Category: News

Summer doesn’t seem to want to let go quite yet! It’s (been) a good one! The Heritage Harbour Classic was a wild one this year – pretty high wind, and lots of wave action made for a challenging sail. Of the club boats, Ragna (with Walter and Vojtech) made a great showing, rounding the first mark in the lead – I’m not sure how long she held that lead, but finished well. Button Swan (Nick and Daniel) got into… a spot of bother with a rough gybe, and needed a tow back to the dock.

The small boats had a bit of a head start, but the big boats thrived in the windy conditions, and took the lead in the second lap. Winsome II came in first, with Querencia taking second. It was certainly an exciting day, not the usual light-wind crawl that it’s been for the last few years! Congratulations Stephen!

The rowing race was a well-fought battle between Tom and Arnt, with Tom coming in first. For more photos of the day, check out the album here.

The weekend before that, a bunch of our members enjoyed a wonderful time at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – back in the shop, we were regaled with all the stories of the workshops, talks, and the many, many gorgeous boats – but perhaps most important was the new people met, and connections made! Since then, one of the Wooden Boat Magazine writers has been up to Vancouver to write a feature about Anja! That’s something to look forward to in the next year – he loved the harbour and our workshop as well. Take a look at some photos from the festival here.

The weekend after the Heritage Harbour Classic, Dale and Daniel got Button Swan out of the water on Dale’s trailer, and took her to New Westminster to the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society’s Small Boat Rendezvous – it was a great chance to show her to a lot of people, and to see the awesome shop they’ve got there! See more photos here.

We’ve been busy the last couple of weeks with preparations for our next build – the Gannet designed by Ian Oughtred. To make room for the longer boat in the shop, we’ve moved one of the benches, and in the process, cleaned out a lot of stuff that had found a home in the shop, and wasn’t needed.

For our boat users, we’ve also consolidated all the gear in one place, including oars, rudders, life-jackets, keys, log book – that should make it a little easier to keep track of! We do need to mount the key box somewhere that’s not as obvious to see from the window, but it’ll be in that corner somewhere.

The new bench currently holds our new set of plans – and we’ve got a start on building the strongback! Wood from the dock refurbishment was reused as the framework – there’s a bit of cleanup to do to get a flat foundation, but it feels good to make use of that!

Meanwhile in our tent, Enke is getting her garboard seam re-sealed – we reefed out the old caulking, and chose to use Sikaflex to fill that seam. That should keep her water-tight.

If you’ve been waiting to get involved in the club, now is the time, and be there from the start of the new build! Hope to see you at the dock!

Next Sunday September 18 is the 6th annual Heritage Harbour Classic race, open to all the sailboats in the harbour, and accompanied by the spectator fleet of some of the power boats – come join in the fun! The race will be starting at 2pm, ending around 4pm, followed by a rowing/paddling race and a heaving line challenge, and wrapping up with a bbq and awards ceremony. Come early if you want to get on a boat, and please let us know in the comments if you’re planning on coming – we’ll need to make sure we’ve got enough food and space for everyone!

Enke is getting a minor refresh, hopefully completed before the race – but she’ll be getting out there, regardless. We’re putting in a new mast step to replace the too-small one that was in there, which was starting to wiggle a bit when tacking – NOT a good thing for it and the keel.

Dylan has mostly finished the second window frame, and it’s looking really good!

Duane is supplying this chisel sharpening station, which should be a HUGE benefit to our tool collection! It is mounted on a turntable, with a fine grinding stone on one side and a buffing wheel on the other, easily turned around so that the tool is presented to the wheel from the right direction and angle. He’s doing some minor adjustments, and needs to dress the grinding wheel to flatten it. I’m looking forward to trying it out!

If you’ve been down to the dock this week, you will have noticed a couple of empty spots – Ern, Anja, and Luna are currently down in Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival! Valerie sent this photo of Ern and Anja nested in amongst the fleet. We’re looking forward to hearing all about their adventure next weekend after they return!

Hope to see you a the Heritage Harbour Classic on Sunday!