Month: May 2020

With the gradually improving situation regarding Covid-19, and the relaxing restrictions, we reopened our workshop on Saturday, with some restrictions.  We limited ourselves to 4 or 5 people in the shop, and have a list of other things to do out on the dock.

Thankfully it was a nice day, weather-wise, and so we started on some maintenance on the boats, beginning with Enke.  We got a coat of bottom paint, washed the sail, took the mast back to wood, and are in the process of repairing a minor split in the mast, readying it and the boat for some fresh varnish.

A recent addition to the dock, arranged by Sheila, Bruce and Duane, is a piano!  We’re fortunate to have several wonderful players who have put it to work, and enlivened the dock!  Thank you Tom, Rob, and Duane for the gift of music, and to Duane for the video.

It felt so great to be back, even in a rather limited way!

The Maritime Museum is continuing to add interesting content in their #VirtualVMM site, including this look at one of the models in their collection.

Some of the Heritage Harbour boat owners were itching to get out for some friendly competition, and so a challenge was sent around.  Oarlock & Sail participated with all three sailboats – we had decided to limit the number of people at the dock for this, so the invite was only sent to some of the more active sailors.

It started with a very low wind and strong incoming tide, so just getting to the start line was a challenge for most of our engine-less boats!  Everyone eventually made it across the start line, but by that time the racers had become impatient, and the race was started on an “as you come” basis.  The clear winner was not even under sail, as Tom in the Vogler took advantage of the low wind, and made it ’round the gravel barge first!  Other than that, the results were a bit foggy, due to the staggered start – Arnt & Valerie in Anja were perhaps the next across, but whatever the results, the breeze came up, and everyone had a good time!

Oarlock and Sail club members participating in the “Heritage Harbour Covid Classic” on English Bay

Oarlock and Sail club members participating in the “Heritage Harbour Covid Classic” on English Bay

Oarlock and Sail club members participating in the “Heritage Harbour Covid Classic” on English Bay

The fleet consisted of:

• Bruce in his freshly rigged and christened dinghy Polaris
• Barry with his turquoise boat Dagon
• Duane on the lovely  Querencia
• Arnt and Valerie on Anja
• Dale S with his SCAMP Luna
• Bob in Enke
• Ingrid in Ragna
• Daniel in Button Swan
• Tom in Vogler
• Bourton as observer in his aluminum workboat

Some more photos and video from the day are available here.  Thanks to Valerie and Dale for your photos!!  I expect I’ll update this once Duane has a chance to make his photos/videos available.

As promised, here are a couple of videos from Duane – thank you!

The Northwest Maritime Center has a series of online workshops available, on Navigation & Seamanship, as well as a Build a Pram course.  The pram course involves a kit, but you can register to observe the process for free.  The Navigation series are $75 per course.

Duane has put together another video of miscellaneous happenings at Heritage Harbour over the last few weeks:

 Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum  is posting lots of videos of various things – tours of some of their exhibits and buildings (the rope walk is pretty fascinating!), as well as full-length classes on tool sharpening or knot tying.  Worth a look!

Here’s an interesting article in the current issue of Yachting World, on several B.C. wooden boat builders, including Tony Grove and his wonderful hideaway!

Hidden talents: Inside the traditional boatbuilding yards of British Columbia