West Coast Resorts
Westcoast Resorts
The upcoming 2019 season for Hippa Island has been cancelled due to an incident with the Hippa Lodge. If you booked a trip, sales staff will be in contact with you to determine a solution for your booking. Please note that the other fishing resort, Englefield Lodge, will open as planned for the 2019 season and they will do their best to move guests from Hippa to Englefield’s remaining vacancies.
Please read the original announcement here.
Dear Westcoast Resorts Guests:
As many of you are aware, we suffered a major incident with the Hippa Lodge this fall whereby the lodge came loose off of an anchor buoy on Haida Gwaii while in transit to Vancouver for the winter.
The barge drifted onto a rocky beach and several hull breaches occurred which required extensive works and coordination with Haida, Provincial and Federal Agencies to ensure the situation was handled correctly. There was also a fuel tank breach caused by the pounding of the hull on the large boulders on the beach. Luckily, after extensive work to dislodge the barge, there was no fuel spilled into the environment.
The barge is now located in Vancouver and is undergoing further examinations to determine actions moving forward. However, the bottom line is that damage to the hull and all the myriad of support systems below deck is extensive. Water and fuel within the hull were up to about four feet in height at times.
Significant challenges will be faced in repairing the lodge and there are serious shortages of available drydock space for hull repairs until 2019. Based on the magnitude of work to be done and timing of contractors to undertake the work, Hippa Lodge will not be ready for the 2019 summer season.
Therefore, a decision has been made – out of fairness to our valued customers – to cancel the upcoming 2019 season for Hippa. We simply cannot guarantee that Hippa Lodge will be available and each of you deserve the opportunity to seek alternatives for your next great fishing adventure.
Obviously, this decision is not taken lightly, and we regret having to make it.
Over the next few days, our sales staff will be in contact with those of you having booked trips and determine how we can assist toward alternatives. It is important to note that our other fishing resort, Englefield Lodge, will open as planned for the 2019 season and we will do our best to migrate as many of our guests from Hippa to Englefield’s remaining vacancies.
You can remain assured we will be striving to work toward giving you options moving forward to keep you being able to enjoy the wonderful waters of the mystic islands called Xaayda Gwaay.yaay Haida Gwaii.