Customers and Friends

Testimonies of Jean-François and Jeanine Lachance on the good relations that François-Xavier maintained with his customers.

Jean-François Lachance, grandson of François-Xavier Lachance, is in the rowboat shop of the Parc maritime de Saint-Laurent. He speaks to an interviewer on the right side of the camera.

[Jean-François Lachance] Over the past five years, I have met many former clients, but especially the sons of Grandpa’s former clients since it’s been several years … almost 45 years since Grandpa closed his shipyard.

Black and white photograph of two men and a woman, dressed in suits and wearing a hat, standing on the deck of a wooden yacht on the lawn.

[J.-F. L.] Grandpa’s clients have all kept an excellent memory of the man, but also of their boat.

Black and white photograph of six men near a small yacht on a trailer in front of a hangar. They look at the camera.

[J.-F. L.] When we have a leisure boat it’s like our cottage.

Color archive video of a young boy going from the “Marie-Antoine” boat to the dock, helped by a man wearing a captain’s cap.

Color archive of two young boys wearing a life jacket aboard a rowboat with an outboard engine, then a man wearing shorts who drops three children off a boat on the beach, using a rope. The children play in the water and wave at the camera.

[J.-F. L.] When we had the chance to have a cottage during our childhood, we often stay emotionally attached to the cottage where we spent the best moments of our childhood, well a boat is a bit like this. For most of the people I met, they were children of the man who had the boat built and they all stayed with very, very good memories of their boat and their meeting with François-Xavier Lachance, who with most … Grandpa was able to make friends with the owners of the boats, and sometimes even the children later became friends of my grandfather.

Color photograph of François-Xavier on the beach, wearing overalls, in front of two boats, shaking hands with a smiling man.

[Jeanine Lachance] As you see the customers have become friends.

Jeanine Lachance, daughter of François-Xavier Lachance, in her kitchen. She speaks to an interviewer to the right side of the camera.

[J. L.] My father, he was warmhearted, it’s just that … he was kindness itself, so … and you know, he was natural and he liked to invite too, he invited all the time people who arrived before dinner. “No, no, do not go eat at the hotel, come and eat with us”, so we needed to be always ready. Mom used to say, “Ah, there’s a guy who just arrived, we better do a little more” (laughs).