Blog

The boats were busy this year, with lots of cruising on Penelope and also on Rhumb Runner.

Penelope's first cruise was in April and the last in October.

After spending some time at Westport Marina in July of 2026, Rhumb Runner is all shiny and clean now, with new bottom paint.

We held our 2026 AGM at the Oaklands Community Centre on June 9. 

20 of our presently 70+ members were present. Roland had sent out a survey, and the results showed that most members are happy with our boats. People like both daysailing and cruising; Rhumb Runner is the most popular boat.

Roland had been president for several years; this job will now be done by Ben.

On December 3 we had another party at Spinnakers Pub, a fun time with food and drinks and talking and playing pool. Guillaume also announced the winners of this year's photo contest. The top picture was of Rhumb Runner at Sidney Spit at sunset.

July 29-August 1, 2025 (story by Chris)

It was an eventful year for Penelope, our 1981 Hunter 30 cruising boat.  After much maintenance and some sailing, she sprang a prop shaft leak late last summer.  A September haulout fixed that and got her cleaned up, but then the ultimate setback: her motor died on a Co-op cruise to North Pender Island.  After much discussion, polling and voting, we took the plunge and bought a brand-new Beta 16 diesel motor, installed in June.  It is glorious: reliable, powerful, efficient and shiny fire-truck red.  I had the privilege of taking rejuvenated Penelope on her first cruise over the BC Day long weekend.

We started late on Thursday to catch the flood tide and a 20-knot tailwind to Sidney Spit.  The wind died off D’Arcy Island, and the Beta easily took over.  We picked our way through the shallows, found a spot near the mooring balls and dropped anchor, then dinghied in for a walk in the forest.  It was a peaceful, somewhat wavy night, and the boat stayed put.  Having an anchor alarm app on my phone helped me sleep.  In the morning, the windlass effortlessly pulled up the anchor on its new, properly sized rode, with nary a jam or slip.

We motored north and caught another good tailwind off Portland Island, dodged ferries across Swanson Channel, and sailed around the west side of Prevost Island to James Bay.  This is a lovely little anchorage as long as there aren’t north winds in the forecast.  We shared it with maybe six other boats and enjoyed a hike to the north point.  Another successful night at anchor.  All systems were working great, including the propane stove and the dinghy outboard.

On Saturday, we motored down Trincomali Channel, dodging more ferries.  We raised sails in Navy Channel and lost a sporty upwind race to Saturna Island against a J-boat - a sad result but I still find Penelope to be an excellent sailor.  There was an impromptu, ultimately unsuccessful man-overboard drill for a lost hat.  We got out of the strong wind in Winter Cove, a wonderful, popular anchorage.  It has strong tidal currents, and we had some strange moments of swinging against a 10-knot breeze.  The anchor held flawlessly again.  It’s a solid 10-kg genuine Bruce but I might sleep even better on a 15.  

On Sunday, we had a short sail down Plumper Sound, switching to motor as we rounded Teece Point.  We got fuel, water, lunch and showers at Poets Cove Marina, then anchored near the mooring field in Bedwell Harbour.  Lots of boats there, and I settled for a 4:1 anchor rode scope, but again it set and held fine.  There was a wedding at the resort and at one point, every boat in the bay honked their horns to toast the happy couple. The night was quieter than expected.  Next time, I want to try Medicine Beach, which supposedly has a good coffee shop nearby.

Monday morning, we were on the move by 6am to catch an ebb tide. It paid off as we made fantastic speed southward. We picked up 10-knot east wind off D’Arcy and rode it all the way to Baynes Passage, where conditions surprisingly calmed. We motored through the incipient flood tide, north round Jemmy Jones, past the anchored super-yacht, and had the boat home and cleaned up by lunchtime.

All in all, it was an outstanding cruise. The weather was fabulous, and there was wind every day. The boat worked great, and I think we have finally turned the corner on Penelope maintenance; she is on her way to being the pride of our fleet.  There will be more work opportunities soon, but first let’s all enjoy some sailing in prime season.

Chris

Penelope's old engine was sold on August 2. Somebody from Gabriola Island has a similar boat engine, and he wants this old engine to practice engine work.  This seems like a great use of Penelope's 4000hr-or-so old Yanmar 2GM.

