Where we started…

Well Sail Nelson had another great sailing season this year! The forest fires held off and we were able to have wonderful, clear, sailing all season long!

This year’s focus was really on our core Basic Cruising courses. Once again, we had over 30 students take our courses to become Sail Canada certified and competent sailors! So proud of them all and happy to have made some new friends!

We were not able to get an Intermediate Cruising course scheduled due to other outside factors, but Penny is certified and ready to go. We are hoping that 2020 will be the year to add one or two Intermediate Courses to our schedule out on the Coast. Contact us if you are interested in taking this course!

What’s new?

Spindrift is now happily located at the Prestige Marina! Our new
home right here in downtown Nelson. This has been a very welcome change for us as it has added stability to our programming, as we do not need to worry about water levels as much as we did when we were at Kokanee Marina or out on a pin!

The access for our students is a welcome change as well, and the sailing is proving to be a good challenge with the mountain affect being so pronounced in one of the narrowest parts of the West Arm of Kootenay Lake.

Where we are headed…

Penny is completing her Coastal Navigation instructor level and will be offering the Basic Coastal Navigation course in April. This course is a prerequisite for the Intermediate Cruising live aboard course. We are excited to be able to offer this course in the area! Penny has the benefit of having Gillian West as her mentor. Gillian has been a long time contributor and creator of many of the Sail Canada certification levels. She is the author of the Basic Cruising, Intermediate Cruising and Coastal Navigation course textbooks, and is providing valuable support to Penny as Penny completes her curriculum and lesson plans.

Sail Nelson is branching out in 2020 to offer more compressed courses as well as charter type sails. We have had many people reach out who just want to go for a sail and not necessarily be in charge of the boat, so we are happily offering this option for 2020. We will have a new online booking system available in the Spring to book these types of sails.

What we have accomplished…

And finally, Sail Nelson was nominated by BC Sailing for the Canadian Safe Boating Council 2019 Best Boating Safety Initiative Award. Guess what? We won!

We are proud to announce that out of all of the boating safety events held in Canada in 2019, the Nelson Safe Boating Event was deemed the most progressive and impactful for our community! Penny will be going to Toronto in January for the CSBC Awards gala to accept this prestigious award! We could not have done it without our core team of volunteers including Graham Toews, Kim Green, Will Halleran, Leanna Andrews, and Ginger Lester. Also a big thank you goes out to all of our partners and sponsors who stepped up and made this first event a great success! You have not seen the last of the Nelson Safe Boating Event and it will only get bigger and better each year!

And finally, Sail Nelson has created the Travis McGregor Seamanship Award which will be presented annually to a student who demonstrates and exemplifies continuous boating safety. For our 2019 season, the award winner will be announced on January 15, 2020.

Cheers to another great year and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Captain Penny

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