Sailing at Ambleside

Funny want you can find on the Internet. Even funnier when what you find is yourself. A lady has a blog about her travels. A post includes her trip to Ambleside Park for the Sarah McLachlan, Neil Young and Sheryl Crow concert in September 2009. She took some pictures including the one below. The pretty robin’s egg blue E2050 sail is our Enterprise dinghy. The crew and I were staging prior to the first heat of the Glenfidich Cup.



Just at the start of the race we picked up a huge piece of kelp in the rudder, cleared it and soon after discovered the lower hinge, it is called a pintal, had broken. With no rudder control the race day was over and we scored a stellar Did Not Finish, followed by four Did Not Starts (DNF, DNS, DNS, DNS, DNS) in the five races for the cup.

Not such a bad day as you can see there was plenty of sun and a nice breeze. After limping back the beach the crew resorted to tanning. After the races we had BBQ and met a lot of older Hollyburn Sailing Club (HSC) members.

When the day was done, I remember asking the crew if they had enjoyed themselves. The answer: “alot of old people Dad.” It was a fair comment. It is interesting to me that HSC each summer trains hundreds of youths in sailing. Over the years thousands have been through the CYA White Sail program at HSC. I suspect many of these young sailors are the children of HSC members. Yet on a sunny late summer afternoon you will find a few older professionals tending their boats, with very few accompanying sons or daughters at the club.

In my opinion this is quite a shame for three reasons:

1) Dinghy sailing is an excellent way to teach young adults a sense of responsibility, judgement and decision making. This is even more so when racing is involved. Plus a little competive spirt never hurt anyone. Did it?

2) The HSC has a fleet of coop and training boats that are often not used outside of the training program. Graduates of the training program should be encouraged to make use of these boats on a modest fee for use basis. Greater numbers of young people active in the club would give it a refresh.

3) As Mayor Pam Goldsmith-Jones and her gang of taxmen have unanimously decided that the Ambleside public boat ramp is no longer in their interests and a new fish taco stand is, a significant resource supporting salmon sport fishing off the Capilano River by West Vancouver residents is to be closed this year. One would think increased use of the HSC facilities by a new West Van generation is essential to the longevity of the club.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog.

Ciao,

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