As some of you may have already heard, there is a proposal to build a marina in Squirrel Cove (Cortes Island), which originally would have covered almost the entirety of the cove. The planned marina has been revised, but there are still concerns about the design. The Council of BC Yacht Clubs has been quite active in monitoring the application, and some information is available at the following links:

Status of Squirrel Cove Marina, Mar 21, 2012
Squirrel Cove Comments to CoBCYC
Draft Letter to BC Gov’t

Save Squirrel Cove: www.savesquirrelcove.ca

Below is the contact information if you want to make any submissions. They are accepting comments until May 30.

BC Gov’t Application Review: http://arfd.gov.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=27405
This file is being handled by Cameron Bezanson. cameron.bezanson@gov.bc.ca File #1413569

The Marine Safety Division of Transport Canada is receiving comments at:
pacnwp-penpac@tc.gc.ca File #500236
The file is being handled by Brent Magee brent.magee@tc.gc.ca, phone 604 775-7078

Keeping up a long-standing tradition, Contender and Frendy headed for Thetis Island this past weekend, along with their respective skippers, George and Charlie. Stan, Jennifer, and myself (Sean) caught a ride over with George. And also keeping with tradition, Annie sent over some cookies for the valiant sailors. This year though, George and Charlie thought it was time to race Frendy against Contender – a race amongst Frendys, but may the best Contender win!

Stan joined Charlie on Frendy, and Jen and I crewed on Contender. Like most Round Thetis Island races, there was no wind at all at the start. We had to set spinnakers and drift across the start line in “Driftsure” fashion. Frendy got an early lead though, and like many others, followed a hint of a breeze further out the channel. Contender stayed close to the island, as George decided it was time for some wilyness on the Wile E. Contender.

After an eon, we worked our way around the north end of Thetis, where a light northeasterly helped us set George’s 150 deck-sweeper. Frendy continued further north, towards Valdez Island, and seemed to get “Parked”. Contender worked close to the islands, zigging and zagging all the way. Rounding Reid Island, we got out Mr. Puffy again, without any snags thanks to my well-practiced spinnaker packing skills. (ha!).

Time, alas, was against us, Frendy couldn’t get out of the dead zone and gave up, while Contender did cross the shortened finish line at 4:05, but there was just no way we could make the full course before 5:30. We weren’t alone though, probably half the boats in the race were all DNF, with many well behind Contender.

The BBQ was excellent though, and the live music was great, with two salty locals on a guitar and fiddle belting out sea shanties. And the weather was gloriously sunny, like the first days of summer. Maybe next year we’ll get a few more SLYC’ers to come over and join the fun.

SLYC member Bob Johnston is taking “Equilibrium”, his C&C 34, on a trip around Vancouver Island, during June and July, and has invited any members of SLYC who may be interested to join him on any number of legs around the island. He has some crew already, but more help may be appreciated! Bob has done this trip a number of times before, so if you want to see what the Pacific side of the island is like, here’s a chance!

Click on this link for details: Equilibrium_RVI.pdf

Ahoy gang, ’tis the time for Sailpast! Alas, Commodore Tage is on a mission to Denmark to confer with his fellow Danes (something about raiding England?), so Vice-Commodore George Paget will stand in his place on-board Contender. Sailpast starts at 11:30, with the reception at the Pub at 3 PM. Complete details are here: sailpast_2012.pdf

This time, Hale Pau Hana will be “Tail-end Charlie”, unless we have a smaller boat join us at the last minute! Hope to see y’all there!

The 2012 Jack and Jill Race was a fun time for all, despite a few raindrops and a lack of wind at times! The competitors had to pretty well drift across the start line, but after a while some wind picked up and we were all in sailing form. The forecast northwesterly never showed up, but a Howe Sound outflow carried the racers along until eventually Bowen Island’s wind shadow slowed things down. A surprise and much-appreciated little breeze out of Thornborough Channel saved the day, and some light breezes carried the racers around the Popham Islands, and eventually across the finish line.

After the race, a great dock party was held in fine tradition, and the gamming about “well, we should have done this…” kept the breeze lively! A few sailors detoured to Smitty’s Oyster Bar on the way up to the Waterfront Cafe, where Art and Tonya served us up some great dinners and hospitality. (Thank you, Waterfront Cafe!) The winners were announced, and door prized handed out to the lucky raffle ticket holders. (and thank you to donors – who will be listed separately.)

Keith P. on the finish line boat, Drift Away, got some great pics of the boats crossing the finish line, as did Richard who helped on John J. on the start boat, Free Spirit II.

If you’ve got some pictures, please send them along to me (Sean) and I’ll add them to the photo album.

Finally, thanks to Fleet Captain John Timmerman for organizing the race, and the Race Committee (John Jensen, Keith Pettican, Richard Lehmann, Scotty Wilson, Peter Boorman) for all their hard work, without which this could not be possible. Let’s look forward to another great race next year, and hopefully some new racers will find out how much fun we have and join us!

Results are posted here: J&J_2012_results

All the entry forms and information is now available on the Jack & Jill race page.

The Skippers Meeting will be Thursday April 19th, upstairs at the Wicklow Pub, 7:30 onwards. Fleet Captain John Timmerman will hand out the Sailing Instructions and answer any other questions about the race at this time. Please bring your completed application forms, and cheque (yes, don’t forget the money!).

