Navigating Nanaimo’s waters can be a tricky business for novice mariners, but with a bit of training, marine adventures anywhere can be a far safer and a lot more fun.
Power and sail squadrons first formed in the U.S. to provide formal instruction to boaters to be safe on the water, and spread to Canada with the first in Windsor, Ont., in 1938.
Nanaimo Power and Sail Squadron received its charter April 12, 1957 with just 14 members, the minimum number of people required to form a squadron.
“Our squadron, the Nanaimo squadron, was the first on the Island, even before Victoria,” said Sheila Boutcher, past Nanaimo Power and Sail Squadron commander. “I don’t think Victoria was much later, but ours was the first on the Island.”
There are now power and sail squadrons in Comox, Port Alberni, Campbell River, Ladysmith and Cowichan Bay.
Nanaimo Power and Sail Squadron continues its tradition of providing marine safety courses to pleasure craft owners.
Courses run from September through April – squadron members who teach the courses want to be out on their boats in the summer – starting with the pleasure craft operators’ certificate, the basic training required to operate a pleasure craft in Canada.
“We offer that, but we feel that may be enough for operating a boat on small lakes in Ontario and whatever, but if you’re operating a boat in B.C. waters, we don’t think the PCOC is nearly enough,” Boutcher said. “You need to know a lot more about finding your way around, learning about tides and currents, learning what all the different buoys mean, how to use a chart properly … So we offer everything from that very basic level, right the way up to celestial navigation where you can actually position yourself on the earth using a sextant.”
The squadron also offers maritime radio certification, advanced piloting, boat and engine maintenance, electronic navigation, marine electrical maintenance courses and others.
Power and sail squadrons in Canada operate as non-profit volunteer entities and volunteer instructors hold a wealth of knowledge about winds and currents in their regions.
“Off Qualicum Beach you sort of get special winds that actually funnel through the Alberni Inlet, up through the gap there and back down,” Boutcher said. “So you can be going with quite a mild wind and then you get up by Qualicum and Parksville there and all of a sudden you get gusts of stronger wind and that sort of thing happening. Just little local things.”
Nanaimo’s power and sail squadron has about 350 members and some of those members take students who have completed their first course out on the water through Dodd Narrows and back through False Narrows to help students practise what they’ve learned. The last of the squadron’s 14 founding members, Stan Wardill, a former judge and past Nanaimo Yacht Club commodore, died in March, but until he was 94, Wardill, with the help of family members, was still taking students on the cruise.
“He was an amazing guy,” Boutcher said.
Boutcher said the squadron is always looking for volunteers.
To learn more about then Nanaimo Power and Sail Squadron please visit http://bit.ly/2qJ3hpw.
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