In the summer of 1974, inspired by warm memories of sailboat racing at Juniper Island during the 50’s and 60’s, my brother, Laser Dave (#8424), and I posted a notice at Crowes Landing announcing that there would be a “Fleet Forming” on Upper Stoney.
We invited interested cottagers to bring their boats for a meeting and sail-past at Minty’s Island #89 on August 25th.
An Eclectic Flotilla
Regrettably, it was more like a float-past that morning because there wasn’t a breath of wind. What an eclectic flotilla of sailboats was: Laser, International 14, Finn, Star, Lightning, Wayfarer, Buccaneer, Flipper and a Peanut. In short order this initial group was augmented by an albacore, an Invitation, a Force 5, a Banshee, two Cl-16’s and a pair of Hobie 16’s. A fleet had indeed formed.
The President’s Cup
At that initial meeting we decided to approach the USLA to ask if we could join as an activity, such as their swimming program, so we could be covered by their insurance policy. It was a trade off. We got coverage under the USLA insurance umbrella and it was understood that each of our skippers would be a paid up member of the Association. To show our appreciation, we named our first trophy the “President’s Cup” and in those early years would invite the current president of USLA to make the official presentation to the winning sailors from the July and August series. (The trophy itself was put together with an unmarked love cup donated (on the QT) by Herb Knox from his Oshawa high school trophy cabinet and a base routed by a student at my high school in North York.)
In the 70’s and early 80’s, we sailors took turns running the races and driving the safety boat. It was a learning experience. For the first 25 years the equipment was stored at Island 89 for pickup and drop-off. I used the Portsmouth Handicap #’s supplied by Sail Ontario, a stop watch and made pencil and paper calculations to determine the race results. (I eventually progressing to a calculator then a computer.) As a grass roots endeavour with the all important insurance angles covered and the operational aspects attended to by the sailors themselves we had no expenses…hence no fees. (Our first upwind marker was made from an 8 foot long, 6 inch diameter PVC pipe weighted on the bottom with sand from the Kamanao beach. It floated five feet above the water line but was too narrow to be seen easily even with the orange stripes it bore.)
Although as racers we were basically of the seat-of-your-pants variety, we benefitted greatly from the experience of Dave Mothersill and Doug Hughes. As incentive for new sailors, I set up a personal handicap system much like the golfers use. It worked, sorta.
Racing mixed with Socializing
We raced on Saturdays and Sundays with socials every second Saturday. Mixed in with the course racing were cruising races which could be very time consuming. We supported the Association by running their regatta sailing races after first renaming the divisions Lasers and Exclusive of Lasers. We even hosted a couple of dances in the USLA pavilion.
For the record, the first three commodores were, Len Minty, Rod Rork and Ron Massey but by now almost every member has taken a turn or even two.
-Len Minty,
Check the calendar for sailing dates.
Brad Anderson is this year’s commodore. You can reach Brad at yachtclub@usla.ca
