Due to our fleet captain’s resignation in July, this report will reflect some of things pertaining to our race schedule in lieu of a FC’s report.
Well it’s been quite a year for the executive, we accomplished a lot, with some highs and some challenges along the way. I was probably overly enthusiastic when setting goals for myself and for the club, but live and learn. I can’t say enough about working with this executive. We met almost every month this year. A big thank you to them.
The Christmas party and Awards night at the Wicklow Pub was well attended and was deemed a success Our New Year’s Day Race, with the infamous Le Mans start, a race that I look forward to every year, went off without a hitch. A good number of participants were able to raft up after the race and watch the Polar Bear Swim.
The fleet captain and I sailed over to Bowen Island on January 23rd, for a Luncheon meeting with Jason, who lives on Bowen. This was to get us up to speed with the website and him familiar with his responsibilities as FC.
The executive discussed starting a crew pool, with the intentions (as per our constitution) of promoting sailboat racing to some new and younger sailors, at least younger than me.
February 3rd I attended a Commodores meeting at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. The highlight of the meeting was a presentation made by to Council of BC Yacht Clubs on the Pender Harbour Dock Management Plan. The take away from the meeting was a letter writing campaign that each club was asked to undertake, to stop the Government from changing legislation that potentially would then allow them to share the management of BC waterways with different Indigenous groups around the province. The result was the letter writing worked, as word spread, the Government finally backed off. This was definitely one of the highlights for me this year.
I set up a meeting with Luzzara the manager of the Kitsilano Yacht Club to confirm our plans to hold our English Bay Scramble after party again this year. She was happy to have us back and confirmed they would duplicate the efforts that made last year’s party a success.
The website started to receive registrations for the crew pool. Skippers were asked if they would make way to take one of two of them as crew on board the next race.
We held our first educational get together at the Maritime Museum on March 14th. Jason Kellogg from Ocean Connect gave a presentation of their new weather and water conditions app. which I still used today. It was a disappointing turnout, but some CP were in attendance.
The Spring Tune was held April 13th and was an enjoyable day, with participant invited back to the Wicklow for a get together.
On April 19th Simon and Jenn held an introduction to sailboat racing at the Burrard Civic Marina. This was mainly held to benefit the crew pool people who had registered. Everyone there got something from their talk especially any of the women who attended as Jenn more than held her own when it came to encouraging females to learn how to crew.
The Passage Island Race, (single and double handed VARC event) was held April 20th. The application for port permit was not submitted properly and that when we starting having issues with the permits from the Port Authority. Subsequently we had to change the course so as not to cross the shipping lanes. A few racers met at the Wicklow for some well-deserved lavations.
The search for a venue started for our 50th Anniversary Gala, which was slated for November 2nd.
MC and I wanted to explore Tiddly Cove clothing from Make on Granville Island. I purchased a number of items and used them as samples. Due to the poor track record there was little interest in the club carrying any kind of inventory. Prices were based on volume which made ordering difficult. I dropped the ball and I just ended up telling members they could purchase items and have them embroidered or silkscreens at Make.
On May 11th, we held the Sail Past, it was my first experience have boats salute as they went by “sort of cool”. We followed this by a club race with a Jack Rabbit start, I had two crew pool members on board and we ended the day with a well-attended Commodores BBQ at the Burrard Civic Marina. A successful day for sure. .
We started lining up sponsors for the EBS, our largest event of the year to be held August 17th.
Our Summer Shorts Program produced six races In June and July on Thursday nights.
Our fleet captain resigned in July, leaving our past FC Rob with help from Jason with getting us to the end of the year. FC was protested after an argument at the mark in one of the Thursday night races, though the protest was dropped BC Sailing saw misconduct and took it unto itself to hold an online hearing. As representative of the club I was invited to be an observer. Our Fleet Captain was not enamored with the results nor the process and resigned due to the lack of support from mainly me and the club.
We found out that one of our long time sponsors Karen Weiner was unable to sponsor us this year. She has provided hamburgers and of course like her name sake, hot dogs, the BBQ’s and staff to cook them and she did this for years. This was an unfortunate hit for us. I approached KYC to ask if they were capable to provide food for the English Bay Scramble after party. It was that phone call just weeks before the event that I found out the club had fired Luzzara and were not wanting us to use their facility for the after party, as some members complained about last year’s successful venue. We tried to negotiate and found the club was not very receptive nor accommodating. Now we were faced with finding not only a caterer but also a facility to hold the event. The reason we first went to Kits in the first place was the Maritime Museum signed a contract with a caterer, that any event held at the MM would have to use them.
In the end we went back to the Maritime Museum with their caterer and proceeded. For the first time in years we had to charge the participants for their meals at the after party. Another problem arose, the last minute rush to put this to bed we missed the initial website registration for the scramble and we were the ones scrambling to go back to the participants and try and sell them dinner tickets. You’ll hear treasurers report to see how we made out.
To throw a little fuel on the fire, the Port Authority refused our permit application for the Scramble, which put another nail in the proverbial coffin. Thanks to efforts of Andrew Lieberman we finally receive the go ahead for this year only, after a zoom meeting with the head of the port.
The EBS race was fantastic as usual with over 40 boats participating. Other than a hole off Passage the race was a lot of fun for most and a good day on the water was had by all. Those who attended the BBQ were not disappointed as the food, the prizes, the t-shirts and beer were first class. One thing we changed is going forward, winners of the race prizes must be in attendance to receive their prize. Chasing down non attendees is no longer an option.
In August after passing on a number of facilities, we finally found a venue that would accommodate our anniversary gala. The Steamworks Brew Pub in Gastown was chosen and a deposit was put down to hold the date of November 2nd. We put the word out and put ticket sales on the website. We gave members till October 2nd to either purchase tickets or if they wanted to wait at least let us know their intent to attend. With a poor response from the membership, past and present, we had to cancel and refund tickets. It was a shame after the months of trying to put this together. That day would be the most disappointing day of my year as Commodore.
We’ve always tried to engage the crew pool and in September I decided to bring some of them onboard and teach them to crew on my boat and race in the Last Chance regatta. We’ve been out most Saturday mornings and its working. I think the numbers have grown to about 7 after some crew encouraged friends to join. We will continue Saturdays throughout the winter.
The Last Chance Regatta continued to be plagued by the Port Authority and was denied a permit and asked for a detailed safety plan. I then checked with VRC thinking they would have run into this as well. It turned out that everything was normal with their application for the Polar Bear, so we have been singled out for some reason and it will be an ongoing situation until it is resolved. The race ended up being cancelled due to weather and the lack of a committee boat.
We have booked the Wicklow on Dec. 6th for our Awards Night and Christmas Party. I urge all of you to try and attend as most restaurant and pubs have put financial commitment when reserving a room. We need to spend $2,000 on food and drink to satisfy their requirements.
Our next executive meeting will be held November 27th and then most of us will get to do this all over again.
Respectfully submitted by Ken Hembroff, Commodore TCYC