Boat Carnage - now with rescue video goodness

The canoe club's Force 5 was trashed on the rocks last Wednesday night.

We've had some epic conditions on the lake this past week - it's the start of the August storm season when heavy weather in the south translates into increased wind and waves on the Great Lakes. You can't really see how big it was in the video below but conditions were challenging on Wednesday night. I was supposed to go sailing out of PCYC that evening. We were all set to go when all the other boats came back, returning to their slips. The race had been cancelled because of the waves and 29 knot (54 km/hr) winds. We decided to wait and see if it calmed down but when even the most experienced crews came limping back in, Paul called it a bust and we all went to Wild Wings.

Around the time we were sitting on the boat waiting for the wind to settle, a group of juvi athletes took the 6-man out onto the harbour for fun in the waves. The wind was from the east so there were fairly big rollers coming off the Ridgetown. The kids were having fun, riding the waves in the mouth of the harbour. At some point though, they went out a little too far and hulied. They were able to get the boat righted but by then it was full of water and the wind had pushed them into the bay by Sadddington Park. They had to be rescued by the harbour patrol. The abandoned boat got tossed around and then sank.

Everyone in our area loves the Peel Marine Unit - they're fantastic officers who do their job with a smile. The halton crew hassle paddlers endlessly but our guys are always pleasant. It's lucky they were on hand and that the kids are all fit athletes. The first time I saw this video, it was upsetting to see them having to be rescued. The next time I could see how composed they were - they'd even collected all the paddles.



We were so pleased when Derek got the boat for the club's disabled paddler program. A group of us - Eve, Carrie, Chanda, Chrissy, Liz and I - volunteered to bring it from the Cawthra compound to the club.

We were all in withdrawal from not paddling together, Eve was just recovering from chemo and none of us were sure if we were going to continue at the club. We were allowed to use the boat when the other program wasn't. Being able to train in the OC-6 meant we could keep paddling together, invested in a training group and the club, until we figured out what we wanted to do. We were out together in db once a week with Doug but paddled OC three or four times a week throughout the summer & fall.

When Louise came home for a visit from Singapore, she was able to join us for a leisure paddle - something you can't do in a sprint boat. No one says, hey let's take the war canoe for a spin & catch up on our lives. Anyway, for that season, the boat meant a lot to us!

I didn't think the club was even using it this year. I'd seen Chris E. out with some of his sr db ladies but that's about it. The kids told me though that athletes would randomly take it out. Just a couple of weeks ago Chrissy and Eve jumped in with Chris A. and a few of the guys. They had just pushed off the dock when some joker yelled, "Everyone lean right". All these club paddlers, used to doing what they're told, leaned right and they hulied right at the dock. Comical.

Anyway, back to the wreckage - The next day, Karl had a hard time finding the swamped boat. It was still fairly wavy and eventually the bow bobbed to the surface. Then it was 3 hours of heavy lifting to get it from the bottom. It's just a fiberglass shell now - only the ama is still in one piece.

(I didn't take this photo. A guy who is a complete tool posted it on the oc fb page with nasty comments about incompetence. I'd like to punch this guy in the gob on a regular day so this just makes me want to do it more.)