What a great turnout for our annual Sailpast event at Pages' Resort! How fortunate for us that the rain relented for the afternoon after a preceding week of inclement weather. Twenty-seven boats put on a great show and approximately 90 of our members enjoyed the festivities afterwards. A huge thank you is due to all of your Executive and those volunteers who did such a superb job co-coordinating and executing their responsibilities in so many different areas to make the Sailpast and BBQ happen in such a seamless way. Thanks also to those of you captains, who along with your mates, cleaned, prepared, dressed and navigated your vessels so admirably and put on such a classy showing. Of note was the tight parade formation during the Sailpast, a difficult achievement! Fleet Captain Ian Waymark had a very busy time arranging all the logistics for the boats and skippers. He deserves kudos for achieving his goals, which from all appearances he certainly did most admirably.Your Judges, Don and Val Spears, along with some capable judging assistants in the persons of Commodore Rudi Schepers and Past Commodore Tom Hedekar from the Nanaimo Yacht Club, rendered honest marks for the winners and runners-up in both Sail and Power categories. In spite of previous event suspicions, they proved that they could not be bribed, as those that won were truly deserving, though there were some very close decisions. Congratulations go to the winner in the Sail category, Hannibal, owned by Oliver Woolcock and Lynn Coleman, and the winner in the Power category, Kintra, owned by Ben and Judy Malcolm (no relation, by the way!). 

A special note of thanks to Jordan, Sylvie and Regan for the delicious food that they prepared and served up. As a further testament to how good the food was, we had prepared enough for 110 people and the food was all gone before the evening was over. No doggy bags for sale this time around! Hats off to the rest of the gang who collected the equipment, set up the tables, tents and chairs, arranged and cleaned up everything after the event. Jerry and Bodil Ellins did a great job organizing the Marine Garage Sale, which brought in over $400 for the Club. Thanks to those of you who scoured your basements and found worthwhile boating articles for sale. Our thanks go also to a couple of talented Gabriola musicians, Lou and Tony Gradanti. They did a fine job entertaining us during our afternoon and evening activities.           

As your Commodore and Senior Flag Officer, I feel privileged to have been able to stand in the cockpit of Happy Hours to witness the event first hand from such a fine vantage point and to honour the traditions of the past. I believe that the bar has once again been raised and from all the feedback I've had, many of you feel the same, as all appear to have had a great time. Now it's time to relax a little and to enjoy some boating. Looking ahead, as the summer weather hopefully arrives, (it's still raining as I write this!), we have a whole series of cruising events at hand, planned by Fleet Captain Ian Waymark, that surely will be a lot of fun. No doubt he will be informing you further of all the details of the cruises as they draw closer. Margaret and I look forward to being at Wallace Island this coming weekend, as well as to many of the other scheduled cruise locations as the summer unfolds. We feel so lucky to live in such a boating-friendly geographical location, with protected waters, where nature is so bountiful and the experiences so memorable. We look forward to sharing more fun and boating adventures with you.
Safe boating, everyone!  

Bos Malcolm

Commodore