Spring Tune Up at Reed Point

Well, what a success that was! We had over 115 attendees, 115!!!! Even the weather cooperated by holding off the rain until very late in the afternoon. There was a bit of wind, but as a sailor, I didn't think there was enough to mention. First up was the swap meet. A great start to what we hope will be a continuing part of the Spring Tune-Up. There were several participant sellers, with tables and trunks full of interesting bits, some describable, some ... not so much; dinghies and kayaks; electronics; even an old Seagull outboard. I trust all were satisfied with their transactions. I didn't see any re-sales on e-bay later, but there could be some interesting gifts at some Secret Santa gift exchanges this year. Doreen may yet sell that dinghy! Over to the ‘on the hard' demonstrations, where the Ship's Stores were open, manned by Chris and Eleatha, Memberships requests were being taken by Jim; anchoring was demonstrated and explained by Dennis; Environmental information disbursed by Lorraine; splicing performed with flash and steely exacto knife bravado by Lawrence; and a wonderful display of 1 pot cooking of Paella by Yvonne (with samples !!! I'm sure I saw some of you in line more than once!). Inlet Marine hosted a manufacturer's demo station fielding questions on parts and maintenance. Thanks guys! Great people there, support our local retailers! Arlene made tables full of appies as part of the 'on the boat' galley demonstration. Several of us were hoping the walk back and forth between Boy N Sea and the parking lot was going to be enough to burn off the calories from the appies and the paella. Ian arranged for the Vancouver Police Marine Unit to attend, to meet the public, and even to perform courtesy inspections. Tony showed how to act with respect and decorum while the police are inspecting your boat. Steve spent the day in his work trailer carrying out fire extinguisher inspections and maintenance. And many of our members hosted ‘open house' on their boats, Fran and Seb on Seahorse, Robin and Chris on Merlin, even Barry on Kona Kai was answering questions on wooden boat maintenance, and I don't think he had planned on being an active participant! Thanks to Reed Point who made it possible in the first place. Thanks to all who attended, special thanks to all who participated and helped with setup, and very special thanks to the organizing committee (Jim Church and Steve Kurrein). Apologies to those not listed here, but this was off the top of my head. There were many others who helped, and who were in attendance. Jim will publish a formal thank you to all involved. But we wanted to share our success with you all and thank you as a group for making it such a great day. Cheers, Chris ‘Commander Data' Gordon

Photos Courtesy of: Melody Hewson, Yvonne McCoach