In 2006, the UVic Sailing Club Board of Directors approved a Five Year Plan which outlined the following goals:

The sailing club completed all of these goals by the spring of 2009 when the club became a full member of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.

Here is how it all began . . .

A New Home

Josh Adema and Jon Zand making an old trailer new again.

In the 1980s, the UVic Sailing Club sailed out of a compound in Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay. According to the Boat Storage Compound Agreement (1979), the compound is leased by the Corporation of the District of Saanich to the South Island Sailing Society (SISS), which is composed of the University of Victoria and the Cadboro Bay Sailing Association (CBSA).

Over the years, the Sailing Club became inactive and the compound was neglected. In January 2008, the new UVic Sailing Club, which was re-established in 2005, came to the rescue and held a well-attended work party to clean up the compound.

Meigan Blunt and Stephanie Allison working hard at the Sailing Club Work Party.

So, why go through all this effort? Well, because the Sailing Club had just successfully fundraised enough to purchase a fleet of six Collegiate FJs and a motorboat from the University of Washington/Sail Sand Point!

A cleaned-up sailing compound awaits new boats!

The Journey Home

Jon Zand trades burgees with UW Sailing Team alumni Alex Jones in front of our new motorboat.

After months of bureaucratic wrangling, the UVic Sailing Club was ready to pick up the boats from Sail Sand Point in Seattle, WA. UVic Sailing Club President, Arel English, and Vice-President, Jon Zand, drove down to Washington with the rest of the Race Team who were participating in the annual Jeff Mixdorf Regatta at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Jon and Arel rented a 26' UHaul to transport the boats back to Canada.

The UHaul waits to be loaded.

UVic Sailing Club President, Arel English, shows off the burgee in front of our new boats.

Race team member Meigan Blunt checks out the packing job.

Special thanks to the members of the race team who dropped everything to help unload the boats at the sailing compound (Bonnie, Rennie, Olga, and Carl)!

After a year of loyal service, the sailing club traded in the 25HP motor boat they had brought back from Seattle, and bought a brand new 15HP aluminum inflatiable motor boat which is much easier to beach launch, and more fuel efficient.

The Sailing Clubs fleet now includes six Collegiate FJ's, and an 15HP RIB motorboat.

If you want to check out the boats, head down to the sailing compound in Cadboro Gyro Park to take a look. The Race team practices several times a week, and sailing lessons are taught in the same boats. Check out the map below for directions to the compound from UVic:

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