Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club

Photos By: John Philion

Great half model highlights the clubhouse outside wall.

The east coast of Vancouver Island has long been extoled for its flora and fauna beauty as well as excellent boating waters from the time of the early Native Canadians to modern day. Following the glacier melt, the vegetation returned attracting large herds of mammoths and giant bison. Looking to the herds for food, the Coastal Saalish people arrived and then stayed discovering other food sources in abundance such as shellfish and salmon. The Saalish were a loose grouping of many tribes with distinct cultures and languages. Spaniard Francisco de Eliza first crudely charted the waters in 1791.With the establishment of HBC Fort Victoria in the 1840s, the Europeans started to arrive in earnest and set down roots.

The North Saanich peninsula makes no exception to the beauty in the eye of the beholder. Located approximately 25 km north of the capital city of Victoria it is surrounded on three sides by 20km of ocean shoreline with rural farmlands, residential areas, the Victoria International Airport and the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. It also surrounds two First Nations reserves. Although the town of North Saanich was incorporated in 1905 it was dissolvedsix years later due to lack of population and solid tax base. 10,000 military personnel arrived in the area in the 1940s which finally boosted the population enough that the town was re-incorporated in 1965.

Action at the weather mark in around-the-cans racing.

Up to this point many a boat cruised the area from gunk hole to gunk hole enjoying the serenity and beauty of the small, protected areas in the Gulf Islands and the San Juans. So was the case with a small group of boaters who set out to enjoy a spur-of-the-moment Easter cruise. As is so true after a great cruise, no one wants to go home and return to the marina where no one saw anyone. Although they all raced, they never saw one another except occasionally at the Awards Night. As Margaret Ibbotson recounted someone saying, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a yacht club in Sidney… Why didn’t WE start one? It was ‘put up or shut up’ time. We decided to have our first ‘shall we have a yacht club’ planning committee meeting at our [Peter and Margaret Ibbotson]house shortly afterwards.”

After the dining room table meeting, it was decided to put an ad in the paper to see if anyone else was interested in the same idea. A small room was secured at the local Travelodge to handle 50 people. The only problem was that close to 200 showed up! At the second meeting, if you put your $5 on the table you could be a member of the Sidney Yacht Club, which is what it was called in the beginning. In just five short months By Laws, a Constitution and Annual General Meeting all happened with initiation and annual dues each set at $75. In short order with dogged determination and silver tongues, Don Wilson and Bill Shaw negotiated a home for the newly formed yacht club. The North Saanich Council approved the use of the McClure style house at Bosun’s Marina on September 21, 1981 for their clubhouse. Members soon got to work on submissions for a club burgee. Kerry Stevenson won out with her design as she, “Chose the green to represent North Saanichcolours of green and gold and the town of Sidney’s colours which were blue and white. The design was created to represent the green for the land. The lazy ‘S’, in white, represented the shoreline, as well as for the Sidney Yacht Club and the blue represented the water.”

From on the outset, this club was set on a course of accessibility and affordability to serve both the sail and powerboat community. Now with 600 members(and applications flooding into the club on a daily basis) there is an extensive list of cruises running from May to Thanksgiving going to destinations such as Friday and Telegraph Harbours, Desolation Sound, Saturna Island and Genoa Bay. The members are very proud of their vernacular and newcomers to the cruising world need to know a few key words so that attendance at these SNSYC events will have you well prepared for the fun:

Flotilla Cruise: A small fleet of vessels that set sail together on the same route travelling from marinas to anchorages. Some as short as a week or some as ambitious as a month.

Rendezvous: A designated meeting (social gathering) at a single Marina or park. Boats do not move during the weekend, which includes activities, contests, and social gatherings.

Happy Hour: Cruisers bring a beverage of their choice to a common area, often located on the dock where they mix and mingle. Lasting friendships are often the result of happy hour meetings. Beware, as it is common to have a happy hour each day on a cruise!

Appies: Short for appetizers. Cruisers each bring a simple dish – as simple or fancy as you wish- to happy hour and share them with other cruisers.

Potluck: Cruisers bring a supper dish to a common dinner to share with other cruisers. When attending a potluck, bring your own plate and utensils, they are not supplied. Don’t be late! Do you know the song called Potluck Piranha? Sometimes the pace is that fast!

Aerial shot of the SNSYC harbour and docks.

Not to be outdone, the racers have their fun too with a year-round racing program that has both round-the-beer can and long distance racing. In warmer months they race Wednesday evenings and some Sundays and in the winter just on Sundays. Although they run their own races (like the Challenging Racing and Social Happenings – lovingly referred to as CRASH and the overnight Patos Island Race), they are also an active member in the Vancouver Island Racing Series (VIRS) and participate whole-heartedly in the Round Saltspring and Swiftsure races. For a mere $60 per boat per calendar year, a member can race in over 50 races – such a deal!

Its a full house when it comes to cards night.

In 1982, not long after the club was formed, Commodore Don Wilson sailed his Bent Jespersen built Peterson 42 called Will o’the Wisp to victory in the Vic-Maui Race, winning 5 trophies including top Canadian boat. “The skipper and crew were sent on their way from Victoria by a piper who played Speed Bonny Boat and there wasn’t a dry eye among the people left behind,” reminisced Mrs. Ibbotson. The wives then promptly hopped on a plane to Hawaii arriving in time to make leis for all the crew and learn the art of being a hip-swaying wahinis…. All in good fun.

Sailing school students head out for a day on the water.

Their very active and evolving Junior Program has taken off like gangbusters. Open to the entire community, over 200 youths between the ages of 8 and 18 are able to train in Optimists and Flying Junior Dinghies every summer. Adult classes are held in Martin 242s. Not only does everyone learn the “ropes” about sailing boats, but there are also tides and wind conditions to consider. The Fat Cat boat was recently purchased from the Oak Bay Marine Group for $1 and is currently being spruced up and retrofitted by club members for the Sailing as well as Racing programs.

Weeknight racing.

Although the club does not have its own docks, they have a wonderful partnership with the North Saanich Marina. Club members receive a 5% discount on annual moorage fees for boats 20-70 feet in length and can enjoy access to all four Oak Bay Marine Group Marinas. Both 15 and 50 amp power is available with a fuel dock at the north end of the bay and pump outs at VanIsle Marina. SNSYC offers washrooms, showers, a well-equipped workshop and dining room that is open Wednesday-Sunday. The yacht club house is situated between the north and south docks with a separate reciprocal dock on the south dock along with the junior sailing boats.

Summer relaxing on the clubhouse deck.

These boaters sure know how to enjoy their time on the water – just ask anyone about the Old Salts race and you’ll get an earful from hearty competitors who don’t let racing rules get in the way of having a great time in flying juniors and lasers. In-betweenthe two race legs, each boat must land at the dock and the crew consume an adult beverage. Sounds a bit roudy to me for “old salts”, but then again, what’s not to like about this group from Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club? Come join the fun.
The clubhouse in spring