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from
the desk of Mark Endols Thank goodness we can get together and enjoy a day out
with the group. Presidents
Message Jan 2008-01-04 Good
News, our friend mike burke seems to be on his way to recovery and is in
good spirits. Keep the positive
flowing. Other
News: Permits required for each individual sailboat by City of
Edmonton After
asking the City of Edmonton, December 2007, what are requirements for
having a festival at Rundle Park approx June 2, 2008, I was informed we
cannot get a separate permit to hold a festival if any other festival is
on at the same day. Looks like our endeavours to have a festival along
with the park rangers “River Day” are kyboshed. I
was then informed that model sailboat users must have individual permits.
This obviously ruffled my sails and asked for the reason. December 13,2007
the reason was given( please refer to city_of _edmonton_sailing.jpg). So
the reason is to inform users/general population about pollutants,
biohazards and treatments. If
that was the case then everybody should be informed and everybody must
have a permit. My stance is if we need a permit, for this reason, then all
people who fly kites need individual permits. After all if they fall from
the sky, they can hurt a cat, dog, child, person or a park official. If
the reason is that the permit is for the control of lake usage, then all
people who walk their dogs, have children wading, heritage day festival
participants or other events that litter the lake, or triathlon swimmers
must have individual permits. Let
us take this further, all hobby stores that sell “Model Boats” must inform
the population that the City of Edmonton wants a permit with each one
sold. Any association or organization must have permits for all members;
all visitors to the City of Edmonton must have general lake use permits.
And if we go to that extreme, let the City of Edmonton inform all citizens that they must
have individual permits to sail their six year old son’s Christmas present
in Edmonton’s lakes. The
Cities of Sherwood Park and St. Albert do not require individual permits
to enjoy the serenity of “model sailboat” lake sailing. In Fact the City
of Sherwood Park has invited our group to attend all and any festivals in
order to enhance to lake appearance and to show a beautiful, colourful,
calm utilization of their lakes. Following
is a email from Councillor Don Iveson : Mr.
Endols, We
understand that you received a response for Harry Oswin of Neighbourhood
and Community development regarding your inquiry about permits for
sailboats in Rundle park. We were wondering if you feel satisfied with the
response? Further
to that, Councillor Iveson wonders if you would like to go for a sail some
time in the summer? He has a Victor class boat he love to have a chance to
take out for a spin! Thanks, Leanne
Brown Executive
Assistant Councillor
Don Iveson p.
496-8132 f.
496-8113 leanne.brown@edmonton.ca Please
consider the environmental impacts before printing this
email. Friday,
January-04-08, I spoke with Leanne Brown about the letter and explained
what we, as an association, wish to have happen. She said she would inform
Councillor Don Iveson, after which i sent of the following
email.: Thank
you for forwarding this information to Councillor Bryan
Anderson. The
Edmonton Remote Control Sailing Association,
http://www.ifindinfo.com/ercsa , has asked that sailboats be allowed to
sail on the City of Edmonton lake called Rundle Park. This is a
fresh water lake, and our group only sails wind powered models, no gas or
no oil. We have been sailing for over 10 years, not as an organization,
and never been approached to have a “permit to sail” until Sep 3,
2004. I personally was approached by a ranger and told to vacate the park
or receive a $100.00 fine. Well news to me and the Edmonton Journal was
interested. Sailing
into sea of red tape: In Edmonton, you need a permit even for toy
watercraft EDMONTON
- It was like a warning shot across the bows of Mark Endols's model
sailboat. A park ranger told him he would face a $100 fine if he didn't
remove his boat from the lake in Hawrelak Park,... Byline: Duncan Thorne,
Source: The Edmonton Journal Page:
A1 / FRONT, Edition: Final Edmonton
Journal - Fri, Sep 3, 2004 - 538 words I
recently asked if we could have a “PERMIT” for a festival at Rundle Park.
