. Rick, is an airline captain and owner of the largest U-drive yacht charter business on the west coast of Canada. His previous vessel was a 45 foot converted fishing trawler which he and two friends took on a nine month trip from Vancouver, Canada to Mexico, Hawaii, Wake Island, Iwo Jima, Japan, Russia, the Aleut tians and home again. It was during this epic voyage that Rick began to conceive his ideal vessel, one that could take him even farther afield.

First things first . the priority for Rick was the perfect engine. He found his ideal: a classic 250 h.p. 8 cylinder Gardner diesel which he had completely reconditioned, with gleaming chrome detailing. Once he had the engine, he sought a naval architect to take his ideas from concepts to completed design. After interviewing several he selected Pat Bray as the only one creative enough to make his ideas possible. Working closely with Rick, Pat laid out a comfortable and practical wheelhouse and interior, engineered to produce a balanced yacht with performance standards that could take her anywhere her captain desired. Featuring full standing headroom throughout the entire vessel including the engine room, "HI DAD" has a solid fibreglass hull with an aluminium house. Added comforts include a barbeque on the boat deck and a workshop/laundry room below decks forward. Continuing below decks there are two full sized stateroom each with queen size berths and hanging lockers, and a head with shower- The spacious main salon, dinette and galley with diesel stove are finished with matched grain teak as is the wheelhouse, with its full size chart table and computer navigation centre. A second head on the main deck also has a full size shower for guests or a quick after-swim rinse off. This interior has proved to be a warm and comfortable home on the many cruises Rick and Lenore enjoy.

READY TO ROLL CAMERAS
Finally the negotiations were completed and the adventure began. Despite hearing some bad reviews from others about leasing their homes to the film industry, Rick and Lenore, as always were Intrigued by a now and different experience, (and of course there's always the imagined huge sums of money ). The end of July found "HI DAD" moored on Vancouver's North Shore, her aluminium house getting prepped for her new image, as set dressers worked on her inside and out. Newly costumed, "HI DAD" set off to Porteau Cove in Howe Sound as the research vessel "Noah". The first few days of filming lulled them into a holiday mood, as they waited for their call. Joining cast and crew only at meal times, they whiled away the hours at leisure, tied to a log boom on the backside of Anvil Island, a two way radio chattering steadily, introducing them to film crew 'speak' After each days shoot, tales of impossible feats expected of everyone by landlubber film directors were recounted by Ivan, owner and captain of the 'bad guy boat.

ACTIONI
Their call finally came. With flags snapping briskly in the wind "Noah" powered confidently up to the film barge. The cast boarded, along with an entourage of wardrobe, makeup and hair dressers, set dressers, locations crew, assistant directors, and assistant to the assistant directors, not to forget the director's assistant. There were gaffers and lighting crew, camera persons, and directors of photography. As more crew and equipment boarded Rick was given his instructions for the scene. After being cast off, he was to keep the "Noah" exactly parallel with the filming barge, a 120' vessel known as "Sea Horse", from which a camera-man was hanging out over the water. Extra challenge was added with the comment; "Don't ram the camera-man. His equipment is worth thousands, and stay no more than three meters away." Rick was not to be seen by the cameras and was hidden down a stair or two behind Roger, the local B.C. actor playing the part of first mate. He had to somehow know his position in relation to the barge while handling the controls and the wheel. As these instructions were being given, the assistant to the assistant to the third assistant director was spraying a film onto the windows so the camera wouldn't reflect back at itself. This same film also prevented anyone seeing out! It seemed that Ivan had not exaggerated.

MEETING THE WHALES

The week that ensued instilled a lot of respect for the largely unheralded production crew as many days ended at four and five a.m. As for the marine crew, who were transporting as early as four a.m. and still transporting the last cast and crew at two, three or four the next morning, it seemed they never slept. On the Labour Day weekend after completing a scene at the Coast Guard station in Vancouver, "HI DAD" headed up the north arm of the Fraser toward the Pitt river and lake. There on the near side of Little Goose Island she was greeted by a huge assembly of barges and miscellaneous smaller craft, This would be home until the end of the shoot, some four or more weeks hence. Why Pitt Lake? Mechanical whales, unlike their live cousins, don't do well in salt water. This lake being on the far side more or less, of Howe Sound, had the right looking backdrop of craggy, forest covered mountain peaks. So it was here, in a stream fed, fresh water lake, that Rick and Lenore came face to face with the 'unreal' star of the movie. There were actually three of him; one nicknamed "Turbo Willy" for his ingenious propulsion system.

As the days passed the rains came and the lake's name began to suit it well. The huge blue "NOAA" flag that had blown so crisply those early days in Howe Sound, now hung wet and grey against "HI DAD"'s stack. Even the rare sunny day was lost to cast and crew as the vessels made their way, take after take, through the artificial fog created by the special effects crew. Fog that added a new element of danger (or challenge) depending on one's point of view. One experience Ivan would have happily done without. Having correctly predicted an earlier accident (a collision between the "Botany Bay' and the filming barge) he was resisting some of the more ridiculous instructions, using his far better judgment of what was possible and what was definitely too dangerous. As the result of an out of control mechanical whale, a miscue, (or possibly a notoriously tenacious fog man spraying windows), he ran the "Botany Bay" right over "Willy", while doing a take. It was one piece of film neither he nor any of the technicians who worked round the clock repairing the damage to it's cracked skull were interested in viewing.

With the "Botany Bay" and the "Sea Horse" among the injured, "HI DAD" alone of the larger working vessels was free of incident; as yet. Finally the day came for an important scene involving both feature vessels. Rick had come this far with his precious craft unscathed, and having put her through her paces on many a voyage, knew exactly what she could do. Thick fog surrounded her as the bow cut sharply through the waves. The "Botany Bay" should be directly ahead, but how far? There! Suddenly she appeared just meters away and dead ahead. The collision looks real enough on the big screen, but in reality, Rick's baby responded as certainly as he'd known she would. Take after take, at the last moment she rolled smoothly to starboard away from Ivan's stem and danger of collision. Relieved to have that day of shooting over, with the only collision a product of creative camera work, they retired happily to the quiet anchorage behind Little Goose Island.

IT'S A WRAP
As the steady rain blurred the fresh water, Rick seemed remarkably patient as the days continued, and everyone including SeaSea the cat began showing the results of the incredible catering and a lack of exercise. Even the "HI DAD" could be imagined to have broadened in girth since she settled deeper into fresh water. But all good (and eventually even boring) things must come to an end, and the day soon came when the many boats transporting 150 cast and crew no longer came roaring alongside. The "whales" had gone south to California with their thirty or so technicians and the "HI DAD" wound her way carefully down the Pitt River and into the Fraser. A brief stop in North Vancouver for some refitting to restore her to pre-movie looks and "HI DAD"'s debut at the movies was over.