What Happened to the SS Minnow From ‘Gilligan’s Island’?

If you remember the opening credits of Gilligan’s Island, you remember that the boat the castaways were on when they got lost at sea was the SS Minnow — named after U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minnow. But while the boat was wrecked on the show, what happened to the boat in real life? As it turns out, there were a few SS Minnows — and one of them is not only still around, but also rentable for your next charitable function.
The Story of the SS Minnow
As with most TV props, there were multiple boats that played the role of the SS Minnow. Four total were used in the series, including the wrecked one that series creator Sherwood Schwartz helped the crew properly destroy. The location of three of those boats is currently unknown.
But the boat seen leaving the harbor in the Season 2 and 3 credits can be found today on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where it is owned by an organization called Kelland Ventures. The boat was purchased in 2006, after multiple previous owners had simply treated the Wheeler Express Cruiser as a regular boat, not a piece of TV history. Its new owners, Ken Schley and John Briuolo, purchased the boat for $100,000, and craftsmen spent more than two years restoring the boat. “We took the boat right down to the gunwales,” Schley told the CBC in 2008, and noted that when he purchased it, it had a lot of wood rot.
Today, the boat is gorgeously restored — but know that there’s not much left on it from the days of Gilligan and the Skipper, too. “Every piece of wood but for a couple are new to this boat,” caretaker Jim Clark told Global News in 2025. Though the boat is not rentable for parties or personal three-hour tours, its owners do lend it to charitable organizations who want to use the boat for fundraising purposes.
Check out the video below for a peek into the historic hull.

1965
February 2025
Flashback to 1965 and celebrate the very best of TV, Movies, Music, Fashion & more!
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