Portsmouth Olympic Harbour

BUD GORMELY, past chairman of CORK, is to be inducted into the Kingston District Sports Hall of Fame later this Spring.

Quoting from the story in last week's Kingston EMC:

Marsha Gormley was happy to hear that her husband Russell "Bud" Gormley had been inducted into the Hall of Fame. She just wished that he could have been there to enjoy the honour.

Indeed. This honour is probably 20-years overdue.

Bud Gormley is remembered as a pioneer of the Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston (CORK). During the 1976 Olympic Games, Gormley was known as the unofficial mayor of the Olympic Village at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. He was a key organizer of many other international sailing events in Kingston. Later in his life, Gormley carried out several humanitarian missions in the Dominican Republic.

Here's more on Bud Gormley.

Have a look at this sortable list of past HOF inductees. Rowing and sailing combined account for just six of 111 inductees. Baseball accounts for 28.

HATTERS BAY PARK is still in jeopardy according to the Portmouth Villagers Association.

You may recall that the Coast Guard wants to shift their base from the west-side to the east-side of POH, clobbering the park, or access to the park, in the process.

Read more on the issue.

FISHING FOR ANSWERS OFF KINGSTON'S SHORES in today's Whig, about an ongoing geophysical survey of Charity Shoal, thought to be a meteor impact crater.

One-mile diameter Charity Shoal is 11-miles due South of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. Most of the crater is in Canadian waters.

EIGHT DAYS OF HOT CATS IN THE HARBOUR starting Friday as the 39th Hobie 16 North American Championship takes-over.

The event is hosted by CORK and sailed out of the Portsmouth Olympic Harbor.

The event starts with three days of racing for the Youth and Women’s Championship followed by five days of racing for the Open Championship.

Competitors from six countries and eleven US states will take part in the event. The entry list includes five former Olympians and four past Hobie 16 North American Champions. The defending champions from Puerto Rico, Francisco Figueroa and Jolliam Berrios, will be defending their title.

ON TUESDAY'S COUNCIL AGENDA is the City Marinas Sustainable Strategy and Business Plan whose weeks-delayed public release was thoroughly botched last month following its truly bizarre August 2006 inception as a suspiciously narrowly-circulated RFI.

(Hey, you have to agree: it's a great way to run a railroad.)

FINALLY, for perhaps the first time in the seemingly endless Harvey Rosen era, Kingston waterfront takes a step that's NOT downright stupid, or ridiculously over-hyped, or shamefully stalled, or dirigiste, or laughably incomplete, or botched, or totally wasted, or commandeered by a raving bo-bo or otherwise seriously retrograde.

This bucks the unmistakable trend:

THAT the recommendation for the relocation of the Coast Guard at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour be exempted from the above clauses, and that it be referred back to staff for review and reconsideration in light of the community concerns raised within correspondence and through a delegation to the Committee on behalf of the Portsmouth Villagers Community Association.

Hallelujah.

Related: Anne Milina Outlook Point, the waterfront park that stands to be clobbered by said Coast Guard relocation.

ANNE MILINA OUTLOOK POINT is the newest and possibly tinyest of Kingston's waterfront parks.

It sits on the southeastern edge of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour on land formerly controlled by Corrections Canada. It was opened in June 2008.

The point is also known as Hatters Bay Park

The recently released consultant's report, titled Kingston Marinas Sustainability and Development Strategy and Business Plan says this about the the Coast Guard building that sits on the Western edge of the POH property.

Current Coast Guard building inadequate for their needs considering relocation to east side of harbour at Hadders (sic) Bay Park.

Among the plan's recommendations for POH is number 7:

Recommendation POH7 : Collaborate with the Coast Guard to develop and implement a plan for relocating and enlarging their land-based facilities and berth, while relocating Hatters Bay Park to current Coast Guard location at southwest corner of site.

Financial Implications: Minimal or no cost to City of Kingston.

Timing: Q4 2008- Q2 2009 (sic)

Understandably, clobbering a beautiful waterfront park and moving it to a concrete-surrounded petrol-station-sign-dominated place in the shadow of tall condo buildings has folks in Portsmouth Village a little disturbed.

But more to the point, according to the consultant, all this is supposed to happen at minimal or no cost to City of Kingston.

• Build a new house-sized structure, and running services to it,
• build a parking lot at the new structure,
• build substantial new berths for coast guard vessels on the East-side of POH,
• pave and perpetually clear and maintain the road to the new structure,
• demolish a smaller but still house-sized structure, and rip-up the extisting Coast Guard area and turn that into a "park".

Right!

It's a really stupid idea on so many levels. Still, it's out-there, floating-around as someone's bright idea for our waterfront.

Nevermind that there's no other publicly accessible waterfront between there and Breakwater Park, a full 1.2 kilometers to the east, as the crow flies.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY SAVE ONTARIO SHIPWRECKS (SOS) that it has formed a partnership with the Nautical Archaeology Society of Portsmouth UK to deliver maritime archaeology education programs developed by the society.

A committee of instructors has been established. Training will begin in 2009. SOS aims to provide opportunities for training across the province.

