The VI Fleet’s November focus was Provisioning. We had a great presentation by Brent Alley and Sonia Crawshaw, with additional input from Barb Lyall and Jennifer Handley. Topics included: Who Are You Provisioning For? Fair Trade for Food Factors to Consider When Stocking the Vessel Galley Equipment List Gimbaled Stove & Harness Review Your Cooking […]
The Vancouver Island chapter decided to continue offering a hybrid Fleet in 2023-24 and this has allowed us to invite Calgary chapter members to participate as well. So far, nine boats have registered this year, including one from Calgary. Our first meeting was at RVYC on Sept 27, with 4 in-person and 4 virtual boats. […]
The 2023 V.I. Fleet Rendezvous was a huge success and it all started on Friday, April 21 with the seven vessels able to attend heading for Port Browning on Pender Island. All were given explicit instructions that they were to heave-to en-route. Ever tried herding cats? Not all had the opportunity; Daragh and I did […]
The last VI Fleet meeting this year involved some mystery and subterfuge and was well appreciated by the 12 in-person and the 14 Zoom sailors in attendance. High on the list of announcements was the upcoming V.I.C.E. event and the VI Fleet Rendezvous on April 21-23. This included the announcement of a mystery prize to […]
The 2022-23 Fleet season is winding down and Wednesday night, March 15 was the second last evening of the season. One of our new V.I. Fleet Coordinators, Campbell Good joined Daragh Nagle and I to lead our in-person V.I. Fleet Group of 14 sailors in a workshop addressing the use of MBTiles with Open CPN. […]
The presenters at the February Vancouver Island Fleet meeting were a tribute to the success of past Fleet experiences. Debbie and Rob Warren met with our group to share their experiences in the past year sailing their Saga 43, Northern Star I, from the Chesapeake Bay area to Portugal via the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the […]
The January VI Fleet meeting began by extending a welcome to our new members, a past member Mel Finley, and one of our coordinators for next year, Campbell Good. Mel joined us before she heads off to join Morgan and their girls in French Polynesia. Unfortunately, Campbell’s assistant coordinator, Bill Eisenhauer, had a previous engagement […]
On the evening of December 21st, in spite of Christmas preparations, pub meal delays, and road conditions we had 11 people join us in person and the gang of 11 on Zoom to hear Tony Gooch present his thoughts on preparations for Heavy Weather Sailing. Tony has been a perennial pillar of the Vancouver Island […]
The Vancouver Island Fleet meeting on November 16 was reasonably attended with 15 folks at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and 11 computers on the Zoom platform. Dr. Catherine Ascah followed our usual announcements, education news and Show and Tell from Brent Alley. Brent’s gems included a trusty handheld wind speed indicator and some great […]
On September 21, 15 sailors from 8 boats met at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club with 9 sailors from 6 boats via Zoom for the first session of the 2022-23 BCA VI Fleet. Fleet coordinators Daragh Nagle and Al Kitchen and weather facilitator Max Shaw introduced themselves to the group, described the typical operating process […]
The BCA Vancouver Island Fleet wrapped up the year with a presentation on Weather Routing using Open CPN. The VI Fleet Coordinators cooperated on this project with an introduction to Open CPN and how it compares and complement other navigation options by Daragh Nagle followed by a look at Weather Routing offshore using the plugins […]
The V.I. Fleet welcomed another new member on Wednesday March 9 as Carl Homer was able to join our group virtually from Mid-Island. The introductory announcements covered Leaver’s packages, the BCA Fleet Map, the V.I. Fleet rendezvous, Vancouver Island Cruising Experience (VICE): the Vancouver Island circumnavigation shake-down cruise, and upcoming Education opportunities. Mike and Shirley […]