Racers, whatever your class, this is the meeting where we lay out the first draft of the 2010 JSCA Competitive Event Schedule. If you have an idea for an event, come to this meeting, share your ideas and help us plan while there is room on the schedule. In 2009 the Jericho Sailing Centre hosted 82 on water event days, we're likely to do more in 2010, the time to plan is now.

The kitchen and service counters of the Jericho Galley are being renovated over the next few weeks so that we may better serve our members in 2010. Food and Beverage service normally available on fair weather weekends at this time of year will not be available while the reno is in progress. The Jericho Galley is expecting to reopen on the December 12 weekend, as always, weather depending.

 

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation has asked me to remind all JSCA members to respect our park and do not drive on the grass or pathways. This includes the grass area adjacent to the east fence of the Jericho Sailing Centre which has been used by several kayakers and windsurfers.

The bells that now toll here are wind whipped stainless halyards ringing a forest of anodized aluminum sailing dinghy masts, but it wasn't always that way.
 
Department of National Defence Building 13, now known as the Jericho Sailing Centre, was a hustling, bustling place in the years building up to, and during, the Second World War. Here, Canadians carried out their solemn duty to serve our country, to stand with honour to defend and preserve the freedom and way of life we cherish.
 
What is now known as Jericho Park and the adjacent lands south of 4th Avenue were part of the largest military training base in western Canada, Canadian Forces Base Jericho Beach. The foreshore, which was hemmed with an apron of concrete wharfs including 3 large airplane hangers and lucky Building 13, was RCAF Jericho Beach Air Station, a flying boat and seaplane base. Through the CFB Jericho Beach passed thousands of western Canadians in their metamorphic journey from civilians to soldiers, launched from here to the eternal hell that is war. Many never came home.
 
The Jericho Beach Air Station's focus was civil defence; launching recognizance missions from this shore to patrol the BC coast, looking for signs of enemy vessels and/or aircraft. This original Jericho "ocean access facility" featured floating wooden launch ramps, steel wheeled launch dollies, winches, winch ropes, indoor flying boat storage, armed guards and barbed wire, lots of barbed wire.
 
The crews and personnel of Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron 4, launched flying boats and seaplanes, craft with names like Blackburn Shark, Fairchild 71, Vickers MKII, Canso Catalina and the mainstay of the fleet, the Supermarine Stranraer - a sub hunter-nicknamed "the Whistling Birdcage" for the sound generated by it's biplane wing shrouds and rigging in flight.
 
The wind and the sea were elements as important to those brave souls as they are to us today although their work was far more dangerous than our leisure time launches. A dead calm sea was difficult to take off from as the heavy craft's hulls had to break through the salt laden surface tension to lift off. A sleeping sea was also treacherous to land on as it was impossible for sky skippers to judge altitude over a swiftly rising glassy surface. Larger waves could also be a problem. There were many spills; eleven aircrew lost in mishaps during this period. In one episode a Blackburn Shark's pontoons punched head on into an English Bay Express Wave in the late stages of a takeoff, flipping the bird and killing the crew.
 
It may soothe the pacifist nature of our modern day members to know that in over 1700 wartime sorties the original crews of Jericho never fired a shot in anger and their only contact with the "other side" was a mysterious, ineffective, invasion of bomb rigged weather-type balloons in the winter of 1944/45.
 
A recently installed monument just south of the Jericho Sailing Centre entrance, the Jericho Hostel, Jericho Arts Centre, the Vancouver Park Board Maintenance compound, a decrepit section of the concrete apron, and Jericho Sailing Centre are all that remain in Jericho Park in Remembrance of those flighty days and fearless crews.  When the tubular bells of the Jericho Sailing Centre ring every November 11 they ring for all who served our country and particularly for those who served from these shores. Whenever we launch from Jericho we are exercising the freedom passed on to us from their weathered hands. Remember them well.

 

0930H-1730H everyday. Gates open at 0700H and are locked at Dusk. (approx. 1630H).

 

Every "off season" vicious wind storms rip through the Jericho Sailing Centre compound looking for loose tarps, boat covers and poorly stowed gear. When they find a loose tarp they can turn a docile hibernating boat into a flying projectile which can cause damage to neighbouring craft. Members are responsible for ensuring they have "battened down the hatches" on their equipment stored at the Jericho Sailing Centre and checking their craft after gnarly windstorms. We encourage you to check your craft regularly year round, remove any parts or equipment that can be easily removed (most thefts occur between Oct.-April) and make sure water doesn't collect inside your hull (if it freezes and expands it can cause major damage).  

 

A reminder to members who play on the bay at this time of year-place an extra emphasis on boat safety for yourself and your crew. Jericho Rescue and other boaters are notably scarce at this time of the year so you must take extra care to ensure a safe on water session. It starts with a check of the weather forecast and tidal activity. Let a friend or family member know you are going, where you are going and when you expect to be back on shore (follow-up with an après sailing phone call). Do a meticulous pre-launch check of your craft and equipment. Recognize when conditions are beyond your ability and choose not to launch. Make sure you are properly dressed-wetsuit/drysuit/hat/booties/gloves-including your PFD. Double check your safety equipment-paddles, bailer, whistle, flares. Know when the sun is setting and understand that the wind often shuts off abruptly in the hour before sunset. Don't go farther from shore than you care to paddle back if you or your equipment should fail or the wind shuts off.
One final tip: enclose your fully charged cell phone in two sealed sandwich bags and keep on your person. In the event of a sea disaster you can't solve yourself, dialing *311 will put you in touch with the Canadian Coast Guard's Rescue Coordination Centre.