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by Greg Ryley

Please be advised that the Basic Cruising course at Rocky Point Sailing Association is now open to register for September & October.

The format will be Mon,Tues, Thurs (6:30-9pm) Sat/Sun 830-530 & testing on the following Monday 5:30 to ~9pm

2022 Session 3

Sept 12,13,15, 17,18,19

2022 Session 4

Sept 26,27,29. Oct 1,2,3

2022 Session 5

Oct 10,11,13,15,16,17

I’ve got 12 slots and I anticipate to fill all spaces with this advanced lead time.

Please let me know if you’ve any questions. 

Hope to see you on the water!

by Musa Fortin

Volunteers are and have been a vital part of running programs at RPSA. In order to consolidate all of the volunteering information, and have better organization of volunteer hours, schedules, waivers, and contact information. Please fill out the following registration, and include all weeks you may be interested in volunteering.

by Greg Ryley

RPSA has been approved by Transport Canada to offer the Basic Cruising Course. This is an entry level keelboat course. It will run out of Old Mill Boathouse classroom for 3 weekday evenings and all day Saturday/ Sunday on one of the club keelboats in Burrard Inlet/ Indian Arm. Upon completion of the course, the following Sail Canada certifications are possible:

• Pleasure Craft Operators Certificate
• Basic Cruising
• Basic Crew

We plan on only offering the course in June and September. Currently the following sessions will be made available shortly to book.

1st Offering (3 of 4 slots available)

Monday 6  6:30 – 9:30pm
Tuesday 7 6:30 – 9:30pm
Thursday 9 6:30 – 9:30pm
Saturday 11 8:30 am  – 5:30pm
Sunday 12  8:30 am  – 5:30pm

2nd Offering (4 of 4 slots available)

Monday 20  6:30 – 9:30pm
Tuesday 21 6:30 – 9:30pm
Thursday 23 6:30 – 9:30pm
Saturday 25 8:30 am  – 5:30pm
Sunday 26  8:30 am  – 5:30pm

The course is $649.00 per person plus tax, open to 16 years or older and no prerequisites are required. 

by Musa Fortin

The first Thursday night racing of the season starts tomorrow at 5:30 pm.

We would appreciate any feedback whether positive or negative about how it has worked in the past, and what might improve it from your perspective.

• How do you feel about race team participating in it as well?
• How does Thursday work for you?
• Do you want more casual sailing, or do you like the racing?
• Would you want more instruction, and perhaps coaching during it?

I look forward to seeing everyone on the water. 

by Musa Fortin

I am excited to say that the start of the 2022 sailing season is right around the corner. And with this, we have a couple of important upcoming dates. 

Tentative Upcoming Dates: 

• March : Race team registration
• April 10th : Boat-in Day
• April 15th : Summer registration opens
• April 17th : Start of Spring Race team

To kick the season off, we will be holding a boat-in-day at the Old Mill Boathouse on April 10th, starting at 9:00 am. Please Let me know if you are interested in attending and helping get the boats back on the water, so I mey get a sense of what to expect with regards to numbers. 

You will be able to find registration on our website, https://rpsa.ca/home/programs/. I have attached the tentative Summer 2022 schedule for your reference. 

Lastly, I will be sending out the Spring Race team registration soon. We have an exciting season planned with lots of racing and regattas, and I am really looking forward to it getting started.  Let me know if you have any questions. I hope to see you all out on the water very soon.

by Strac Ivanov

At this time of the year we organize Boat-Out Day: The day on which we get together to winterize RPSA’s boats and sailing equipment and store them safely until the Spring.  Like in previous years, we rely on help from our members to complete this task.

This year, Boat-Out Day has been scheduled for Sunday, November 21st. On the previous day (Saturday, November 20th) RPSA’s race team will get together to do some of the preparation work. Then we will move the boats into storage, along with the sails, masts, etc.

