CYOB Inbox: Proud of ORIOLE

HMCS Oriole

May 23, 2019

Hello John,

I was pleased to see CYOB’s piece on ORIOLE, the Royal Canadian Navy’s sail training vessel (May 9 19.)  She was built as a racing yacht at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club for the Gooderham family in 1921.  She was based at RCYC for the first half of her life (or so) and was never a commercial vessel. 

It should be mentioned that HMCS VENTURE is the RCN’s officers training centre.  I served in the RCN for eleven years, and also aboard ORIOLE during that time. 

My time aboard ORIOLE was after training… I joined her for the Swiftsure Race as helmsman for my watch.   We started in light air with mobs of normal sized yachts dodging under our bowsprit,..,. and had to anchor for a while past Esquimault with the rest of the fleet waiting for the tide.  We set off again before dawn and by sun-up were galloping on a close reach at over 12 knots passing boats like they were standing still, spray flying all over while we successively shortened sail.   ORIOLE uses no winches, so to adjust her sheets we had to line up a whole watch and give the old ‘2…6… HEAVE!’ until the inches needed were gained… 

As we passed each boat we could see them cheering, shouting and taking pictures… very exciting, ORIOLE must have looked very dashing.   But by mid-day someone turned off the wind and we ended up pitching in a slop while the whole fleet climbed over us again… she didn’t win that year, alas.

The RCN is rightly very proud of HMCS ORIOLE… and from the reaction she gets at her port visits and out on the water, so are most Canadians

Gordon Laco
Midland, ON

Not happy with Cuba

Hello, John,

I must ask why, like too many Canadians, you relish supporting a brutal communist police dictatorship like Cuba. Too often, it’s because we can, and Americans can’t – that old animosity bred into too many of my countrymen.

If you’re going to publish in this vein, at least have the temerity to give background to the nation’s politics, its rabid support for Chavez-now-Maduro and the deprivations its brand of socialism has brought over 70 years to its people.

Filling state coffers from the spend of well-off yachtsmen will serve no purpose but to ensure its continuation.

Regards,
Brian Hicks
Sailboat on Vancouver Island, reside in Calgary

 

Have your say.  CYOB welcomes your input at CYOnBoard@kerrwil.com.  We reserve the right to edit letters for language and length. Bring it!

Related Articles

POTW: Woo Baby!

POTW: Woo Baby!

This issue’s Photo of the Week comes from reader Phil Vogler in the Maritimes who found a photo on a woodworking site. But a quick look on other sites turned up a whole lot of baby on davits ideas. Rock a bye seagoing baby.

Video Gallery

Pursuit S268 Sport CC

By Andy Adams

The Pursuit S 268 Sport centre console is a do-it-all kind of boat with a solid sense of style. Centre console designs have been developed for the southern blue water sport fishing enthusiasts (and this boat would raise fish with the best of them) but the Pursuit S 268 Sport centre console offers far more utility and enjoyment than just fishing.

Read More

Destinations

Bayfield Marine Turns 40 with Big April Events

(l to r) Holly, Adam, Pat, Ron, Shelley

Ron and Pat Reder started out in October 1984 across the road from where they are right now on the Bayfield River in Bayfield ON. The store front was about 10 x 20 and the rest of that side of the building was a stock room, wood finishing room, then behind that was more back stock and the lunchroom. Expanding every few years for the store front, then moving over to this new building five years ago, this year with Adam, Shelley, and Holly are carrying on the business.

Read More

Lifestyle