Tall Ship Sail Training Adventure of a life time on the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay

Toronto Brigantine is celebrating our 50th anniversary this year -Toronto's only Tall Ship Sail Training organization for youth. It is a unique life transforming experience. Over 20,000 people sailed on the boats over the years. We even trained some of the sailors of the HBC Nonsuch that travelled across Canada and is now at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg: http://tallshipsintoronto.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/doug-hunter-sails-on-nonsuch/

Our Tall Ship Sail Training experience compliments the sailing experiences that your program provides to youth. This season offers a variety of marine experiences ... the engineering of the Welland Canal, the history of the 1812 Festival at Niagara on the Lake, from the Thousand Islands of Lake Ontario, the provincial parks in Georgian Bay and the winds on Lake Huron. Having fun while learning valuable life lessons around responsibility, leadership and teamwork.

Perhaps you know a teenager that is are looking for a unique adventure this summer. Please Share our flier with them.
Click here: TBI 2012 Summer Program Flier for a softcopy of a flier for the 2012 Summer Schedule.

Comming Soon to "A" Dock

Hi LOWISA 47 fleet!

We are happy to announce that Ash Rapids Lodge has invited us back formid-week layover. Layover day will be Wednesday, August 8th this year, so we will be staying for the Tuesday evening August 7th all day on Wednesday the 8th and leaving morning of the 9th.

The owners, Andrew and Tannis, have a very beautiful island and bay andtheir lodge supplies delicious meals, great drinks, and super cabins forpeople who wish to sleep in comfy beds! Call well in advance if you wish to reserve a cabin.

Their website is: http://www.ashrapidslodge.com/,
summer phone is 807-543-4025 and winter phone is 543-1531.

For those that are regularly on the lake, Ash Rapids camp is a great sailingdestination - just call ahead to let them know you plan on coming!

Why does this exist?

Propane powered outboard, 2 ½ and 5 HP

Lehr is a company that patented the use of propane canisters to fuel small engines, and has introduced the first propane fueled outboard engines. The first two Lehr engines are 2.5 hp and 5 hp. The Lehr outboard is powered by propane from many sources big and small, including the small green BBQ bottles. The picture shows the bottle inserted into the outboard.

With zero evaporative emissions and no winterization needed, Lehr makes sure some boaters never need to carry gasoline aboard. If you have a diesel engine, you may still need some gasoline for the outboard, but with this invention, just grab a few extra bottles of propane from your BBQ.

At the recent Miami boat show the Lehr outboard, won an Environmental Award taking Green Product honors from West Marine and recognition from the National Marine Manufacturer’s Innovation Awards

Claims are that the The 2.5-HP model will run wide open (4,000 rpm) for about an hour on a small camping gas canister. At 3,000 rpm and you can hope for more than double the run time. A 20-pound propane bottle will power the engine for over 2 days.

Price for the 2.5-horsepower model will be just under $1,000, and about $1,600 for the 5-horsepower engine.

http://vimeopro.com/derema/lehr

Sailors

Proof - Life is Better on a Boat

The Lowisa 47 committee is thrilled to announce that Rob Eby will be the Race Officer for Lowisa 47.

The Lowisa 47 committee is thrilled to announce that Rob Eby will be the Race Officer for Lowisa 47.

Rob is a certified CYA Level 3 Race Officer, a certified Level 2 Judge and has been the Race Officer for more than ten Lowisa's.

Lowisa is very fortunate to have such a qualified Race Officer. Not only has Rob always ensured that the on the water aspect of the races are well organized, he is an excellent communicator with the fleet, so those less comfortable with traditional “flags and horn communication” need not worry – Rob does a great job of explaining all situations over the VHF.

Rob is also a fantastic off the water communicator and can be found meandering through the anchorage after each race handing out the printed daily race results and answering any questions from the competitors. (Although not required, some participants take a visit from Rob as an opportunity to provide him and his support team an appreciation rum – he prefers white rum).

Being the Race Officer is a significant job and Rob has always volunteered his time. This saves Lowisa thousands of dollars a year which allows us to keep registration fees low. Without Rob’s continued support, Lowisa would not be the event that is today.

It takes more than one person to run these races and Rob also organizes the Race Committee boats and his support team. Once we know who these people are for Lowisa 47, we will let you know so we can all be sure to give them a big thank-you during the Regatta.

More announcements to come!

About LOWISA 47:
LOWISA is an annual week long sailing regatta held on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario and Minnesota, usually occurring over the first Monday of August. The 2012 event will be held August 4th to 11th.

Not Sailing - but good video to pass time away till spring!

Be sure to watch in HD.

