TCYC Sailpast, Race and Commodore's Reception - Saturday, May 10th

The Sailpast is the most important event in the Club's season. This is your chance to salute the Commodore and officially kick-off the 2003 sailing season. If you can't attend, good manners require that you send your regrets to Commodore Michael Spearing in advance (MichaelSpearing@telus.net).
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This year the Sailpast will again take place off Sandy Cove in West Vancouver just off the DFO research station. The Sailpast is to start precisely at 11:00 am on Saturday May 10th, so get out there early so there is at least a half hour to form-up. The Sailpast order is listed below (print this page and take it with you). TCYC Fleet Captain Brian Ferris (Moomba) will run a race as soon as practical after the Sailpast. If you aren't in the list, please just follow a boat of similar size or speed.

The Commodore's Reception and barbecue will take place at the Burrard Civic Marina starting after the race (at about 3:00pm). Members are asked to bring their own meat or meat-substitute to barbecue. Other food and refreshments are provided at no charge to members. Non-member guests are welcome and can cover the cost of their food/beverages by donation at the event. Our Social Director needs 3 barbecues for this event. If you can donate the use of yours for the day please let Penny know (penny.bax@telus.net).

Gibson's Rendezvous & Valhalla Cup - May 18-20

Come on out to Gibsons, join the fun, and compete in the GLSA/TCYC challenge for the Valhalla Cup.

The Rendezvous will be held on the Victoria Day long weekend, May 17th to 19th. Activities include our usual impromptu dock party upon arrival on Saturday, followed by a group dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant where GLSA members will join us. The cost for dinner will be approx. $25 per person. On Sunday, TCYC boats will compete with GLSA for the Valhalla Cup, followed by a dock party and prize giving. GLSA has whipped our butts two years running so we need to get out there and regain the Cup for TCYC! Sunday morning, weather and hangovers permitting, there will be an informal race back home for those who wish to participate.

Reservations for boats and dinner are required in advance. Please call Gibson's Marina at 604-886-8686 to reserve a slip for your boat. Dinner reservations should be confirmed to Thomas Bendle, 604-879-1591 or tcopper@telus.net.

April 24th Meeting - 1st Annual Tiddly Cove Cook-Off and/or Potluck!

The first ever Tiddly cook-off was held in a gentle rain, but the ferocious instincts of the competitors were not dimmed. Jack Kawaguchi again made his prawns in garlic, won a prize, and once again escaped without revealing the recipe. Clearly blackmail is in order here (true stories or untrue stories that can't be disproven should be sent to the editor). Kenna Rhode, not satisfied with becoming club Secretary at the meeting, took home a prize for her blueberry crumble. Alison Wright made chicken, pepper and onion shish-kebabs; the prize-winning magic is in the marinade. Michael Spearing delegated the job of lighting his bananas flambee; it was not clear whether he won his prize for the spectacular flames or the surprising survival of the Maritime Museum. The clear winner, in the editor's mind at least, was Trevor Jenkins with his Welsh Rabbit. The combination of sheer boldness in admitting to British cuisine combined with serving dinner on hot, crunchy toast (un-English at the very least) topped by the shocker that it tastes great made this my choice. Sadly, the editor was not allowed a vote and had to satisfy himself with repeatedly sampling the competitor's wares.

Tiddly members have sometimes been accused of taking the on-course part of racing a bit too casually. I don't think anyone can accuse us of lacking anything in the important parts of racing, as this event proved.

We also welcomed four new members to Tiddly, one of whom can be seen admiring a Welsh rabbit.
Our new club secretary can be seen with some guy who doesn't want his nametag read.
Alison shows us how it is done while Trevor sneaks up behind to pull a rarebit out of a barbie.

Monthly Meetings

There are no more regular Thursday meetings until September. Instead we have the sailpast on May 10th, the Gibson's Rendezvous (May long weekend), and the Alder Bay Raftup on June 6th.

Tiddly Biography: Brian Ferris

It is clear we need a new award: The Retrolog. I propose the first recipient, our esteemed Fleet Captain, Brian Ferris.

Brian liked to keep his children occupied. In winter they skied, in summer they enjoyed their cabin on Indian Arm. The possibilities of the water led to sailing lessons with the Jib Set, chartering, and eventually the purchase of a 26ft Reinell at Birch Bay. It's a long way home especially if you stick in the mud off Sandheads, and electricity deserts you trying to reach Steveston. Change of plan led to a False Creek sleepover and thus a return to the proposed moorage at Deas Island in daylight. Not so. Off Locarno the boat got sluggish. Water everywhere. Beaching it at Jericho revealed a three foot crack in the bow. Brian retrieved a trailer (imagine all the toing and froing) loaded up and set out for his parents' house. But the mast was up. Hit a wire. Came down and stayed down for ten years. And the outboard was stolen too. Eventually the saga ended when Brian gave the hulk away. But a new one started when he bought Moomba with a partner three years ago. Maybe these disasters explain his imperturbability.

