Kingston waterfront news for 2007

The CFB KINGSTON DOLPHIN SCUBA CLUB remains very active with diving throughout the winter.

Yesterday, for example, members dove off the Kingston Yacht Club during the day and then practiced in the KMCSC pool in the evening.

The Dolphins regularly post accounts and photos on their blog, and they occasionally update their photo gallery on Flickr which has, among other things, a photoset of members ice diving in Kingston Harbour last February.

Incidentally, though it's a military club, it's membership is open to all Kingston residents. A yearly associate membership costs $65.00 for civilians, $45.00 if you're between 14 and 21.

The CFB Kingston Dolphin Scuba Club is one of the truly great things about the Kingston waterfront. Active year-round, its members always seem to be collaborating with others on the waterfront, and they have been systematically sharing what they do, see, and find.

Someone created a Google KITEBOARDING KINGSTON - RIDING MAP. Big Sandy Bay is mis-identified, but the rest is great.

For example:

PUC Dock

Kingston's most popular summer launch site, good from east through west on the south side of the compass, best in SW winds...but it really comes to life in a true west once the swell gets bigger and cleans up a bit. Best catagorized as "bump and jump" with a nice little carvatorium on the inside at the pipe.

Though this is a very accessible launch it is an intermediate level spot at least. There is a slight current, and limited landing spots downwind. Jump off the dock to launch, but make sure you make it in before the last little beach upwind of the hospital! If you miss that your best bet is to ride it out and come in WAAAAY downwind at the base of Fort Henry. Not a bad planned downwinder for those on the early stages of the learning curve. Bring a quarter and call a cab from the pay phone at the entrance to the fort to get back to the PUC docks.

Wild.

Related: Here's a Google Earth File of Lake Ontario Windsurf Spots compiled by Evan Wamsley.

APPROVAL OF 2008 CITY MARINA FEES is also on Council's agenda for Tuesday evening. It's on page 38 of the report if the link doesn't bring you directly there.

THE LICENSE AGREEMENT WITH AHOY RENTALS LTD. is on Council's agenda for Tuesday evening.

It appears that the timber frame exhibit shelter for the Phoebe is to be placed near where Ahoy Rentals is currently, so Ahoy will move southwest somewhat, with a new structure to be built there.

Ahoy will be licensed to rent out a maximum of twenty kayaks, six canoes, six sail boats (12'-16') and twelve bicycles, whereas under the former agreement eight kayaks, four canoes, eight sail boats, two windsurfers and an unspecified number of bicycles were rented from the site.

Here's the Phoebe restoration project home page and the Ahoy Rentals home page.

$220,000 FOR MARINA REPAIRS IN 2008 in a Whig story today. It's all about who should ultimately pay.

But the city's deputy mayor said Kingston has to accept the fact that it is not a waterfront city.

Deputy Mayor Bill Glover said the city has ignored waterfront development and a full range of services for citizens and boaters to enjoy.

Read the whole thing.

THE SNOWBIRDS AIRSHOW is coming back to Kingston on Wednesday June 18th 2008.

MetalCraft Marine's fireboats were FRONT-PAGE NEWS IN THE MIAMI-HERALD on Friday.

Also, MetalCraft Marine's news page is quite active, and you can subscribe to its RSS feed .

The latest GREAT LAKES ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY STUDY has just been released, and it's fascinating reading.

The 128-page PDF is full of interesting discussion and schematics on the economic importance of the Seaway, environmental considerations, infrastructure, and various aspects and challenges of keeping the Seaway in operation.

In Kingston it's easy to forget about the Seaway because its shipping channel passes South of Wolfe Island, so we don't see it on a daily basis. The Seaway is just 8 1/2 miles, as the crow files, from City Hall.

Yesterday CKWS-TV News reported this:

CLEAN RIDEAU

The Rideau waterway has scored high marks in a just-released survey on water quality.

Environment Canada compiled samples from rivers across the country. And it gives the Rideau a 75 out of 100.

Memo to CKWS-TV News: That's not what the report says.

You can find the 67-page report here: Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators -- released Dec 6 2007.

Assuming that CKWS-TV News is accurate about the rideau scoring "75 out of 100", then qualifying that as "high marks" is drastically overstating the findings of the report.

If you read the report, which CKWS-TV News evidently didn't do, here is how the Water Qualitry Index (WQI) is interpreted:

Therefore, the proper conclusion is that the Water Quality Index (WQI) for Rideau waterway is fair.

Here's the distribution of "scores" for the 359 waterways tested by Environment Canada in this report. The Rideau Waterway is close to average at best.