This immediately caused a wave of rules and regulations. After speaking
with Park Ranger liaisons and Park Rangers, I was told our group would
need individual permits to sail our boats no matter what or face a fine. I
contacted the City of Edmonton Leanne Brown, executive assistant to
Councillor Don Iverson, to express our concerns. I also informed Leanne
Brown that one of our members was rudely escorted from the lake , and told
not to sail. This
situation has become more complicated than it should be. If 6 year old
Johnny has a boat for Christmas, he must get a permit before sailing it.
We are asking that the City of Edmonton, amend the bylaw #9425 and allow
non powered “MODEL” sailboats to utilize the lakes for the enjoyment of
everyone there. Currently the bylaw states: 6.
No person shall use or operate on any storm water lake a boat powered by a
motor unless such boat is a scale model reproduction no more than 10 kg in
weight operated between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. An exception
is employees or agents of the City engaged in water quality monitoring or
facility operation and maintenance. 7.
Sailboating on storm water lakes is prohibited due to the relatively small
water surface area available on most storm water lakes and because of the
possibility of direct contact. I
received a letter from Harry Oswin, A/Branch Manager, Neighbourhood ,
included, that states we must have a permit, reason being the City of
Edmonton can advise users of pollutants’, biohazards or treatments that
may cause concern. We have sailed for 3 years without incident at
“RUNDLE PARK”, with the Park Rangers, park personnel or City of Edmonton
officials asking for permits or even informing us of any hazards??
The Staff and Personnel at “Rundle Park” are excellent, and even
assisted us with accommodating the A.C.T. staff & guests to learn more
about sailing. Please
look into this matter. Mark
Endols President
Edmonton
Remote Control Sailing Association E.R.C.S.A. I
feel our association or the sailing community is being used as a
bureaucratic nuisance and I wish to inform the City of Edmonton that we
are an asset, a special event, a social contributor and a responsible
group of sailing enthusiasts that look to enhance the City of Edmonton
Beautification project . At
least we have a sport that does not cause environmental concerns, pollute
the lake, damage the surrounding, litter the park or cause social grief to
visitors. Yours
Sincerely President Archive
from the desk of Dennis Good President’s Message
for June & July. Well it has been a
busy summer for Sailing and Yacht building. Roman’s new yacht Our club (ERCSA) has
grown by a few members. We have had more interest this summer than last.
Old lead pot’s Garage has become the place to be for info., and tips
on yacht building, seems most of the new people interested in RC yachting
end up here. White Cloud, (this
author’s Soling 50) developed a severe leak this summer due to a collision
with Mike Brukes Roo, a 50” of Burke design. We somehow T boned and I was
the Tee and Mike was the bone. As a result, White Cloud’s deck at the bow
was lifted from the hull. I chased that leak for a while but it wasn’t a
major repair. Sailing on our pond
has been spotty at best this summer, some days very little wind and other
days great winds. But as sailors, we have great patience, or at lest are
developing it. Oh, by the way, we had our first sinking this week. Jim, (
a new member ) brought out a very small yacht this week to try his hand at
the great sport of RC sailing. This boat was very small, about 18” in
length which was given to him this summer. This little boat was too small
for the winds that day, but as with any sailor he had to try it. So into
the water it went, as soon as the sails filled it was almost blown over.
Jim did get to sail a
bit but it did not have enough weight to hold some speed to bring it to
the next tack. It would stall and start to sail backwards, this was its
downfall. It was blown backwards and took water over the stern and went
down by the stern. So what to do, the
boat had an air pocket in the bow which kept it above water, the bow was
pointing skyward and bobbing in the waves. At this point Jim kicked off
his runners and waded in to retrieve his boat. He noticed the bow getting
lower and lower in the water, and in his hast he forgot to empty his
pockets, a great Kodak moment, so in Jim goes, pockets full and cell phone
on his belt, to retrieve his boat. When he reached his boat, he was
standing up to his armpits in the pond. The good news, he got
his boat back, the bad news, he was very wet and so was his cell phone,
his wallet, his car key wireless fob, and his clothing with not another
set to change into. Jim phoned me later that evening to inform me that his
radio receiver, and servos had some water in them but his cell phone might
not survive like I said
D.H.G. April
2006-04-26 Another month
has gone by and we are closer to water sailing. We are still in the
process of tweaking our Land Yachts and are getting a little closer to
perfection. Whether we will achieve it, we do not know but we are trying.