Upcoming Cruising Courses

BASIC CRUISING EVENINGS (6:30pm–9:30pm)
1. Wednesdays, January 25 – March 14
2. Thursdays, March 8 – April 26

Basic Cruising weekend (9am-5pm)
3. Saturdays, April 14, 21, 28 and May 5

Coastal Navigation Course (6: 30pm –9:30 pm )
4. Wednesdays, April 11 – May 30

Celestial Navigation
5. tba

VHF Seminar (6:30 pm –9:30 pm )
6. Wednesdays, March 7 and 14

All courses will be held at the Sport for Life Centre on 145 Pacific Ave. For more information or to register call the office at 925-5650 or send an email to sailing@sportmanitoba.ca

Additional VHF Courses at the Gimli YC
Saturdays, June 9 and 16
Saturdays August 11 and 25

2012 Mid-Canada Boat Show

This year's boat show will take place from March 1-4, 2012 at the Convention Centre in Winnipeg . The show displays three floors of everything you need for summer fun - the newest boats and motors, camping, fishing and water sports equipment, from the top manufacturers and suppliers in the industry. More at www.midcanadaboatshow.com

Sailing Film Premier - O CANADA Project

The O CANADA Project tells the story of New Zealand boat builder Alan West rebuilding the former Spirit of Canada boat, skippered by Canadian Derek Hatfield in the 2006 Vendee Globe singlehanded race, and training five Canadian high performance sailors - - Nikola Girke, Mike Leigh, Kevin Stittle, Rob Fox and Nathan Baron - - as they learn to sail the newly christened and highly demanding O CANADA in New Zealand.

Picture taken Saturday December 3rd at 5:30pm...

How bad do you want your boat bottom sanded??? Guess who is under the tarp?

Sioux Narrows Bridge...

How to get an 80' rig through the 65' bridges of the Intracoastal Waterway using two tons of water. The balls get swung out with an initial turn to port or stbd. The tendency then is for the roll to continue by itself, but is controlled by letting the bags out slowly with a line made off to each bag and running through necessary tackle to a cockpit winch.

Video onboard Kite, Lowisa 46 Day 4

On A Boat With The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The Adventurer - Featuring Kenora's Dave Treadway

Manitoba Keelboat Championships

Congratulations to Northern Yacht Club member Dave Nelson and crew for winning that Manitoba Keelboat Championships. It was a three way tie between Dave Nelson - Kite, Charlie Burns - Liquor Box and Fred Finlayson/Jim Fogg - Rhum Line up until the last race. Whomever won the last race won the regatta. 1st and 3rd place where separated by 41 seconds.

We can try this at the Sioux Narrow Bridge next summer

Race Report - SGT DICK BOOTH MEMORIAL SAFETY PURSUIT RACE

For the first time in many years, every club race this year enjoyed nice wind (save for the first half of the day 2 or warroad). For this race, however, the sun was replaced with clouds, cold air and rain. The forcast combined with a number of boats heading off down the lake Friday in an effort together down to the Whitefish for Frock night resulted in a disapointing turn out of only three boats. The course took us around Survey, past Strawberry, around the Elbow, past Bun with the finish around Steamboat Reef. Wind was w-s-w starting the day at 10-15, the building to 15-20 around noon, then peaking out at 20-25 around 1pm just as the race ended.

The boats were hard on the wind all the way to the Elbow, then downwind to Bun, then a short reach to steamboat. Grand Cru had caught up to Raven at the elbow, having passed the singlehanded Black Knight previously, and decided to run the gennaker instead of the chute- the though being it was easy and they should be able to hold even with Raven. Alas, it was not to be. Under chute, Raven passed Grand Cru and built a modest but unnerving and unexpected (for Grand Cru) lead of about 100 meters approaching Bun, setting up what looked to be a very tight finish. This race required a man over board drill which both Raven and Grand Cru had completed while approaching Strawberry. Black Knight, flying chute singlehanded in 20 knots had almost reeled in Grand Cru but still had to execute the man over board. Unfortunately for Raven their 100 meter lead disappeared as they got stuck behind Bun. Grand Cru slipped by them and beam reached the next mile to the finish. Raven being second followed by Black Night.

As this race is named after Sgt Dick Booth, Wendy and I spent some time remanissing about the fun times we had on our previous boat, Black Pearl, with Dick's son, the late Kevin Booth. Kevin used to join us on Black Pearl for all the club bouy races and the LOWISA layover day bouy races. He was a pleasure to have on board - always in great spirits and truly loved to be on the lake and to be in a sail boat. A creature of habit I suppose, everytime he came on board he brought two beer (Keith's if I recall) and a salmon sandwich wrappped in wax paper. We both miss the post race rums with him that we used to enjoy on the Black Pearl while returning to the Harbour after the races. We also miss his welcoming smile whenever we drop by Northern Harbour. This race was important to Kevin and Wendy and I are proud to have won the race bearing his dad's name in the year of Kevin's passing.

Blair Magnus

Sent from an Iphone.