“We do two concentric circles, one inside the other,” he said. “One rotating clockwise, one rotating counter-clockwise, with a series of ferries. Then we simultaneously burst out of that — everybody makes a sudden turn, like a firework.”
The service began in the summer of 1981, when Brian Beesley and Laura Gibson commissioned four small electric ferry boats and started taking people around False Creek for 50 cents.Article content In fact, False Creek Ferries just had its busiest May ever with an estimated 120,000 passengers. The record would be about 250,000 in a month, in a July or August.
“Once the word got out, people were up on the bridges looking down and all along the seawall. It went right up the creek, and the police and aquarium staff tried to escort it out of the creek. We had to stop the ferry service while that was going on. As soon as they left, it came back in again.”Article content