Photo: Paul Darrow for The Globe and Mail

There is an old saying about an ax that never wears out so long as you keep replacing the head and the handle.   But what happens if you replace the head and handle at the same time?   Is it the same ax?  Or is it another ax altogether?  These are the sorts of question being asked about the “refurbishment” and “repair” of the Bluenose II.

The first Bluenose was a Canadian fishing schooner built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1921, famous for winning the International Fishermen’s Trophy schooner races in the 1930s.  In 1963 a replica of Bluenose was built at Lunenburg,  using the original Bluenose plans and named Bluenose II.  By 2009 the Bluenose II was severely hogged and in poor condition.  Rather than attempt to repair the original schooner, it decided to build another from scratch in a $14.8-million project.  It will have the same name and registration number as the old schooner, but will it be the same schooner?  The schooner is still under construction and can be seen on webcam.

Rebuilt, refurbished – but is it still the Bluenose?

The new vessel – which is expected to be in the water in 2012 – is built with different woods and more up-to-date engineering techniques. It will be stronger and more durable than its predecessors, and able to meet current safety regulations. The design was created from a melding of the various surviving plans of both previous versions of the Bluenose, said Peter Kinley, president and CEO of Lunenburg Industrial Foundry & Engineering, one of three main partners responsible for the project.

Mr. Kinley, who sailed as crew on the vessel in the 1970s, estimated that the rebuilt vessel will be “90-per-cent-plus new.”

“Let’s call it an interpretation,” he said. “We’re trying to build a vessel that is historic in nature.”

Convention among those who work on old boats allows a vessel to be called a restoration if even a scrap of the original is retained. But it can be a contentious point. Discussions among fans of old boats can devolve into a heated debate over the relative merits of using only materials and techniques dating to the time of construction, restoring “in the spirit” of the original and building what is essentially a modern boat that looks old.

“If you have an ignition key fob, left over from the original boat, you can probably get away with calling it a restoration,” Paul Riccelli, the head of Florida-based Riccelli Yacht Design & Restoration who has worked on presidential yachts and classic wooden warships, said in an e-mail exchange.

Thanks to John Chesney and Phil Leon for passing the article along.