Of special note – you must book your moorage separately with Gibsons Marina, they will only deal with individual moorage bookings and not clubs any more. They can be contacted at 604-886-8686. Book early, as space will be limited!

Hooray for St. Patty’s Day, we had ourselves a good ol’ time with lots of green goodies and Irish cheer. The weather looked threatening, but it didn’t actually rain on the way over, in fact Hana had a very nice sail over. And the sun broke out later in the afternoon, very nice! The food was great and there was tons of it.

The actual number of boats was down though, some folks had a lot of stuff to bring over and opted to drive instead, and perhaps some boats were still well tied up with tarps and such for the winter. Even George Paget took the ferry, and seemed genuinely ashamed of himself for not sailing! How many lashes for that, I wonder?

It did rain overnight, and well into the morning, prompting many of us to stay for a second or third cup of coffee, after Bruce and Linda’s Most Excellent Breakfast (thanks guys!). And thanks to Barb and Tage for organizing the weekend and decorating the cabin.

The afternoon trip back also stayed dry, must have been that Law of Wet Weather Gear – spend 20 minutes getting it all on, and it’ll never rain! Very nice sail back too. Considering some of the howling weather systems we’ve had blow through in the past months, I can’t complain at all.

Some pics taken by Sean:

And more pics from Bernard:
at this link

The SLYC AGM was held on January 28, with a good turnout at the Wicklow’s upstairs room. The meeting dealt with some reviews of events from the past year from the various Executive members, we have another healthy budget, and some discussion was made on whether the Club should donate some money to a worthy cause and where that money should go. Stay tuned for a possible on-line poll on this subject. Also, a resolution was passed to amend the definition of club membership in regards to what constitutes a “family” membership, the new wording will be published in the Yearbook this spring.

Retiring this year were Janet Jensen, who had put in a great effort over the past years as Vice Commodore, as well as Linda MacFarlane who made sure all the club events came together under her tenure as Rear Commodore. Stan Lavigne hung up his Fleet Captain hat, after having run the last few Jack and Jill races, and John Jensen has left the Secretary post. Many thanks to all four of you for your great service to the club!

Tage Thomsen continues another term as Commodore this year, as well as Kathy Ireland as Treasurer. New (or should we say returning?) to the ranks of Exec positions for this year are Barb Thomsen as Secretary, John Timmerman as Fleet Captain, and George Paget as Vice-Commodore.

The position of Rear-Commodore remains vacant – I’m sure the Exec will be eager to welcome anyone to take up the position if they would like to help run the show. Volunteers to help run the individual events, or help out with the Jack and Jill race are also always greatly appreciated!

Finally, there was the telling of the “Bent Prop” tales… people must be doing their best to stay out of trouble this year, as there was only a single tale to be told! This was the Spanish Banks Grounding Saga, as re-told by yours truly (Sean Smith) about Kevin & Chiera’s not-quite-intentional grounding of their boat, “Northern Dancer”, on the sands at Spanish Banks. No harm done, thankfully, but a fine tale emerged from the event, to be re-embellished and told again over a fine scotch I’m sure!

Orion Safety Products has issued a recall for two models of its hand-launched aerial signals, citing problems with the devices failing to launch and/or ignite.

The recall applies to older Orion XLT and 12-gauge signals made with orange ABS plastic. XLTs are self-contained, hand-launched signals, while 12-gauge signals have a pistol-style launch and a plastic shell.

In 2008, Orion switched from orange ABS to red-colored, glass-filled polyethylene for its better strength, durability and resistance to moisture. The last XLTs that used orange ABS in the launch tube body expire this month, while the last 12-inch gauge shells using the orange ABS plastic expire in March 2012.

If you have an XLT signal with an orange launch tube that has an expiration date between November 2011 and December 2011, or an orange 12-gauge shell that has an expiration date between November 2011 and March 2012, you are eligible to receive a free, four-pack replacement at no cost.

To return these flares in Canada, an email to Andre Gagnon at CIL with details and a photo is required. His email is andre.gagnon@cilexplosives.com. They will ship out replacement signals.

(thanks to Council of BC Yacht Clubs for forwarding this information to us)

Happy new year, folks! Let’s hope 2012 will be a great year for sailing! A couple of things to put on the calendar while we wait out the winter rain:

Vancouver Boat Show - the Boat Show is back at BC Place, from Feb 8 to 12. Visit www.vancouverboatshow.ca for details. Pacific Yachting subscribers can get a discount on tickets too.

Ocean Lecture Series – This series of presentations is put on at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Auditorium (in Kits Point), cost is $13 per lecture, or $50 for the series, again if you’re a PY subscriber you can get a discount ($11/lecture or $40 for the series). The series includes:

Jan 20 – Around the World in a 34′ Sailboat

Jan 27 – BC’s Remote and Spectacular Gardner Canal

Feb 3 – Family of Six Cruises the US East Coast, Cuba, and Bahamas

Feb 10 – Racing Canada’s Colours Around the World with Derek Hatfield
 

Feb 17 – Sweden to Syria and More.

See www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/page153.htm for details.