HMCS TERRA NOVA, a 366-foot Canadian Restigouche-class destroyer escort, is to be scuttled to create an artificial reef for diving near Gananoque.

The target-time for that is late 2009.

The claim that "the sunken ship will attract some 10,000 recreational scuba divers to the region in the first year" seems implausible.

Update A meeting account from Chris of the CFB Dolphins SCUBA Club. The scuttling is planned to be just off Browns Bay Provincial Park, near Mallorytown on the 1000 Islands Parkway. That's about 60 km from Kingston.

THE ADMIRAL'S WALK APPLICATION FOR DRAFT PLAN OF SUBDIVISION is included in the documents for this week's City of Kingston Planning Committee meeting.

Therein is a lousy-quality scan of a "concept site plan", shown below; click the image to go to the source document.

The new theme appears to be, "maximum marina". How such a facility might work in practice, given the extremely limited shoreside space, certainly isn't clear.

A notable oddity: the diagram appears dated July 2006, which is surprising since we've not been shown anything remotely resembling this before.

Related:

• September 3, 2007: No details whatsoever about a marina in the 62-page zoning bylaw ammendment document. Given that omission, you'd be forgiven the sentiment that the developer hasn't exactly being forthright with respect to our waterfront.
• 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.

Have you noticed how Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, dominates Google search result pages?

For example, consider these Google search results:

• Google " Kingston, Ontario", and Wikipedia ranks as the first entry after the City of Kingston's website, and ahead of all the websites belonging to Queen's, Fort Henry, CFB Kingston, KEDCO, all the hotels, all real-estate brokers, the Chamber of Commerce, all the other directories, everthing.
• Googling Queens University returns Wikipedia as the first Canadian non-Queen's entry.
• Googling Royal Military College: Wikipedia ranks second behind the RMC website.
• Wolfe Island returns Wikipedia in fifth spot, but still ahead of 312,995 others.

Like it or not, Google considers Wikipedia as authoritative. When someone wants a general overview of something notable, Wikipedia is as good a place as any to start.

It is therefore in our interest to ensure that Wikipedia articles about notable things in our midst exist, are rich and accurate, are properly categorized and linked, and thereafter are watched in perpetuity.

Our waterfront is woefully underrepresented in Wikipedia. That needs to change.

So pick a notable piece of your physical environment and see to documenting it in Wikipedia. It won't cost you a dime, and it will get viewed far more, and be trusted far more, than almost anything else you can do on the web, at any price.

KEDCO'S KINGSTON ONTARIO WATERFRONT WEBSITE IS EVOLVING.

Here's the current home page.

Note the adult and two kids, in a what appears to be a 15-foot canoe, mid-Harbour at dusk in imminent weather. Seriously, how improbable is that? How wise is that?

International-14 class sailboats haven't actively sailed here for quite some time. The boat pictured here is Toronto-based, shown in no-wind, flat calm conditions.

Underwater here isn't blue, it's green or, if anything, it's dark green.

Adding just one more link-button to that web page looks very expensive. Guess how many files you'd need to touch to add another little box to the left of the canoe.

Is the KEDCO "blue belt" website like another website KEDCO isn't able to maintain?

Update Saturday Dec 1st: Inter Kingston Web Design has taken the website offline. Evidently the "blue-belt" website project, as currently conceived, has some serious content, presentation, and governance issues.

A GLANCE AT LAKE ONTARIO WATER LEVELS tells us that sometime on Thursday November 22nd levels measured at Kingston dipped below chart datum.

Currently we're a full 2-feet below last year's levels.

Here is a historical graph of Great Lakes' water levels dating back to 1918. Here's the same data in tabular form. The last time Lake Ontario was below datum was in 1965, though we've been very close to chart-datum twice in the past 8-years.

THE MARINE MUSEUM LEASE ISSUE IS APPARENTLY RESOLVED. Finally.

The WOLFE ISLAND WIND PROJECT ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW REPORT is online.

There are several very interesting attachments to the report. Among them:

• Simulation of Wake Effect Distances which includes the positioning of our traditional regatta circles. It'll be interesting to see the racing effect on wind in the boat channel, South of Simcoe Island. Before the wind project, given the tactical choice, this was typically the preferred route in and out of the harbour.
• The Submarine Cable Preferred Route lands in Sand Bay, which is good news for one of our best wave sailing Spots in Kingston Harbour.
• Watercourses Requiring Permanent Vehicle Crossings.
• Distribution of Raptors, Owls and Snow Buntings, 2005.
• Several updated visual impact assessments, like this predicted view from Fort Henry:

Nathan Baron: ONE LAST LAP.