Those of us who are available to help will meet at 9 am on Sunday, November 21st at the Old Mill Boathouse. It is not necessary to register in advance. However, in compliance with public health measures, each of us will need to show proof of vaccination, and we will be go through an assessment questionnaire for any potential COVID-19 symptoms. Volunteers should bring a face mask as well.  On behalf of the RPSA Executive, I would like to thank to all of you who are able to join us on November 21st

We are happy to announce we will be hosting a sailing regatta on Saturday July 3rd and Sunday July 4th from noon to 5 pm. The event is open to youth race team and adult club members. The race team youth are asked to register for the single handed Laser fleet and adult members in the double handed 420 fleet.

Musa has separated the race team and the members into different fleets, in order to allow it to be fun and competitive for both fleets. No racing experience necessary. An introduction to racing rules seminar will be held the morning prior to the racing on Saturday. If you are not familiar with how racing works in sailing, this can be a good introductory experience.  

Youth summer programs capacity and guidelines have been updated as follows:

Registration

• Partners registering together no longer need to be a part of the same household
• We strongly recommend that partners be people with whom they already have regular contact with

Program Limits

• All single-handed programs increase capacity to 6
• All Double-handed programs increase capacity to 10 or 5 420’s

Distancing Requirements

• 2-meter distancing must be maintained while on Old Mill Boathouse Property
• 2-meter distancing encouraged on land outside of Old Mill Boathouse Property and on the docks especially amongst sailors not sailing in the same boat
• Coach boats may be used to transport participants to the dock. (one person at a time for participants of a dingle-handed program, 2 people at a time for participants of a double-handed program
• Volunteers may accompany coaches on the coach boats without being required to distance

Safety Procedures

• Boats and gear may be used by different people and groups throughout a given week
• Boats will be sprayed down with disinfectant solution after use and in between participants

by Chris Thorne

Musa Fortin presented the 2021 sailing program plan to the executive and membership at our last general meeting. We will be rolling out programs at reduced capacity and as health conditions improve new programs will introduced to meet demand. Participants can expect program fees may increase by as much as 15% compared to 2019 reflecting higher coach to sailor ratios and increased health costs.

Summer Youth Programs

Summer programs will start first week of July and run through to the end of August. The sailing program will be comprised of Juniors, Girl Power Sailing, Opti Bronze, CANSail 1/2 (formally Summer Fun), CANSail 3, and Cansail 4/5. The half day Wet Feet program will not be run but Juniors will now accommodate sailors as young as 5 years. Programs will use single handed boats: Lasers (4.7 and Radial rigs) and Optis, but if health restrictions relax we may consider running double handed 420 programs. We will run 3 concurrent sailing programs each day with a possible evening session. Some sail programs will now include a minimum weight requirement.

School and Scout Programs

We will accept school and scout programs bookings for May and June; however, organizers should be aware the programs would require use of double handed boats which do not currently meet social distancing requirements.

Youth Race Team

Rocky Point Sailing will run a Spring and Fall session with training beginning on Sunday May 2nd. Currently there are no BC circuit races scheduled.

Adult Programs

A limited adult program is planned for Summer and Fall. Current guidelines would limit us to two boats and four participants which must be of the same private residence.

Private Lessons

The general meeting had no specific discussion of private lesson. A private lesson maybe considered in situations where participants are of the same private household.

by Chris Thorne

At Rocky Point Sailing our executive has discussed offering a more diverse youth program and return of adult sailing, but until there is more clarity with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic we are going to withhold posting our 2021 registration for another month.

BC Sailing currently recommends that youth program groups be limited to no more than 50 people (including coaches), physical distancing to 3 meters at all times, single handed sailing only unless both sailors live in the same private residence, and no sailing regattas.

Under those guidelines our offering maybe similar to that which we ran last year. However, if the health situation improves we have discussed running an after school program starting in May, a complete youth summer program starting in July, and an adult program in August. There is a good chance that regardless of the pandemic outcome, double handed sailing for youth and adults will require sailors to live in the same private residence. The executive has also discussed adjustments to program fees to offset reduced program capacities and additional health safety costs.

Our membership offerings will also be affected by the pandemic, but we hope to see a return the Thursday night club races starting in May. The keelboat members are planning to locate a keelboat in Desolation Sound for summer cruising. At this time we have limited capacity to run private lessons or orient new dinghy members.

Please contact us or comment if you have specific questions and I’ll see they are brought to attention at our next general meeting which is scheduled for March 16th.