We are looking forward to another really great sailing season, with Docks-In planned for the 14th April. I hope to see many members showing up. (I know how busy it can be — I have a friend’s wedding I need to attend that evening.)

Here are a few guidelines we should go by, when running the race on Tuesday or Thursday nights:

• If you can’t make it on the night you have been selected, please contact someone else on the race committee list and see if they can switch with you; or contact the Commodore or the Rear Commodore. This will help ensure that we will always have a race committee.
• Do your best to get everyone to sign up before the race. Of course there will be a few that will arrive after the committee boat has left the dock, but you will help the RC’s job of getting sail numbers. And competitors: if you haven’t signed up, please check in with the committee boat for safety and scoring reasons.
• Make sure, if you are running the race, you have at least one other person to assist you on the committee boat.
• Use the Rule 26 for Starts, which is a 5-4-1-Go and flags accordingly.
• Make sure you have everything you need for going out on the water, your Pleasure Craft Operators Card, your Harbour licence, and photo ID, along with proper clothing for the conditions.
• For results, please write clearly the sail number, class, and position in the race.

Over the course of the winter, I was asked to  look at updating the Race Course for the races on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. We have been using the same course for many years — for as long as I have been a member anyway — just six years now. After having spoken to members in various classes, and — with some compromise, I feel that this is the best possible race course for all the classes and for the Outer Harbour.

The course will be of two triangles and with a windward-leeward-windward finish; and that finish should be placed closest to the club, either windward or leeward. The same decision process applies, if the wind is light or dies, the RC has the choice to finish the race at any mark, but should conform to the Racing Rules of Sailing.

If any members have any questions about starting and so on, see me at the club or give a call.

Good Luck this season everyone! Fair Winds!

Adam Nicholson

At the first meeting of the Stakeholders, the opening/introductory presentation of OHSF was cut short by the moderator, and the second meeting was spent in trying to identify sources of funding to cover  the cost of the Don/Keating Channel Flood Control System at an approximate cost of $700 million. This is the key to development of the Portlands — China was suggested as a source of funding.

 With the Stakeholders apparent lack of interest in the needs of the boating community, the Ontario Sailing Association (represented there by our member, Stephanie Mah) and OHSF made arrangements for a special meeting with representatives of WT, the City, OHCC and our neighbouring clubs.

The meeting was held on 8th March and information revealed that there was a lack of money to proceed with the Lake Ontario Park plan in the foreseeable future, although the plan was still valid. In the meanwhile, the City will present to our landlord, (OHSF) and to two neighbouring clubs draft/revised leases within two weeks. Therefore, depending on the terms of the lease, and so on, there is a possibility that the seven years of lease negotiations, may at last be coming to an end.

 A further meeting of the Stakeholders was to be held on 21st March, followed by a public meeting, with the final Portland’s Business and Implementation Plan to be presented to the City Council in July.                          

Peter Brayshaw

I HOPE that everyone had an enjoyable winter and that you are looking forward to starting a new sailing season. Once again we have created a full sailing program with many varied activities that will help to improve your sailing skills and increase your enjoyment.

Our season will start on 14 April and will continue throughout the season until 13 October; (further, in fact: there’s the Commodore’s Ball in early November, and yard cleanup two weeks later). This year’s sailing events will include the following:

• Tuesday Night Spring/Summer Racing and Feast starting on 1 May
• Albacore Friday Nights will start on 4 May
• Albacore Toronto Harbour Masters series will commence on May 21
• Three Regattas – OHCC, Albacore Open and 505/Contender
• Three OHCC sailing events – the Bell Buoy Tune-Up, Round the Finn and the Dufferin Bell Buoy
• OHCC/TSCC Optimist and 420 Children’s and Youth Sailing Programs are available during July-August for beginners to experts.        

This year we are trying to get our facility in shipshape condition by having a Volunteer Fair after Docks-In. We will set up several volunteer stations in the clubhouse to answer questions, and assign tasks to our members. The event will start after the docks are in the water, and it should take about an hour.