THE FINAL OF THE WFN 2008 BASS TOUR, THE CANADIAN OPEN, IS COMING TO KINGSTON, September 19-21 2008. There is $1,000,000 in prize money up for grabs.

Here's a press release with the fishing tournament's prize structure.

The lead-up events are in Georgina (Jul 4-6), Sarnia (Jul 25-27), Port Colborne (Aug 22-24), and Gravenhurst in the Muskokas (Sep 5-7), before the final in Kingston September 19-21.

Unlike the Poker Run, which occurs on an August weekend that would be sold-out in any event, this event is in mid-fall, when our waterfront facilities and accommodations in town have lots of excess capacity. Smart!

WFN.TV is a slick operation, and entering the event is not cheap. A professional angler, competing only in Kingston, must pay a $3,500 entry fee, while amateur anglers are in for $850 apiece.

If you're in, register here.

COMET 17P/HOLMES, which recently brightened from magnitude 17 to magnitude 2.5 in just a few hours, is an easy sighting with binoculars, or with the naked-eye from darker viewing sites.

After sunset, look for it in the north-east sky, one and a half palm-widths up from bright star Capella. It is currently the third brightest "star" in the constellation of Perseus. It's visible all night.

Comet Holmes was first discovered in 1892 and has an orbital period of 6.9 years. It's interesting that Holmes reached perihelion in early May, and is currently on its way away from the Sun. It's distance from the Earth is at its minimum now, at 1.62 AU, so this is likely as good as it will get. Here's an interactive orbit diagram from NASA.

Marine Museum: STILL IN LIMBO, from CKWS-TV news.

Update: Here's the situation as described by the Marine Museum.

20TH ANNIVERSARY OPEN HOUSE PHOTOS from MetalCraft Marine are now online.

The BMCM CARL BRASHEAR, Newport News' new Firestorm 30 fireboat from MetalCraft Marine, is now in service on the waters of Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay.

Recall that this was the vessel that mysteriously sank at the dock overnight at the Leeward Municipal Marina on March 21st, 2007.

Here's the marine surveyor's assessment of what happened that night.

Interesting: OPG ONTARIO LENNOX 2 OIL/GAS UNIT BACK IN SERVICE from Reuters UK.

BEACH REPORT 2007 is a 36-page PDF just released by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

Seven of the Kingston-area beaches are covered in the report:

• Richardson Beach (they call it "Murney Tower")
• Grass Creek
• Rotary Park, (incorrectly identified as part of "Collins Bay Marina")
• Lemoine Beach
• Arrowhead Beach
• Crerar Beach
• Everitt Beach
• Lake Ontario Park (they call it "Lake Ontario Municipal Beach")

Oddly Big Sandy Bay, one of Lake Ontrario's most beautiful beaches, isn't included.

Many of the observations arise from the abject neglect by our municipality for our beaches.

That's not the only beach-related thing that's neglected by the City.

On August 24th we were pleased to report that FINALLY WE HAVE AN ONLINE BEACH REPORT.

But our fears were well-founded: as it turns out, that online beach report is just another web page the City is unable to properly maintain. There has been no update in the two months since August 24th when the information was first posted.

NATHAN BARON has been working hard towards his goal of qualifying and sailing in next year's solo Transat 650 race. He's often out in Kingston Harbour practicing, and he recently completed a Toronto Training Run.

He's also documenting his journey with over 120 photos so far in this Flickr photoset.

Nathan plans an "Open Boat" event on October 21st from 1-3pm at KYC where people can come down to see the boat up-close and get a taste of what life aboard a mini is like.

MEET THE CITY'S NEW FIREBOAT, formerly known as the CCGC Bittern: Good article today in The Whig about the refit project, which was done here in Kingston at MetalCraft Marine.

You can see the vessel at today's MetalCraft Marine Open House which runs from 1-4 pm.

Here are before and after photos:

Update: Here's a transcript of CKWS-TV's report.

Check out the SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER of the City's Ravensview Water Pollution Control project, which is enormous.

It doesn't contain much information, but the photos give you a sense of the project's scale.

METALCRAFT MARINE IS CELEBRATING 20-YEARS of building high-tech vessels here on the Kingston Waterfront.

They are hosting an open house on Friday, October 5th, between 1 and 4 pm.

They'll have tours of their operations, and show glimpses of projects they have on-the-go.

Pass the word.

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.

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.

The CFB KINGSTON DOLPHIN SCUBA CLUB is a great example of how many local organizations could better interact with their members and the public at large: by blogging.

