Kingston waterfront news: September 2007

MIKE KALIN OF KINGSTON won the 40-boat Laser class at the 3-day CORK Fall Regatta which wrapped-up today.

Update: With a 10th place overall and top youth finish, Robert Davis of Kingston qualifies to represent Canada at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, July 10-19th 2008, in Aarhus, Denmark.

Robert finished 14th at this summer's Youth Worlds here in Kingston.

Update: Read CYA head coach Ken Dool's regatta report.

ACCESS DENIED. The management of Fort Henry, which is heavily taxpayer-subsidized, decided during Summer 2007 to declare dozens of acres on Kingston's waterfront out-of-bounds.

We've collectively lost and ruined most of Kingston's Waterfront just like this: one step at a time.

A SCAN FROM THE PAST: You are looking at a small-sized scan of the navigation chart created for the 1976 Olympic Sailing events (or Yachting as it was then known).

Olympic sailing was hosted in Kingston and it remains, 31 years later, the pinnacle of Kingston's impressive regatta history.

Click to see:

• medium (500 x 447 pixels),

• large (1024 x 915 pixels), and

• original (5969 x 5333 pixels) sizes of this chart.

The chart shows several very interesting things:

• The sailing events were held way out in Lake Ontario, southwest of Simcoe Island. The racing area was a full 5-miles from P.O.H., and Course Charlie, used for Tornado class catamarans, was another 5-miles beyond that.

• The racing area was bounded by 52 orange spar buoys.

• Within the racing area, near its southern edge, there was something called Bedford Tower which isn't there anymore. Whatever it was, there was a 300m exclusion zone around it.

• Note the detailed bathymetry of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, and the layout of the site for the Olympic event.

• Also see how, prior to the 1984 expansion of Confederation Basin, Kingston Harbour was dotted with many spar buoys leading to the Lasalle Causeway along Carruthers Shoal. Old-time dinghy sailors will remember these well, as they served as ideal boathandling practice marks.

Thanks to David Page, KYC archivist, who supplied the chart used to create these digital versions.

Tom Rutledge has posted some INTERESTING PHOTOS FROM NEARBY SHIPWRECKS (link to Tom's Flickr photostream).

Tom manages Northern Tech Diver at 4052 Bath Rd on Collins Bay.

A TIMBER FRAME EXHIBIT SHELTER FOR THE PHOEBE is a project that was approved by Council last week.

It will be located behind the Pump House Steam Museum on Ontario Street, and build by local students with some financial assistance from the City.

Here's the Whig Standard Story from September 20th.

See also the Phoebe restauration project website and the Friends of The Phoebe website.

PAST SEWAGE OVERFLOW REPORTS have been understated, according to this Whig-Standard article by Jennifer Pritchett.

The City of Kingston has installed new monitors on its sewers that has revealed the municipality spews millions more litres of untreated sewage into area waterways each year than previously documented.

Read the whole thing.

For what it's now worth, here's a link to the Bypass Log For The City of Kingston.

THE IOM CLASS EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA was hosted by KYC this weekend. It was a 42-race event involving 17 competitors from Ontario, Quebec, and northeast USA.

Due to the concurrent World Championships in France, participant numbers were such that they made just one fleet for all competitors.

Check out this 40-second YouTube video showing the start of race 42.

Make no mistake: radio controlled sailboat racing is serious stuff. See the See Kingston Yacht Club Radio Controlled Racing page for local information and, on a national level, see the The Canadian Radio Yachting Association website.

BLUE WOODS MARINA IS FOR SALE. Blue Woods is on the north shore of Collins Bay.

ALWAYS WORTHY OF NOTE, especially now that the big breezes of autumn are evidently with us. The Kingston Boardsailing Association has a great clickable chart of Wave Sailing Spots In the Kingston Harbour with brief descriptions.

.

For example:

Snake Shoal Break

6-8ft; Straight onshore conditions and nice long rides straight downwind. Jumps on either tack. This shallow shoal is good even in the early season high water. At low water, I wouldn't try to sail straight across this shoal. Instead, ride the surf down either side.

In case you're wondering: yes, we are in low-water conditions with levels a full 5-inches below average for this time of year, about 15-inches above chart datum.

Photo: Geoff Webster

THE GREENPEACE VESSEL ARCTIC SUNRISE is in Kingston for the next few days. The former ice breaker is traveling along the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and Toronto. They are promoting alternatives to coal and nuclear energy, and highlighting the indiscriminate logging of the Boreal Forest.

There is a public open ship tour planned for Saturday. Word is she will be moored at the P.U.C. dock, at the foot of Beverly Street.

On the Agenda of the September 6th Planning Committee meeting there's a 62-PAGE ZONING BY-LAW AMENDMENT DOCUMENT for the Admirals Walk project proposed for Cataraqui Bay (AKA Elevator Bay).

There are several issues therein, including parking which appears inadequate for what's proposed.

There's mention of a possible marina, but they apparently don't know which side of the pier, west or east, any future marina will be placed.

One point is crystal clear: there will be no off-season vessel storage on the site -- there simply isn't space -- which means that any marina there risks being a money-loser.

Note that a marina is clearly shown on The Forrest Group's website and the yachting theme is central to the project's advertising so far. All this apparently doesn't add-up.

There are also questions about what the developer can and cannot do with the water lot.

Read the whole thing.

Related:

• May 16th 2007 in The Whig Standard: Buildings planned for waterfront; Developer proposes $160-million project for pier on Elevator Bay
• July 17th 2007 Planning Committee: The public hearing report (24-page.PDF) on the proposed towers on Elevator Bay.
• May 16, 2007 K7 news item about our Elevator Bay Development public information meeting photo set on Flickr.