Kahshe Lake is home to Rob Roy II

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

It is obvious that Cliff Fitchett of Houseys Rapids, Muskoka had a dream when he decided to build a new steamboat, a replica of Rob Roy. What an exciting day in July 2021, when we first viewed this new boat as it steamed around on Kahshe Lake, blowing its steam whistle often as Cliff waved from the wheelhouse. Many people stood on their docks saluting Rob Roy, a boat he had worked so tirelessly to build.

Let’s go back in history to the first Rob Roy steamboat. She was 35 feet long and built on Sparrow Lake in the 1890s for the purpose of taking passengers, freight, groceries, and mail from the train at Washago to various cottages and resorts on Sparrow Lake. When Orillia Light and Power Commission started to build the dam at Hydro Glen (1899), Rob Roy was contracted to take cement and supplies to the Sparrow Lake Chutes, usually pushing a scow along to move the supplies to the dam site. It served in these capacities until 1910 when it was sold to Tommy Houston and taken to Kahshe Lake.

For thirteen years, she ran tourists and supplies from Klueys Bay to various points on the lake.  In 1924, she was scuttled on a beach in Deep Bay close to the Rattan sawmill on Kahshe Lake.  In recent years, landowners in that area of the lake found parts of the metal transom and bolts in the water.

In 2018, Cliff Fitchett, a local contractor and man very capable with wood working, steam generation, and anything that requires skills in building, decided to build a replica of Rob Roy.  He had the fibreglass hull built in West Virginia, where he also found a working steam engine. The original bell was found where the first boat was scuttled, and he found a steam whistle on the internet.

Now that he had most of the major parts, Cliff went about building the deck and cabin and adding finishing touches. Two knee replacements slowed his boat building project, but he used the time to learn and make all the rope fenders for the boat.

The two-cylinder steam engine burns about a wheelbarrow of wood a day. With 12 passengers maximum, Rob Roy is now in demand for small wedding parties and social gatherings.

Cliff has enjoyed many trips with her since that summer of 2021, he states that “he had a ball building her. He loves the look on people’s faces when they are riding on her. His dream has come true.

Article by Mary Storey