Tiddly Cove Yacht Club Gets a New Executive

The 2008/9 TCYC Executive: Left to Right, Niko, John, Randy, Ian, Rob, Tyler, Roy, Achilles, Brian, MC, and Trevor.

It is that time a year again when the TCYC has its AGM and selects a new Executive to run the club. Retiring from the position of Rear-Commodore I was looking for a new role within the club. I took up the gauntlet left by Rick F. and became the Fleet Captain, and will be responsible for managing all of the racing the Yacht Club puts on.

My goal this year is to take a good hard look at the racing we do, in particular the under attended races. Our regatta type races, such as the Spring Tune Up and Last Chance have been under attended for years. I would like to concentrate our efforts on building on our more successful races. I am also looking to test out a new and innovative race for the year in addition to continuing with our iconic English Bay Scramble.

To this end I would probably scrap the Spring Tune Up and Last Chance. The New Years race is a great one and I will be trying to promote this one and a raft up to watch the Polar Bear Swim in English Bay. Passage Island is a good race but under attended. This year I want to move it to the week before the big single handed race to Naniamo, and bill it as a warm up single handed race.

In June I am going to push for a new race on the summer solstice. I would like to pursue Niko's idea of a distance double-handed race. 60 nautical miles over night on a full moon night on the longest day of the year. This could be great fun and challenging.

Our summer short series was well run and attended last year and I will endevaour to keep this up. I may look at getting sponsors and working with FCYC to see if we can coordinate our summer programs.

In terms of our most famous race the English Bay Scramble I plan on assisting the chair of the Scramble Committee in building on our successes from last year. This year I hope we can make the following additions/changes:

• Encourage US and Outside of Vancouver boats to attend.
• Hire a chase boat and photographer to document the event.
• Video tape the start.
• Invite a VIP (the mayor) to start the race.
• Invite media participation in the race.
• Improve race result delivery.

2008/9 Executive:

Commodore: Ian

Vice-Commodore: Randy

Rear-Commodore: Rob

Fleet Captain: Tyler

Past-Commodore: John

Social Director: Achilles

Treasurer: Roy

Secretary: MC

Webmaster & EBS Chair: Niko

Officer at Large: Brian

Historian: Trevor

John passes the torch and dorky uniform over to Ian.

Tyler Wins the Log Boom Award

The infamous Log Boom Award.  Each recipient adds a memento to it.

The Log Boom award is a longstanding TCYC tradition dating back to the 1970s when the club was founded.  It is awarded each year to a club member for some form of Jack-Assery or major mishap.  The lucky - or unlucky - individual is selected at each year's Christmas Party by the membership.  There is a open mic and people are encouraged to regale each other with stories of member's embarrassing moments.  

For me there are always lots to choose from in a given year.  This year one stood out, story of the "Keg".  During the Annual Silva bay Hang Over race we had endeavoured to take a keg on the boat.  While this seemed like a good idea at the time it proved to otherwise.  With great power comes great responsibility; and I learned I can not handle it.  Becalmed in the straight on a sunny day we opened up the keg and began to partake of the beer we had on board.  By the time we managed to make it to Silva Bay I had more than my share.  As soon as we tied up I stood up and promptly fell head first off the back of the boat into the water.  After a moments pause I surfaced and was hauled onto the dock, wet and with nothing more than a destroyed cell phone and reputation.  The rest of the night I walked about with a life jacket on.  

This story has plagued me ever since.  I had omitted telling Cheryl this story for obvious reasons when one day she came home and stated that I had something to tell her.  It turns out her Physiotherapist had a friend who went on the race and told her all about this one crew with a keg and how the skipper had fallen off the boat.  So of course when it came to handing out the Log Boom Award this old chestnut was dusted off and repeated anew by Rick our fleet captain to the Club.  

While I am able to produce embarrassing incidents like this with ease I thankfully can only win the award once.

Polar Bear Series Race One Report

The course was Start - Barge Buoy - Freighter - Finish.

Well the day started off cold and miserable.  I climbed into the cabin of the WEASEL and looked outside.  The rain was coming down and False Creek looked dead.  I had been leaving the heater on in the boat now that it was winter time and found it quite cozy.  Putting off getting out into the rain I fired up the stove and brewed a pot of coffee.  

Fatty had already bailed out last night because he had to make wedding invitations (I hope he remembers the Cyanide Pills under his collar).  D-Hog had decided to ride a ATV off of a cliff and was recovering from a torn hamstring.  Despite this I had Curt-Ass, Mike, and Three new crew so I would be okay.  

As I started to get ready Mike texts me and bails, bastard!  Curtis and Michelle, one of the new people that responded to my post on craigslist showed up.  Then we waited.  The other two were no shows.  So with our much reduced crew we set about rigging the boat.  The rain then started to let up.

The start time was delayed as the committee boat was unable to find the proper signals to announce the course.  After some confusion we were off.  For once SEA WEASEL had a great start and made it across the line within seconds of the start horn with only SHAPAW ahead of us.  We made a good run to the first mark, the barge buoy, in 2nd and 3rd place in our division.  

