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Vancouver Island Fleet Reports – September and October 2023

Campbell Good and Bill Eisenhauer, VI Fleet Coordinators

October 27th, 2023

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. We did a round the table introduction and then rated a list of topics of interest to the Fleet which will help with planning the rest of the year’s meetings.  Scott Crawshaw, VI Vice Commodore, presented the first unit of the Weather curriculum to those interested in attending.

Flush side-cutters leave a “clean” cut unlike angled cutters.

The second meeting was on Oct 18 with 9 boats.  To get the Show &  Tell portion of the meeting off to a good start, Fleet Coordinator Campbell Good shared his nifty side-cutters which make a clean or flush cut that won’t scratch your skin unlike standard cutters.  This was followed by Tony Gooch’s ever popular Heavy Weather Sailing presentation, with guest attendee and former VI Fleet member Ben Deacon joining us from Mexico.  Ben and Irma used a Jordan Series drogue last month off the Oregon coast during heavy weather they experienced heading south.  Hearing first hand about the deployment and retrieval of the drogue added immensely to Tony’s presentation.

VI’s online Weather Group with Max Shaw, facilitator

VI also has a separate Weather group that meets from October through to February on the fourth Wednesday of the month.  Hosted by Max Shaw, the first Weather meeting was on Oct 25 with 6 boats attending.

The next Fleet meeting is November 15. VI and Calgary chapter members who are interested in joining either the Fleet or the Weather groups are still welcome to register online. General information about Fleet can be here.

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