Consider these accounts of three recent dive excursions, all posted yesterday.

• Night Dive at the Pump House
• Wolfe Island Winter Dock
• Morton Street Wharf this afternoon

Makes you want to do a lot more diving, doesn't it?

Consider too the cost of all this: zero dollars, just three paragraphs in total.

NOT SINCE APRIL 19th have we seen this:

CITY PURCHASES LAND adjacent to Grass Creek Park.

That's good, but the announcement is prefixed with:

...in accordance with municipal policies for developing and sustaining public access to the City's waterfront.

... which is baloney, also here, citing two much closer and pertinent counterexamples from just last week alone.

Also, looking at the photo, there's really not much new waterfront there. So the whole waterfront angle to this story appears a little overblown.

Update: A report from the August 24th edition of the Whig Standard, which leads with:

Kingston has taken one more step toward securing the public use of its waterfront by purchasing 45 acres of riverside property on the city's far east side.

FINALLY WE HAVE AN ONLINE BEACH REPORT.

It's on the City of Kingston website, under "Residents", then "Recreation". At the moment apparently two beaches, Lake Ontario Park and Rotary Park, are posted.

The information is not date-stamped, so you'll have no idea of information freshness. Let's hope this isn't another web page the city has no time to maintain.

CORK BLOGGING: Here are links to competitors, volunteers, and spectators blogging about CORK. This beats the Kingston Whig Standard, which has had almost zero coverage so far, and the CORK website, which has a "News" link with no recent news to be found there.

• Andrew Campbell, who recently won a gold medal for the USA in the Laser class at the Pan-Am Games: Monday Morning Tactician: 13 August 2007 about the importance of long-view weather checking before a competition like CORK.
• John Pearce, a US Olympic sailing hopeful (he placed 4th at US Laser Nationals), posted an item titled Training Camp in Kingston on Wednesday.
• Jenny, a CORK volunteer, posted an item titled CORK Sailing yesterday. It sounds like Jenny would love to do more actual sailing. Reading downward, she also volunteered for the Kingston Triathlon. Jenny's evidently a giver.
• Monika's Adventures has an August 11th post titled CORK, Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston. Monica also had a recent post titled International Sailing in Kingston about volunteering for the ISAF Youth World Championships in July.

THE LACK OF SHORELINE FISHING SPOTS is the subject of an interesting front-page story in today's Whig. It highlights a big problem with the waterfront in the City of Kingston: accessibility.

We've got:

• town docks we can't walk,
• birds-only breakwalls,
• several ramps with little or no parking for trailers,
• apparently numbskulls are in charge at Fort Henry and,
• according to the article, angler-hostile desk-flying bureaucrats at all levels.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Time for a management shakeup at Fort Henry?

Fort Henry officials are cracking down on pedestrian traffic on the perimeter of the property, which has become a popular spot for dog-walkers and picnickers.

Two new topics are now prominently linked on the home page:

THE HIGHWAY TRAVELLER'S HOME PAGE seeks to brief Highway 401 travelers, who might otherwise bypass Kingston, about economical and time-efficient options involving Kingston's waterfront.

THE RESIDENT'S HOME PAGE seeks to brief most Kingston residents who, on balance, don't participate in their waterfront as much as they could.

Like all topics here, these topics are subject to incremental improvement, so suggestions and contributions are welcome.

THE SHARK NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS is a 35-boat competition.

Update: Winners are David O'Sullivan, David Foy, and Jamie Foy of Ottawa's Britannia Yacht Club. Top Kingston boat is Peter VanRossem, Gord Greer, and Peter VanRossem Jr in fourth position. Results here.

A UNESCO VIBE at tonight's Sunset Ceremony at Fort Henry, from The Toronto Star.

WELL OVER 800 PEOPLE took advantage of boat rides on Saturday and Sunday during the Kingston Discover Boating Event. See also the related article in today's Whig-Standard.

NEW MOORING FIELD on the South side of Kingston Harbour, just off the The Island Grill on Wolfe Island, just East of the Wolfe Island Ferry dock.

A total of 10 moorings, available free for now, though the plan is to eventually charge overnight, monthly, or yearly rates.

Outer moorings have a depth of 14 feet, shallowing to 7ft for the inner ones. No reservations are currently required.

See also our Island Grill topic, and the Anchoring topic, still a work in progress, is updated to reflect these new moorings.

NATHAN BARON'S MINI TRANSAT SLOOP arrived in Kingston yesterday and was launched at Collins Bay Marina. Lots of photos on Flickr.

Nathan hopes to compete in the 2009 Mini Transat race between France and South America.

