When Helga and Doug Leaney sold their Langley jewelry store to start a Fraser River passenger boat cruise business in 1989, it was a huge gamble on a shared lifetime dream, but it was a gamble that paid off.
Their New Westminster company, Paddlewheeler Riverboat Tours, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this summer.
What started as a fledgling operation with no onshore office, a single 13 metre 40-passenger boat, the Inlet Cruiser, and some cruises that were almost empty of passengers, has morphed into a successful business with 10 employees, an office, and two vessels. They operate a 40-passenger catamaran, Beta Star, and their 100-passenger flagship, 28 metre steel-hulled sternwheeler, Native.
The two boats do a combination of regularly scheduled lunch, dinner, historical and dance cruises from the New Westminster Quay to Fort Langley, Steveston and Pitt Lake.
The company has always been a family affair. Doug, 78, a former City of Calgary firefighter, is captain, and Helga, 72, is in charge of the food and pretty much everything else that goes into onboard event planning. Helga’s brother, Frank Froebel, was the narrator on the tours, until he retired recently.
Over the 25 years, the couple say it didn’t always look like things would work out as well as they have. Budgets were tight and the Leaney’s were working in uncharted territory.
“It has not been an easy road, believe me,” said Helga. “Now when you say Fraser River people know [it]. When we started this business, people said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
Spreading the word was much harder in the days before home computers and the Internet. They depended primarily on word of mouth and newspaper advertising.
Later on there were dark periods, such the Quay’s market closure in 2009, when it seemed to Helga no one else was interested in promoting the Quay, or even New Westminster.
“When you are the only pebble on the beach it is pretty hard to make a big wake,” she said. “But we saw the beauty of the place.”
Running a business as a married couple, they have been married over 40 years, has also had its challenges, but they have made it work.
“We live together and we work together and I think that is something Helga and I should be very, very proud of, because it doesn’t always work for people,” he said.
“Every day wasn’t a perfect day of us getting along 100 per cent, you know, we have different ideas sometimes, but we always resolve them and make sure we get to the right resolution. My wife and I are 50-50 partners, and we built this business together and I am very proud of her and what she has done.”
Helga said keeping the responsibilities divided has helped.
“In the end our common goal is to make this business a success,” she said.
What has always inspired the couple to keep working at the business, when many their age have long since retired, is seeing happy returning customers.
“I really like to see them happy,” she said.
Sailing on the Fraser for so many years has given the couple, especially Doug, as captain, unique insight into how things have changed on the water.
“The main change that we see now is that there is not nearly the activity for sawmills. Most of the sawmills have closed up,” Doug said.
“The other big change of course is that we don’t get the huge of amount of fish boats because we don’t get the salmon runs that we used to get.”
Doug said one thing that has stayed constant is that the Fraser is great for touring.
“The river, basically, is a pretty peaceful place.”
As they enter their twenty-sixth year in business on the Fraser, the couple agree about what they are most proud off.
“We persevered,” said Doug.
For more information go to www.vancouverpaddlewheeler.com.
