Month: September 2019

Another fantastic day was had last Saturday at the 3rd annual Heritage Harbour Classic!  Please pardon the long post – I had a hard time whittling down the number of pics – thanks to Joost, Kerrin, Robert, Rob, and Valerie for sharing your selection!  I’ll keep the whole set of photos available on Dropbox for a while.

The weather was great, though it was another light-wind challenge with a few nice lifts, and we had wonderful participation, with lots of people!  We had the sailing race, and new this year, a dinghy race.

The preparations at the dock were intense, as crews got the boats ready and tweaked for maximum performance.

Seeing all the boats (9 sailboats, 4 work/spectator boats) out there was spectacular, and the rivalry was fierce!  There have already been some follow-up challenges for rematches.  You know it’s getting serious when you see a spinnaker come out!

It was great to have all the spectator boats out, getting people close to the action, and getting a whole lot of close-up photos of the boats and crews!

Milo served as the committee boat, and Atlas, Ella McKenzie, and Molly Sparks were out with spectators.

The sailboats involved were OLAS’s Enke (sailed by Ingrid and Louise), Button Swan (Daniel and Bernie), and Ragna (Kayla), Arnt & Valerie’s two boats Odin and their new boat Anja (still carrying her former name, Time), Sylvester, previous winner Winsome III, Ruggen and Moonbeam. Last year’s winner Ern was not able to defend her title, as she had rudder problems on her way back from the west coast of Vancouver Island, and is awaiting repairs.

The race for the win was very tight, Button Swan leading most of the time, with Ragna hot on her heels.  In the end, Kayla sailed Ragna over the line first, having chosen the better end of the finish line – Button Swan lost the wind, and came up against the tide at the far end.  Winsome III came in third.  The light wind favoured the small boats, and they were able to keep out of reach of the big boats!

Once all the boats were tied up back at the dock, the dinghys came out to play – we had 11 or so out there, ranging from an aluminum canoe (who let THAT in?!) to a couple of SUPs, and a range of rowboats.  The canoe came out on top, but the little boat with 3 little passengers should have been declared the winner based on adjusted time – 30 seconds times 3, wasn’t it?  Although, that may have only been proposed for the sailing race.  It was a great time, and everyone made it back to the dock mostly dry.

The awards ceremony was held after that, with the presentation of enamel mugs for the dinghy race and the sailing runners-up, and the trophy for the win.  Sadly, nobody remembered to stop clapping long enough to take photos of the winner, but we do get to see her getting a celebratory salmon burger at the bbq.

There was much food to enjoy, and lots of great conversations about all that went on out on the course, including one collision with a non-participant trying to sail through the course.   Besides that, it was a wonderful day, and we’re already looking forward to next year!  Who knows – next year might include Providence, North Star, and Ricochet!

Huge thanks to Sheila and Bruce for organizing the day, Valerie and Georgina for getting a bunch of the food, and all the rest who brought their contributions.

The Davidson dinghy is looking beautiful!  We’ve put on a coat of epoxy inside and out, to seal and preserve the wood hull.  Now that we see the gorgeous wood grain, we’re loath to cover it up with paint!  But we have to keep telling ourselves that paint is so much more durable and maintenance-free than 12 coats of varnish!  The colour scheme is in progress, but the Dutch orange has been ruled out, to the disappointment of some, and the relief of others.

The inner keel got an infill piece over the patched hole, the hull was well-sanded inside and out, and finally, a couple of coats of epoxy.

Ragna’s mast is coming along well, with a great deal of sanding using a belt-sander strip, and a couple of handles.  It actually made pretty quick work of it, and provided a great workout for the members who took part in that!

After it was rounded, the hole at the top for the halyard sheave was cut and shaped.  The mast has been given a thinned coat of epoxy, and is now getting multiple coats of varnish.  It won’t be long until Ragna is ready to sail again!

Enke got a name-board, just in time to serve as one of the clues in a scavenger hunt that Museum board member (and donator of Enke) Robert Allan was involved in.  Thanks to Bruce for making that!

At the shed last Saturday, we had a quick lesson in whipping lines, to keep the ends of our dock lines neat and tidy.

One of our members sent a few more pics of the flotilla to the rowing races with flute accompaniment – thanks Bernard!

And finally, Button Swan got her bottom paint and is back in the water, and sailing wonderfully!  Ready to dominate the Heritage Harbour Classic on September 21 – unless Enke has something to say about it – she’s a speedy boat too!  Hope to see you there!

Edit:  Oh, we also weighed the Button Swan last weekend – the hull alone weighs 310 lbs, with the rig (minus bowsprit, jib, and oars, which we forgot), it’s 430 lbs, and the bags of water ballast are 60 lbs, for a total of 490 lbs.  At some point during the build we started a pool, guessing the final weight (fully rigged) – only Rob and Daniel committed to a number, Rob predicting 346 lbs, and Daniel going with 368 lbs.  It was suggested that Rob now owes Daniel a bottle of scotch.  🙂