The weekend of 12th and 13th May has been scheduled for facility repair and improvements,

and to reconfigure our site for summer dry-sail lots. Many volunteers are needed to get the clubhouse, the grounds and the committee boats ready for the season. Work crews will start at 9 am and continue to 4 pm each day. We are hoping that all work will be completed over that  weekend, thereby ensuring that all of us can fully enjoy the season of sailing. Please sign up at Docks-In (on 14 April) to participate on the weekend of 12 May or 13th.

The TMCC (the Multihulls) will be launched on the Saturday of that weekend — the 12th.

I look forward to seeing everyone at Docks-In on Saturday, 14th of April at 9:00 am.

The Wine and Cheese/Spring General Meeting event is scheduled for 21 April, at 7:00 pm. All prospective new members are welcome to attend this event.

We have put together a good program for the year 2012 and we look forward to another enjoyable sailing season on the great waters of the Outer Harbour.  

Ralph Drake, Commodore

Albacore at Sunset Charles Wakefield, A.O.C.A.D.

Our 2012 sailing season begins on April 14 and will continue until October 13. This year we are trying to get our facilities in ship shape condition by having a Volunteer Fair after Docks-In. We will set up several volunteer staitions around the club house to answer questions and assign tasks to our members.

The weekend of May 12 and 13 has been scheduled for facility repair, improvements and to reconfigure the site for summer dry-sail lots. Many volunteers are needed to get the clubhouse, grounds and committee boats ready for the season. Work parties will form at 9 am and finish at 4 pm each day.

We are hoping that all work can be competed over the weekend so we can spend the rest of the season concentrating on sailing.

Our Wine and Cheese / Spring General Meeting is on April 21 at 7pm.

If it’s just occurred to you that those banana skins, orange peels and broccoli bits are a useful recyclable commodity, and you wonder how to go about it, pack the stuff in a plastic bag and shove it in the freezer. Keep it there, fruz solid, until it interferes with the preservation of less important items like ice cream and sides of beef, then hoist it down to the club where there are four (and a half) compost boxes all ready and waiting for your eco-contribution.

There’s one at the end of the double gate roadway, another at the angle of the lockers, and the others just to the east of the washroom trailer. You may have to throw out the garbage with which those precious boxes have been sullied during the previous days: paint cans, duct tape, bottles, coffee cups and so on. That’s par for the course; just press ahead and keep our old planet alive for a few more minutes.

The Ed.Gardner

Wee, sleekit, cowrin’, tim’rous beastie,
Why do tha try to spoil our feastie?
We hae puddings, meat and toppings
All tha leaves is bluidy droppings !
(Wi’ apologies tae Robbie Burns)

THE OHCC clubhouse, like many cottages, has wild visitors — most of whom stay outside. Mice, however, come into the club and clean up remaining food particles, leaving in return small droppings on the counter, in drawers, and anywhere they wander. It`s almost impossible to keep them out — a mouse needs only a tiny gap to squeeze through and they can climb vertical surfaces quite easily. Although they come into the clubhouse throughout the year, the worst time for them is towards the fall when they are looking for both a food supply to stash away for the winter and a sheltered place to stay. There are serious health issues associated with mouse droppings:

• Hantavirus. This deadly virus is carried by certain strains of mice, especially deer mice. People get the infection by breathing dust contaminated with mouse droppings. If you have to clean an area that’s been infested with mice, DON’T sweep it up in a big cloud of dust. Instead, put on latex gloves, wet the area with detergent or diluted bleach, wipe with damp towels, and then throw out the towels into a double garbage bag.
• Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM). This is a virus spread by the common house mouse. The virus can infect the linings of the brain and spinal cord. It’s a serious disease, although many people get only mild infections. Mice shed the virus in their urine, saliva, and feces. People get infected by eating contaminated food or by inhaling aerosolized mouse urine or feces. LCM has two phases. The first lasts about a week and begins with fever, loss of appetite, head and muscle aches, nausea, and/or vomiting. There may be other symptoms as well. The second phase happens just as the first one gets better. It may begin with symptoms of meningitis: fever, headache, and stiff neck. It may also begin with symptoms of encephalitis: sleepiness, confusion, and movement problems. There’s no cure, but most people recover completely with supportive treatment. However, some people are left with permanent nerve or brain damage. About 1% of people with LCM die.

