Navigation Evening
Led by Jim McLauchlan, on January 25.
Meetings and Potluck
We had a general meeting plus potluck
on Friday, December 4, 2015 at 7 pm
in the hall of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
2815 Cedar Hill Road, Victoria
Like last year, it was a fun event.
We also held a general co-op meeting on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Boat Work Party in Sidney
Our 17th Boat Work Party was a weekend affair, Friday September 18 to Monday September 21.
Where: Westport Marina in Sidney
We had Felix at North Saanich Marina in Sidney, REALLY close to Westport Marina, before and after the haul-out.
Felix went back into the water on Monday afternoon, and Barry, Tom and Uschi moved Felix to N. Saanich Marina, with a motoring/sailing detour around the "Little Group" of islands. Everything seemed to be ok, except that the cockpit and the deck were still quite dirty. :-(
Later in the week Mark, Darcy and Ray took Felix back to Oak Bay (and cleaned the cockpit) :-)
Felix now has
1 new through-hull plus valve, replacing the one starboard aft (the outlet for the holding tank)
1 replacement valve at a through-hull (the intake for the toilet)
1 completely new through-hull at the stern (for proper venting of the box for the propane tank)
black instead of blue bottom paint
2 new zinks on the propeller shaft
a really clean knotmeter with the little wheel just whirring along
one missing window (the little sliding one on the starboard side) which is just covered by a taped-on plastic garbage bag (it will take up to 10 days to have the window re-done)
All of the non-sliding windows have been re-caulked, and hopefully none will leak now.
The rudder, which had been a bit loose, is back in place with a piece of a flexible kitchen cutting board (!) wrapped around the lower part of the rudder shaft. It seems to be working fine.... we'll have to see how it holds out. (We checked this idea with Jerry the shipwright, and he said something like "why not, this might work just fine".)
Jerry had noted that the propeller shaft was touching the hull where it comes out of the boat, and we had one of the Delta Marine service people have a look at it. This one said that the shaft might not touch the hull when the boat was in the water (since the boats flex a bit), and that any lifting/re-aligning of the engine should be done with the boat in the water anyway. So this should be something we can check out at Oak Bay.
Last year's Phoebe haul-out was a lot of fun. Lots of us were there, so nobody had to work too terribly hard, which was great. This year we expected more work since the boat is bigger, but cleaning was much faster than expected, and because of issues with the rudder we could not do as much work as expected on the weekend. So again we had a pretty good time without TOO much hard labour!
We went for dinner together at the Stonehouse Pub on Saturday, and for lunch at Canoe Cove Marina on Sunday - both very nice.
September 5-7, 2015 (Saturday to Monday)
Felix was out on another cruise with Uschi and Barry - sailing from Oak Bay to Sidney, then motoring though the little passages near Canoe Cove, and then motoring and motor-sailing (because the wind died and we wanted to arrive) to Cowichan Bay.
Spent the night at Fishermen's Wharf and met our friend Dick who lives nearby.
It rained a lot during the night, and we discovered several more leaks at the windows. Plus, water seeps through the steering column assembly if the canvas cover is not on.
Next day there was very little wind so we motored most of the time; past Saltspring Island, with a stop at Russel Island. We anchored overnight in Annette Inlet on Prevost Island. It was fun to row around in Piggeldy. Piggeldy needs to be re-inflated every now and then, and with 2 adults on board it is quite cramped. But it is great for one person. Uschi went on an extensive explore.
The night was super quiet - no wind, no sound.
On Monday we started late since there was lots of fog around. Eventually the northern half of Prevost Island was out of the fog, and we motored around the northern tip, intending to go clockwise around the island. But the southern part was still in dense fog, so we went slowly and waited, along with a bunch of other boats, until we could see a bit more.
It was eerie being so close to the fog; we had our navionix, stayed close to the land, and definitely did not go anywhere near the ferries. We could hear their foghorns, and every now and then we could see one for a moment.
Luckily the fog lifted, and we spent the rest of the day in bright sunshine and even some wind - enough for slow sailing.
We left Felix at North Saanich Marina, took a taxi to a bus stop, then discovered that we would have a 40 minute wait. So we hitchhiked instead, and we were picked up by a nice lady who drove us all the way to Oak Bay Marina and our van.
World Oceans Day - June 8th
World Oceans Day, held every June 8th, is the United Nations-recognized day of ocean celebration and action. People all over our blue planet organize celebrations to support action to protect the ocean. This year, the theme is Healthy oceans, healthy planet, and we’re making a special effort to stop plastic pollution.
Victoria Sailing Co-op had a small group out sailing the beautiful bue waters on this day.
Our 14th Boat Work Party was Saturday June 20, 2015.
AGM
Our second Victoria Sailing Co-op Annual General Meeting was on Monday June 22, 2015.
12th Boat Work Party was on April 18.
"Fleet" Sail - On Saturday March 28 we were 4 people, and there was little wind. We motored around in Phoebe, checked out the "back way" into the harbour, anchored near Willows Beach and had lunch, then sailed around a bit. A nice way to spend time on a boat!!
11th Boat Work Party was on March 21, with 6 of us sailing Felix in the afternoon. Lots of wind, and an exciting finish to our sail.
General Co-op Meeting March 11 and Start of New Sailing Year April 1
We held a general co-op meeting at a really neat "South Seas" meeting place - thanks, George, for making this available!
Since membership fees for the next sailing year are due on March 15 this was a time to renew and pay!
We also discussed some plans for the summer but found that nobody has fixed dates for sailing yet - so we'll plan some co-op cruises and leave the more detailed decisions for later.