Save Ontario Shipwrecks is a Provincial Heritage Organization dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of an appreciation of Ontario's marine heritage.

FIVE-ANCHOR ECO-RATINGS have finally been awarded to both POH and Confed by the Ontario Marina Operators Association's Clean Marine Program.

The City of Kingston-operated marinas join Collins Bay Marina which received its 5-anchor rating in 2005, one of the first in Ontario to achieve it.

Other local eco-rated marinas include Kingston Marina, Treasure Island Marina, and Loyalist Cove Marina.

Local OMOA-member marinas that have no eco-rating at all include Rideau Marina and Blue Woods Marina.

MARINAS.COM has a very impressive database of aerial photographs of marinas all over the world, including many in the region. Have a look.

In Kingston

• Blue Woods Marina
• CFB Kingston Yacht Club
• Collins Bay Marina
• Cunningham Rd Marina
• Kingston Marina
• Music Marina
• Portsmouth Olympic Harbour
• Rideau Marina
• Royal Military College
• Treasure Island Marina
• Trident Yacht Club

In Gananoque

• Gananoque Municipal Marina
• Brennan Marine
• Clark's Marina
• Gananoque Inn
• Gordon Marine
• Hunt's Marina

In Bath

• Loyalist Cove Marina

NOTICE FROM THE CITY about the expansion of the Point Pleasant water treatment plant.

A Public Information Centre will be held at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Press Lounge from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 30, 2008, to allow the public to meet the project team, discuss the study objectives and to receive comments and input.

See also What's behind and under these ugly buildings? from April 2007, and the Urban Area Water Supply Master Plan which is a comprehensive overview with many interesting charts and diagrams.

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:

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.

The Wolfe Island WIND PROJECT INFORMATION DISPLAY PANELS have been posted.

Here are direct links to the most intersting panels:

• How Will Sailing be Affected?
  
• Visual Simulation - from Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, Kingston
  
• Visual Simulation - from Shoal Tower, Kingston
  
• Visual Simulation - on Wolfe Island 1
  
• Visual Simulation - on Wolfe Island 2
  
• Visual Simulation - from Victoria Street Park, Wolfe Island
  
• Visual Simulation - from Simcoe Island
  
• Turbine Lighting
  

MORE MARINA SHENANEGANS IN THE CITY:

Here's a scanned copy of the 11-page City of Kingston Request For Information (RFI) No. CS-AM-2006-02 on the future of Confederation Basin and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour that describes itself as

"Partnering opportunity with the municipality in the provision of capital investment in marina infrastructure and delivery of marinas operations and marketing services"

Read the whole thing.

[Updated]: Click here to view the July 25th 2006 City of Kingston website announcement of the matter. Click here to see the interesting and detailed documents submitted to Council to approve this move in late March, 2006.

Various questions arise from all this:

• Why hasn't this document been widely circulated? It was advertised once in Kingston This Week. Pick-up only from the Midland St office. It was never publicly posted online by the City. Was a notice of this forwarded to, say, the Ontario Marina Operators Association? Were players from the wider marina industry approached? Why such a short leash?

• What is the linkage between this RFI and the Request For Proposals, which apparently would soon follow? Why the rush? The RFI packs onerous production requirements into a short time, and reserves all rights to plans and intellectual property conveyed by respondents. The period for questions, for example, has already expired, just three weeks into this.

• What's in place to protect taxpayers, protect access for boating residents and events, and for equitable treatment for other local waterfront-related interests, both commercial and public?

• Why does all this appear to not pass a basic stink-test? Last April, for example, the The Kingston Brewing Company was precipitously given the task of running #6 Clarence Street, which is now the marina office, in what was the restaurant nearest to Confederation Basin.

The City of Kingston has issued a Request for Information for potential partners to "provide capital investment in marina infrastructure" and to "deliver marinas operations and marketing services" for Confederation Basin and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.

Over at Collins Bay Marina they're already launching boats. "This is the earliest we have ever started the season!" says Hub Steenbakkers, owner of Collins Bay Marina. "It is starting off to be a great season!".

Here are two views from the controllable Collins Bay Marina web cam which you can take for a spin at www.CollinsBayMarina.com/WebCam.html.

At other locations:

• Rideau Marina should begin launch activities in the next week or two, and
• Kingston Yacht Club launch day is April 29th.
• At Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, this afternoon they were hoisting-in the finger docks which winter ashore.

At issue before Council tonight, the City of Kingston proposes to rent an office at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour to Clifts Marine Sales of Toronto whose homepage already touts this as a done deal. Note the rent. We're guessing this is the thin edge of the wedge, and it's only a matter of time before they start renting docks and using POH as a major sales centre.

Surely we're not the only ones who missed the release of the December 2005 CORK Newsletter. Among the interesting items in the two pages are:

• The Trillium Foundation has provided over $50,000 towards the purchase of three new race support boats.
• Marianne Davis is CORK's new general manager.
• The City of Kingston has received a grant from the Government of Canada to refurbish Portsmouth Olympic Harbour which will include fixing-up the existing ramps, adding new ramps, and refurbishing docks.