Penelope has a brand new engine!! Why? Hmmm... back in January Roland took Penelope to Pender Island, and when he arrived there an oil leak had started - a pretty severe one. So he took the boat to Sidney where Gartside Marine checked things out. They found a number of issues: The head gasket was in poor shape, rings in one cylinder were letting oil leak past them (the oil eventually came out the exhaust pipe), several cylinders were impacted by their valves and scorched from overheating, the cylinders did not come up to the same level (possibly due to bad bearings or a bent connection rod), and one pre-combustion chamber was cracked. On top of that some other gaskets also were in need of repair since oil leaked into the bilge. We did not know the engine hours, but Gartside estimated them at about 4000 which would put this engine at the end of its life.

What to do? Look for yet another boat, or buy a new engine? We opted for the new engine. Delivery took a few weeks, but the engine was installed in mid-June, and Penelope came back to Victoria on June 25. 

Penelope now has a BETA 16 engine, and at maximum RPM she can motor at 6 knots.

One more thing we need to do is to get a larger diameter cooling inlet at the next haulout.

Barry took the old engine home (in pieces) and then put it back together (without any big repairs). It is running again! It is now sitting in our driveway, and maybe someone will even buy it (not to use as the main engine on a boat, though!). 

It's that time again!!

The summer is here and so is the Victoria Sailing Co-op Photo contest! The boats are seemingly pretty active and of course the mighty Penelope is back in service and better than ever. This is a message and incentive to practice your photography skills on the water and for a chance to win some sailing gear, and other prizes! (This poster is still in the works, as I'm hoping to confirm some additional sponsors for the contest in the next couple weeks hopefully, so I'll only post it here for now. Mustang prizes are a-go though). 

The contest is open June 21st to September 21st, voting will be open to all co-op members and sponsors, and winners will be announced at a social after this at some point, to be determined. 

It is encouraged that co-op members post/share photos as they like over the summer, but when it comes closer time to vote for best photos, please clarify which two photos you would like to have as formal submissions for the contest. Please note that by submitting photos officially for the contest, you also consent to their use by the Victoria Sailing Co-op for advertising. 

Other Rules: Photos must be taken FROM a co-op boat or HAVE a co-op boat in the shot; even though two photos are acceptable from each member, a member is only entitled to one prize. 

Happy sailing!! ⛵ 📷

at Westport Marina started Saturday, August 24; finished Saturday, September 28.

A month-long haul-out! This happened because after Penelope returned from one of her summer cruises on August 19, a leak was noticed where the propeller shaft exits the boat. Not nice!! On August 24 we got Penelope to Westport Marina in Sidney. Part of the way Penelope was towed by Ben with his boat "Sully", otherwise Penelope sailed.

It turned out that Penelope's "shaft log", a sleeve that goes around the propeller shaft, was very worn. Also, we noticed that the strut holding the propeller shaft outside the boat was bent and developing some cracks. So, a new shaft log and a new strut were ordered... but the delivery took weeks. 

In the meantime the boat was sanded and polished and re-painted, battery and charger changed (they had been damaged due to the leak). Lots of people worked on the boat. The shaft log and strut replacement were done (getting the old strut off also meant taking the fuel tank out to get at the bolts).

Saturday September 28 was the time for putting Penelope back into the water; we left the boat in Sidney for two days - just in case...! - but nothing terrible happened. Penelope motored back to Oak Bay (motored, since there was no wind) on September 30.

Barry had done the actual shaft log and strut replacement and the re-alignment of the engine (since the strut is now straight and not bent, the engine needed to be shifted a bit), and he did the final alignment on October 7 after the boat had been back in the water for some days.

Except for the constant need to tidy and clean up, Penelope should be a better boat now, and all set to go! 

10-Year Anniversary Celebration

Mix&Mingle at Spinnaker's Brewpub

Friday, September 20, 2024, 6:30-9:30 pm

A fun affair with 28 co-op members present. Food, pool, lots of talking and having a good time.

Summer cruises

Penelope and Rhumb Runner both went out for some week-long cruises.

Early season cruise

Penelope and Rhumb Runner went out together May 18/19/20.

AGM 2024

This AGM was held Thursday, May 2, 2024

starting 6:30pm at 709/711 Douglas Street, Victoria. Previous AGMs had been held in late June, but we decided that early May was a better time.