July 27 2007 UPDATE: Front-page story in The Whig-Standard.

It's been a while since we've featured the THE LATEST GREAT LAKES WATER LEVELS FORECAST by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Lake Ontario levels are about six inches below normal for this time of year, so beware.

There are still SOME AVAILABLE SAILING CAMP SPOTS in August at the Kingston Yacht Club Sailing School and at the Collins Bay Yacht Club Sailing School. Pass the word.

TUESDAY'S COUNCIL AGENDA includes an additional $60,000 operating grant to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes.

See also Exhibit 'A' - Marine Museum of the Great Lakes 2007 Business Plan which is interesting, and underscores that the Museum needs your support too.

THE FINAL DAY OF RACING AT THE VOLVO YOUTH SAILING ISAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS saw just one race as planned. Winds were very shifty from the Nortwest that, at times when competitors were on water, gusted to thirty knots and above. Results here.

THE 2007 VOLVO YOUTH SAILING ISAF WORLD CHAMPIONS

Boys One Person Dinghy: Laser (Pavlos Kontides, Cyprus)
Girls One Person Dinghy: Laser Radial (Gabrielle King, AUS)
Boys Two Person Dinghy: 29er (Henrik Sogaard, Soren Kristensen, DEN)
Girls Two Person Dinghy: 29er (Emily Dellenbaugh, Briana Provancha, USA)
Boys Windsurfer (Pierre Le Coq, FRA)
Girls Windsurfer (Laura Linares, ITA)
Open Multihull: Hobie Cat 16 Race Spinnaker (Richard Glover, Andrew Glover, GBR)

Our List Of Major Regattas In Kingston has been updated with these seven new world champions.

PHOTOS OF THE FAIR JEANNE FIRE from the Clayton Fire Department. The vessel shown responding in the photos is one built by MetalCraft Marine of Kingston.

A DAY ON THE LIGHT-SIDE: Here's what iWindsurf.com recorded for wind on Day 4 of the ISAF Volvo Youth Worlds.

If you are in VHF radio range of Kingston Harbour, and are able to listen-in, here are the channels for Volvo Youth Worlds regatta.

• Orange course (VHF 10): Skiffs and Cats.
• Blue course (VHF 72): Boards
• Yellow course (VHF 69): Lasers

Results here.

Highlight of Day 4: A bullet and a 2nd for Isabella Bertold of Canada in Girls Laser Radial who sits in 5th with three more races to sail.

Canada is tied for 13th overall for the Volvo Trophy which, at the top, is a 3-way race betweem Australia, Denmark, and New Zeland. Looking down from there, the UK is 6th and the USA is 7th.

There are three interesting waterfront-related items on the CITY'S PLANNING COMMITTEE AGENDA for Thursday, July 19 2007.

• A 106 page PDF on an Ontario Municipal Board Appeal of the Cataraqui West development along Collins Creek.
• The public hearing report (24-page.PDF) on the proposed towers on Elevator Bay. More on the proposed Elevatror Bay development here.
• More details, Draft Plan of Subdivision and Draft Plan of Condominium, (38-page.PDF) on the Stirling Bridge Company's proposed development on the North side of John Counter Boulevard along the Great Cataraqui River. More on the Stirling Bridge Company's proposed development here.

Lots of interesting diagrams in all three of these documents.

A reminder: THE CFB KINGSTON DOLPHIN SCUBA CLUB BLOG regularly covers another great aspect of Kingston's waterfront, its underwater world. The Dolphin SCUBA Club is active all year 'round (link to photos on Flickr), which is amazing.

AFTER RACING DAY TWO AT THE ISAF YOUTH WORLDS, we can start to say the regatta's eventual winners will have really earned it.

Winds started West and fair but it picked up and backed suddenly around 11:30am and, by first guns at noon it was snorting. It mostly built from there.

Yellow Course was set at 245 degrees, and that never changed. By session's end around 2:30pm, with gusts close to 30 at times and with carnage looming, they called it a day. Another good call.

Results here. Best Canadian after Day 2 is David Hayes of Toronto, currently in a podium position in Boys Windsurfer thanks to a bullet in the last race today.

RACING DAY ONE AT THE ISAF YOUTH WORLDS was cloudy with shifty, diminishing and, eventually, backing breezes to below 180 degrees.

There was a notable discrepancy between the planned and actual location of the Yellow Course (Hobie Cat and 29er classes).

Results here.

IT WAS AN UNUSUAL DAY WIND-WISE for the Volvo Youth Worlds practice races, which were supposed to happen on three race circles in early afternoon.