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Photos: For a tenth of the cost of a Vancouver home you can own this former BC Ferries vessel

The little ship bounced between the southern Gulf Islands for decades.
Brendan Kergin
Brendan Kergin

Another retired local ferry is on the market.

The Bowen Queen, sibling ship to the Powell River Queen, has been for sale for a little while, according to BC Ferries, after being retired in 2022. They recently relisted the ferry on a new website.

The ship, built in Victoria in 1965, can hold 400 passengers and 61 vehicles. Also, unlike its sibling ships, it had a snack bar, instead of just a vending machine (though any snacks still there probably aren't good anymore). In more recent years it was used regularly or as a backup on smaller routes, notably between the southern Gulf Islands.

If you're curious about what it looks like, the listing has 404 photos exploring the ship.

The Bowen Queen is one of three Powell River-class ships built in the mid-160s for BC Ferries; the other two are the Powell River Queen and the Mayne Queen. All three have now retired. The Powell River Queen was the oldest ship in the fleet when it retired earlier this year.

"The 57-year-old Bowen Queen is currently for sale to make way for a new generation of clean, quiet and environmentally friendly ships," writes a BC Ferries spokesperson.

It's currently listed on Iron Planet, which runs sales for different types of equipment; BC Ferries sells some of their larger items through it. The highest offer so far has been $125,000. The Powell River Queen is currently at $128,000. The benchmark for a detached home in Metro Vancouver is $1.8 million, and the cheapest houses in the City of Vancouver, according to REW, are around $1.2 million.

The Bowen Queen's listing notes it's currently in Richmond.

While it's listed as a passenger ferry, it could be used for a variety of purposes, from home, to working ship, to barge, to movie prop. In fact, it may have shown up on film already; either it or the Mayne Queen appeared in Scary Movie 3 for a brief moment.