'Wascana boat guy' lifts spirits with his remote control boats in Regina

About twice a week in the summer people can catch Doug Bussey's remote control boats on Wascana Lake in Regina. It's a hobby that he started in the 1960s and it's now a way for him to find company and laughter as children to seniors stop in awe of the boats.

The model water craftrange from a Saskatchewan Roughrider fan on a jet ski, to a submarine, to a more than one-metre-long tug boat that is powerful enough to pull Bussey in a rubber dinghy. A crowd favourite is his fire boat. He'll drive it up to unsuspecting viewers and squirt water from its fire hose, causing a lot of laughs.

"Out of all the people I've squirted with the fire boat ... I think you can count on one hand the negative reactions I got," Bussey said. "And I could be put up for assaulting people with the contaminated whatever the water's called ... I have squirted hundreds and hundreds of people."

The reaction toBussey, who has been dubbed the "Wascanaboat guy," is almost always positive. Kids run to get their parents and parents run to get their spouses to show them the toys. It's an uplifting outing for Bussey and his dog Solitaire.

"Seeing that my four-legged companion doesn't talk much, it's nice to have somebody around that I can chat with, and I do get kind of lonely, you know? She's a nice companion, but not very talkative."

In 1965 Bussey built his first radio control boat while in the Canadian Armed Forces. When he moved back to Saskatchewan in 1971 he started taking his boats regularly to Wascana Lake. At some point he became addicted to building and buying them and now claims he doesn't know how many he has. Something upwards of 50.

"I don't know what it is, because I'm a prairie boy or what, but I enjoy the boats."

The wind has to be blowing less than 20 km/h and the waves need to be low in order to drive them. He has to be careful. He currently has three boats at the bottom of Wascana after some accidents. Even with perfect weather, he requires special permission to drive them.

"They're classified as power boats, so technically they're illegal on Wascana Lake," Bussey said. Each year he writes to the Wascana Centre Authority and gets a special exemption from the bylaw. It's on the condition that he keeps them between Albert Street and Broad Street and he can't chase wildlife.

When he's not driving them, he can always tinker with them at home, trying out different batteries with the motor. He'll bring about seven out on any given day and let people watch the sinking submarine or the high powered speed boat.