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Powell River entrepreneurs roast and serve coffee aboard boat

Nautical café sets sail in Salish Sea
Mat Janeway and Alyssa Stapleton
JAVA JOURNEY: Entrepreneurs Mat Janeway and Alyssa Stapleton decided to start a coffee roastery and café aboard their 34-foot sailboat, Rainbow, based on their love of coffee and sailing. The couple’s business takes to the sea this weekend and can also be found at Texada Island’s Diversity Festival. Contributed photo

A shared love of sailing and coffee inspired Alyssa Stapleton and Mat Janeway to start an onboard coffee roaster and café on their 34-foot pilothouse sloop, Rainbow.

The couple will set sail starting this weekend and offer freshly roasted espresso, coffee and cold brews in and around Powell River, Lund and Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Stapleton. “We think it’s a pretty novel idea.”

Stapleton, a Brooks Secondary School graduate, and Janeway, originally from North Vancouver, both completed degrees in environmental studies and geography at University of Victoria and spent their summers working along the BC coast as sailboat and kayak guides.

The couple met two years ago and Janeway did not waste any time sharing his dream of having a floating coffee roaster and café aboard a boat, said Stapleton.

Last September they purchased their sailboat, 200 pounds of green coffee and finalized their business plan; Float Coffee Co. was born.

“In the future we hope to offer baked goods if the business seems like it’s viable,” said Stapleton.

The two entrepreneurs are proud the coffeehouse will be low impact and aim to have reusable drinking vessels and bean containers, she added.

“Because we’re on a sailboat a lot of things we’re doing are self-reliant as opposed to relying on fossil fuels,” said Stapleton. “We have this really cool espresso machine that is hand powered.”

Float Coffee Co. will be sharing its location through social media updates. For more information, go to floatcoffee.co.