Now he's equipped with an engineering degree from U.B.C., two girls, two boys and two granddaughters and so is equipped with technical skills, character-building experience and potential crew.

Salute him on station.

D.H.B.M. (a.k.a. Mucker)

Tiddly Biography - Donald (Mucker) Munro

On a sunny afternoon when I showed up at Mucker (also known as Donald) and Alison's house what else would I find Mucker doing but working on his sailing dinghy. He loves sailing and clearly likes to spend a good part of his time around boats.

Mucker, being born in Scotland, recently celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a Canadian. 50 years in Canada and his kids gave him a crown of 50 Canadian Loonies commemorating this historic event.

Mucker started sailing as a kid back in Shetland with his cousin aboard a Sixern. Interestingly enough in a visit back to the old country 2 years ago, he saw that very same Sixern in a museum, undoubtedly revitalizing a lot of fond memories.

On arrival in Canada, he dropped out of sailing for a while until 1973, at which time he helped crew a charter to Ocean Falls. That re-sparked the bug and he decided it was time to take sailing more seriously, and took a course with his daughter Sarah where he earned his Basic CYA. Now he's really bitten.

Into racing Mucker goes. Real racing with a club called the Jib Set, where all the boats are the same and the races are "Mano O Mano", no ratings to mess things up.

Not surprisingly, Mucker decides it's time to buy a boat. In 1982 he buys an Ericson 27 and names it THORGRIM THE MIGHTY. Thorgrim by the way was an Icelandic Sailing Hero back many many years ago. (Did I mention that Mucker also likes to read sailing stories as well?).

THORGRIM THE MIGHTY keeps Mucker happy for quite a number of years, but as all boat owners, he caught the Two Footitis disease and started looking for something a bit bigger. Along comes his Newport 30 in 1997 and he affectionately names her THE SALTIRE, after the cross in his beloved Scottish flag. By the way guys, that's SALTIRE, not SALTINE :-)

When Mucker and Alison joined forces 3 years ago, Alison took some courses, and needless to say, she now loves the lifestyle as much he does. Alison and Mucker have done some extensive cruising, including Barkley Sound. Mucker wants to take her to Haida Gwaii to experience the peace and serenity, and the ancient Haida villages so fascinating and almost eerie. If they can swing it, they plan on taking a couple of months off to head up there again.

You can see Mucker and Alison at most meetings, mingling and enjoying the congeniality of the Tiddly members. You can always tell who they are. They're the ones with the beaming smiles, probably largely the result of the cruising lifestyle that they so much enjoy.

Richard Evans - Bartender extraordinaire

Definitely, Richard has a long way to go before getting his credentials as a muck-raking journalist. Where are the infamous stories of precision navigation and exotic racing tactics? And what long term member can forget the perennial second place in Log Boom voting without ever taking home the prize?

TCYC / North Sails English Bay Scramble - August 23rd
Volunteers Needed

As most of already know, TCYC is again hosting a VARC race this year, the English Bay Scramble, to be held on Saturday, August 23rd. This event is a great opportunity to showcase our club to racers, their friends and family from across the Lower Mainland. We want to make this a true "Tiddly" event - Tiddlies racing, Tiddlies barbecuing, Tiddlies bartending, Tiddlies partying, and yes, even a Tiddly Band. Thomas Bendle's other band, "The Altar Boys" will be playing this event, and if you haven't heard them, they can really get a place rocking!

We need some more Tiddly volunteers to help staff the post-race barbecue and party. If you are not planning to race (or have a spouse who isn't racing) and can help out at the barbecue, please contact me. We need a few people to barbecue burgers, sell barbecue and drink tickets and help with set-up and take-down. We are also looking for a volleyball net and ball(s), so if you have one you can loan us, please let me know.

Contact: Penny Bax, 604-872-7142 or penny.bax@telus.net.

Other Racing News

Southern Straits had breeze this year and many of the boats were in earlier than usual. Harwar won overall on the long course, collecting the division 2 prize as well. Carrera was third in div 5 while Rhumb Line was 5th in div 4.

Mucker Munro - close personal friend of Wolf Blitzer

COMING EVENTS

Tiddly Bits

A suggestion has been made that we allow spinnakers in the Summer Shorts series; this would maximize sail area in the lightest winds we usually see all year. To keep this series friendly to beginners, we could either add a new spinnaker division or increase the adjustment allowed to boats declaring white sails.

The editor suggests that we declare a new division, invite skippers to bring out their kites, and argue over the division breaks at the pub after the first race.

Tiddly Cove YC is a member of a bunch of obscure organizations including the Council of BC Yacht Clubs. In addition to their usual quiet work with Marine Parks forever and lobbying for our marine environment, the Council has recently been instrumental in rescinding the Liberal government's new anchoring fees. If you haven't heard about the $2 charge per metre to anchor in many favourite destinations, you can delay your protests about this ill-considered attempt to soak the rich until it is re-introduced with due process.