We rounded the mark and took our time putting up the chute to make sure there were no mistakes.  The hoist went well and we headed into shore.  I thought we should follow the faster boats who followed the traditional recommendation to go for the shore.  SARANDIS and SHAPAW headed out  towards the middle of the bay.  KLATAWA and DESIDERATA were both further behind and not making good progress.  It was quickly clear that the wind was favouring the centre of the bay as opposed to being close into shore.  We gybed and headed out for the freighter, the 2nd mark, but any hope of catching the others was gone.  After rounding the freater we set off for the finish with our sails close hauled.  

In the end we finished in 3rd place behind SHAPAW and SARANDIS,  and beating  KLATAWA and DESIDERATA.

Series Results So Far:

SHAWPA (1)

SARANDIS (2)

SEA WEASEL  (3)

DESIDERATA (4)

KLATAWA (5)

Final Repairs and Preperation Done for Winter Racing

Okay I know what your saying: "Didn't you just do this?"  Well I did; then I went down to the boat and broke a ton of stuff.  I was going for a short over nighter to Bowen Island and got down to the boat around 11:30am to discover the batteries were completely dead.  I was able after much swearing able to get the engine going.  I motored over to Bowen to play it safe and the next day when I went to leave I encountered the same problem.  When I returned to Vancouver I did some troubleshooting and determined that the 4.5 year old deep cycle batteries in the boat were indeed dead and in need of replacing.  

Additionally in the process of troubleshooting the batteries I also broke the latch on the companionway.  The metal pins that hold the engine cover on and a few other things.  Enough was enough and I started unscrewing all the little crap I had broken off of the boat and took it all to the pieces down to the marine hardware store and replaced them.  

While at Bowen Island I managed to fall pretty hard against one of my new stanchions and sheered off the new base I had just put on.  Luckily I had prepared for this when I ordered them last time and have a spare one.  Still it was a frustrating experience.

So now with new batteries, stanchion bases and a sack of boat hardware I am prepared to go down to the boat and put the final touches to the WEASEL before the VRC Polar Bear series.  

Reminder on the Polar Bear Series Dates for 2008/9:

1. November 9th
   
2. November 23rd
   
3. December 7th
   
4. December 21st
   
5. January 4th
   
6. January 18th
   
7. February 1st
   
8. February 15th
   
9. March 1st
   
10. March 15th
    

Links:

• For more information on the Polar Bear Series.
  
• For more information on Marine Batteries.
  
• For more information on CS Parts.
  

Upgrade Work to the Weasel

SEA WEASEL with all new lifelines.  mmm-shiny.

To save money I reused my old pelican gates.  This saved approx. $150.

The Port Side attachments had to be replaced.

These stoppers should stop the life lines slackening too much when the gate is opened.  They are better designed for coated cable so I used some rigging tape.  We will see...

To have more control over tension I used Amsteel lashing to attach the lifelines to the pulpit.  This stuff is stronger than the steal but breaks down in UV so it will have to be replaced in 3 years.

For the sake of the meat I added pipe insulation to the toe rail so it will dig in less when hiking out.  This stuff will suffer abrasion and UV damage but at $0.74 for 6'  I can afford to replace it each year compared with stronger sunbrella alternatives.  Zap Straps held it down.

I attached Harken sail chafe rollers to the top life lines.  I am going to add another pair 4 feet back from these ones.  In this shot you can also see my one new stanchion that replaces the one I lost.

Additional Recent Upgrades:

• Bungee system added to winter tarp
• CO2 Detector installed near furnace
• 2x Stanchion bases
• Lowered rear lower life line to accommodate the winches

"It's only Curtis." - SEA WEASEL Gets A Safety Upgrade

When asked about my rusty chafing life lines and the broken stanchions I always used to reply: "It's only Curtis up there."   And this was true it was only Curtis (our foredeck), I mean it was not like someone important was going to fall off the boat and freeze to death; but it got me thinking.  What if someone did go over the side?  Someone important like Fatty?  This was too much to bare so I began to look into getting them replaced; after all who can put a price on human life?

-I can-

Do you know how much new life lines cost.  You have to have the rigger come down to the boat measure it all up and make them.  Well crew be damned I thought; I was at least safe back in the cockpit.  Later while monkeying around with the lifelines I discovered that they could be taken off without cutting them up.  This would save me having to have a rigger come down to the boat and do all the work.  I would also be able to reuse some of the fittings.  But this was still to expensive for Curtis.  Then I realized it would make the boat look a lot better and how can you put a price on that?  

I took them down to the rigger's shop (Protech) and had them done up in 2 days.  After going on a never ending journey to Ontario I found the only shop that carries old CS 27 stuff and ordered a new stanchion and two new bases to fix up everything.  D-Hog even joined me one messy afternoon to rebed the bases.  So after 2 broken drill bits and about $10 worth of hard ware falling into the ocean I can now say I have safe new life lines and boy do they look great! 

Southern Straits Crew Gear Required

With more than 5 months from the start of the Southern Straits Race I wanted to give any prospective crew a heads up on the required safety gear for the race.

• Foul Weather Gear
  
• Non-Slip Waterproof Boots
  
• Life Jacket*
  
• Safety Whistle
• Safety Light
  
• Harness
  
• Tether
  
• Sailing Gloves
  
• Warm Hat
  
• Base Layers
  
• Socks and Undergarments

*Provided if required.