Ever thought about cruising northern Europe? What about Russia? Well, come to the Calgary April Club Night and find out. The presentation will recount the memorable 4 month voyage of the Yuill family (Deryk, Sara, and 6 year old Emily) aboard First Tracks, their Bruce Roberts 434. Their first full summer cruising was an ambitious 2300nm route, through 8 countries, experiencing some amazing history, and a lot of natural beauty, including:
- Western Scotland, a wonderful cruising area not unlike our own west coast
- Caledonian Canal, which bisects Scotland, exiting to the North Sea at Inverness
- Orkney and Shetland islands
- Crossing the North Sea
- West coast of Norway, south from Bergen, and up the east coast
- West coast of Sweden
- Copenhagen and other Danish ports
- The 6 week ARC Baltic Rally: with a fleet of 24 boats, they travelled from Rostock, Germany to the Baltic islands, on to Tallin, Estonia and St Petersburg, Russia, through the Finnish and Swedish archipelagos (with stops in Helsinki and Stockholm), before finishing the rally in Kalmar, Sweden.
- The south coast of Sweden to Fehmarn, Germany
Fast Tracks 2017 – Northern Europe
Deryk Yuill started sailing in 1988, when a job transfer took him away from the mountains to Dallas, TX. He became a fixture on the J22 and J24 racing circuits, before returning to Canada in 1995. Since then he has done numerous charter trips on the west coast, Caribbean, and Adriatic. Sara was introduced to sailing in 2009 and has joined Deryk on many sailing adventures. The family found their future boat in Victoria in 2016, where it was about to depart for the UK via Panama. Deryk hopped onboard in Panama for a “test sail”, and completed the purchase when they arrived in Wales 5 weeks later.
The Yuills live in Fernie and spend the winters making “First Tracks” of a different sort on the local hills.
Also on the April agenda: Calgary Chapter Book Swap
Members are welcome to join in the book swap at our club night. Please bring your lightly-used sailing, cruising, boating books that you don’t need or want anymore and give other members the opportunity benefit from them via swap/exchange. A table will be set up to display your books.