Since 1963, the MASTER has been in the forefront of marine happenings in the Port of Vancouver. She has participated in Vancouver’s Sea Festival and Nanaimo’s Bathtub Races for many years. She has served the Sun Fishing Derby and the Polar Bear Swim. She has carried the Canadian flag to steam meets in the San Juan Islands, to marine conventions in Seattle, and has raced American steamboats — and won! She started Vancouver’s now famed Christmas Carol Ship Parade by towing a scow with a lighted tree and recorded carols amongst ships at anchor off Spanish Banks in the early 1960′s. She has appeared on television on occasions, and in films shot on location in BC waters, once disguised as a paddle wheeler. She has carried groups of sponsors and friends on cruises. And, largely because she was the quietest ship available, she has also been employed as a hydrographic survey vessel.
In 1986, after a five year refit, she arrived at EXPO 86, taking her place as flagship of the Marine Plaza. That year she led more than 45 ships in the first Work Boat Parade in the Fraser River Festival, and she has missed only one parade since.