The speeds on our Land Yachts are reaching the 30 KPH mark but right now
we seam not to be able to break the 29 KPH barrier. We have found an
almost perfect sailing surface at Strathcona Composite High School and
this surface has spoiled us. As we wait
for the ponds to get full, we will be sailing our Land Yachts. When the
ponds finally fill,we will still be sailing our Land Yachts. On our web
site, our IT person by the name of Mark Endols, has managed to get the
Shaw video presentation that was shown on channel 10, on our web site.
Have a look, it is interesting. When we do some video we will use some of
the things we learned by watching professional video Techniques. We will
apply this information into our videos in the future.
The next
meeting of Edmonton Remote Control Sailing Assoc. will be on May 06/2006
at Boston Pizza on Argyle Rd. and 76 St. The meeting is to plan
activities for our 2006 summer sailing season. The ponds we will use and
the Regattas we will have. There will be
a few new Yachts on the water, and we hope a few new members. So to all
folks that want to give RC sailing a try, bookmark our web site,
ifindinfo.com/ercsa, and we will have updates on our web site.
Well now we
know that sailing season is upon us, one of our members was over at my
garage today, stripping one of his hulls for a new awesome paint job. When
this sailboat is finished, it is going to be awesome. At the time of this
writing this author is getting ready to launch his new Soling 50 maybe on
Friday at Hawrelak Park in the PM. I hope there is one or two other
members with sailboats their so we have something to test with.
To all
Members and prospective Members of E.R.C.S.A. I will remind you to
attend our monthly meeting at Boston Pizza on argyle rd. on May 06/06. The
meeting is our lunch meeting to get our summer activities going.
President’s
column March 31/ 06 At the last
meeting of E.R.C.S.A. yours truly was chosen to be the first president of
our newly formed club. As president I would like to welcome all who
attended. The winter of
2005 – 2006 was too short. What I mean is we would have more time on the
ponds to perfect the Ice Yacht Mike Burke designed. His design has gone
through many changes this winter. The basic design is in this writer’s
opinion, the best looking Ice Yacht I have seen. There are not a great
many Ice Yachts on the market and the ones that are on the market are in
the US or off shore. Some of the
modifications have been in the tweaking of the blades and suspension. More
on this later The conversion from Ice Yacht to Land Yacht is quite simple.
To get more information on this, contact Mike Burke through the E.R.C.S.A.
Now onto a
subject we can all relate to, that is sailing. Until the water gets soft,
no ice, this writer has a new Soling 50 to try out and anxious too. The
Land Yachts are a great transition in the mean time. We now have all
seasons covered, sailing in the summer, land yachts in the spring and
fall, and ice yachts in the winter. All of our
members are working hard getting the Land Yacht conversion perfected for
the summer fun on the many parking lots that are not in use. Maybe I
should have included summer with the Land Yachts, sorry.
Last summers
sailing was a blast. We started sailing at Hawrelak Park ‘till the weeds
and the Goose droppings kind of chased us to Rundle Park where the water
was of much better quality. The nice
thing about Rundle is the fact the water is running and refreshing itself.
At Rundle there is a better spectator area and we get a lot of spectators
during a weekend of sailing. Some of our members sailing yachts are
getting new paint, and graphics. It is going
to be a banner year for sailing in the summer of 2006. We hope to get more
members this year and the more the merrier. The time of this writing is a
bit late and may not make the website in time for the next meeting which
is the first Saturday of the month and each and every month except
December. |