Nice, eh? What can we do to prevent anyone becoming sick? Trapping and killing the mice is possible but the little buggers breed quite quickly ! A family of six mice can multiply into a family of 60 in three months. They reach sexual maturity at about four weeks of age, so it’s easy to understand how a mouse population can quickly grow out-of-hand, not tomention the fact that they breed year-round. The staggering birth rate is kept under control naturally by predators in the outdoors, but owls, hawks, cats and other hunters are absent from OHCC. The sole natural factor limiting the mouse population in the clubhouse is the limitation of resources such as food. As the average house mouse lives for a year, that means an astounding number of mice can call OHCC home over the course of 365 days.

• A single female produces between five to ten litters each year.
• Each litter consists of five to six young that are able to reproduce after approximately 30 days.
• Mice produce a great number of young, but have a high mortality rate.

The lifespan of a house mouse is approximately 1 year. So — what do we do? The best way of ensuring no mice is to make certain they have no food, which means cleaning up after Tuesday Night Feasts or after club members bring their own food down. Spray anti-bacterial liquid (we supply Lysol spray) on the surfaces and wipe them down with paper towels. Take garbage out and leave no scraps inside the club. Make sure that utensils, pots, etc. are washed clean and, where possible, put away in closed containers.

If there are mouse droppings, spray and leave for ten minutes then, using rubber gloves, wipe with anti-bacterial liquid and throw the paper towels in the garbage. DO NOT BRUSH OR VACUUM!

As far as we know, no-one has become sick from the mouse droppings but the infestation got worse in 2010, and we don’t want to risk our members in 2011. Let’s aim for:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin’, tim’rous beastie,
We’ll nae give thee a feastie
We’ll leave nae food for thee and thine
We’ll have thee oot in record time!

Mouse Musings

Wood engraving : Thomas Bewick

Steel engraving : Ryall after Naismith

THE MOOSE sneaked up behind me, while I worked on the boat in Elliot Lake. If I hadn’t made an inadvertent loud noise, she might have poked her nose over my shoulder to see what I was doing. But the startled animal, boxed in on three sides by fences, panicked and bucked like a bronco. Suddenly, hooves and broken bits of fence and tree branches flew in every direction as I ducked behind a parked van. She ran off and five minutes later the property owner drove in (nice of the cavalry to arrive). But my comment that a moose had demolished the place was met with looks of disbelief.

That encounter with the moose set the tempo for the first major work on my new boat, the Sea Venture. She is a 19-foot, Mariner Class sloop with a small cabin and a cast iron centreboard. She was a cheap and lucky find but the hull left much to be desired: a broken through-hull fitting and a hole, a serious gouge, major corrosion and the need of a paint job. This meant building a cradle to elevate the boat high enough to remove the trailer and to get at the damage. It was easier said than done.

First things first however. The summer of 2010 was spent cleaning her out, after dealing with another animal visit: a beehive in the trailer frame. I don’t know what it is with boats and animals : my Bonita at our club has hosted raccoons, skunks, wasps, even a beaver who tried to chew down the aluminum mast while I slept aboard. Years of filth and mold were removed from Sea Venture, in some places nearly deep enough to plant a garden; and with a time limit when the boat has to be moved. But the results were satisfactory when I finally moved aboard and switched on the cabin lights.

The Mariner sloops originated in Maryland as the 19-foot Hurricane Class — an open dinghy designed by Phillip L. Rhodes after the Second World War. Keels and cuddy cabins were added to create a local one-design, before George O’Day bought the hull-building molds. A gold medal Olympic sailor, George founded the renowned O’Day Company and used the molds to make the popular Rhodes 19. Bunk beds and modifications for family cruising later resulted in the Mariner Class : a cabin yacht in a dinghy-size hull known as a pocket cruiser (the smallest of these are known as micro cruisers), many with centreboards and all with flotation.

I spent much time in creating several designs for the cradle, before getting it right. Trusting my life under the boat to four wobbly columns of cinderblocks and spindly timbers, simply would not do. Nor could I rely on sufficient funds to buy the right stuff. But I couldn’t account for the personalities that reside in Elliot Lake and the now steady stream of human visitors – as opposed to animal ones — who gravitated to the big green ship in the driveway. My kind landlord gave me the old wood from our re-planked back porch, a welcome help. But it was still a lot of work, and time was running out, including the vessel-hoisting process, a major operation if one can’t afford a crane.

One night, the local guys showed up to give me a surprise work party, complete with lights, drink and music. Suddenly, I ran my legs off measuring and rushing lumber to the circular saw they brought. Even threaded rod was whisked out of my hands, and with a “here, step on this!” was promptly hand-cut. It could have been a scene straight out of Farley Mowat’s novel The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float. But Mother Nature paid the final visit by unleashing the first major snowstorm just before I finished and was able to cover Sea Venture again. My mother approached the boat with a camera, greatly amused by the caricature of the giant snowcone that covered the Skipper and his vessel, madly bailing it overboard in a swirling cloud with a bucket. Laughing, she said: “Isn’t that something you’re supposed to do during the summer?”

Pinnell started sailing in Mirrors and Enterprises. He is respected internationally for his
sailing prowess and versatility across classes which include 420, 470, Miracle, Enterprise, Fireball, 505, Soling, Mumm 30, Melges 24 and Int14.

He has won thirty-five World, European and National championships.

He won the 1989 Endeavour Trophy (Champion of Champions) and was 1991 Helmsman of the Year.

In 2008 he won the 505 Worlds.

THE FIRST beat is not a place to be greedy or to take big risks.

Assuming you have negotiated the start in good shape, your all-consuming task up the first beat is to get to the windward mark first or at least ahead of your principal rivals if it’s an important championship.

There are a number of things you should try to do in preparation for the all important first beat and these are carried through before the start so don’t be late in the starting area.

You should have time to sail a good chunk preferably all of a windward leg.

It is worth carrying a time chart and taking compass headings every two minutes up the beat to try and establish a pattern in the local conditions.

It is a lot simpler if you can get a ‘team-mate’ to work up the beat with you so that you can make cross-tacking references.

Certainly, though, you should have a clear idea of your route, which will also give you valuable information on where to make your start on the line.

If you are very unfamiliar with the area, there can be a lot to learn from chattting with the locals.

In popular venues there may have been a championship the previous week, so it could be worth getting there early enough to talk to outgoing sailors on their experiences.

Back on the race course, play the percentages after the start — usually tacking just to the left or right of centre of the beat, always trying to keep between main rivals and the mark.

Off the startline or out of the gate, hang on to a tack untilheaded by at least five degrees; anything less is not worth worrying about.

You may have to revise this plan if sailors you respect start ‘banging the corners,’ but it doesn’t happen often.

Keep an open mind that they just might know something you’ve missed.

Your crew should play a major role up the beat, acting as your eyes while you apply all your concentration on sailing the boat hard.

I reckon 80% of the outcome of the race will be decided during this first twenty minutes or so.

And in a good fleet, you’re unlikely to recover from screwing it up.

The crew must give you a complete picture of rivals’ positions, starboard tack boats, compass headings, shifts across the course approach of layline, etc.

If you really have got yourself buried at the start, you must get on to port and into clear air quickly : there’s an awful lot of lift to be had off the sails of starboard boats as you duck and weave fast through the fleet.

And if the sun really is shining out of your bunghole and you really do get lifted as well, you can still get to the mark in surprisingly good shape ! Unless you’ve got some very special inside knowledge — or divine intervention — never get onto the layline further than fifteen boat’s lengths from the mark.

Too many things can go wrong and you just don’t need to risk it.

On the other hand, if you find yourself on port, approaching a procession of starboard layline boats the chances are they have overstood and it is worth a well executed lee-bow attack to get round the mark especially if you’re in a fast-tacking, fast-accelerating boat like an Enterprise or a Twelve.

Don’t count on it every time though ! There are a few other things that might influence the way you tackle the first beat, Some courses (for instance where you might have a windward mark under cliffs) need special attention to well known local wind bend.

In very heavy air, too, tack less and wait for bigger shifts, concentrating on developing maximum boat speed and minimizing the times the boat isn’t travelling flat out.

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