boat

PADDLES UP!

Our start date is: Monday May 28th, 7:00 am OR 5:30 pm.

Finally, the weather has warmed up, the ice finally left the lakes and we can now look forward to being out on the water again. The Susannah Foo is almost ready for her spring launch after several weeks of sanding, varnishing, a little touch-up of the red and a reapplication of anti-fouling. Phil and Tony with a loyal team of volunteers enjoyed the work under cover at the Minden Curling Club. Thank you volunteers and MCC.

All practices are scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays: 7:00 – 8:30 am; or 5:30 – 7:00 pm.

If any changes/cancellations of these scheduled times are necessary, you will be notified by email.

Please dress according to weather and don’t forget to bring your CSA approved PFD. If you haven’t already provided a waiver for this year, please do so at the first practice you attend. A waiver form can be downloaded from our website: www.haliburtonhighlandspaddlers.ca.

Peterborough Festival June 9th: Paddlers and a drummer are still needed for the Peterborough Festival on Saturday June 9th. If you would like to join the team, email Carolyn Ellis carolyn.halibu@gmail.com ASAP.

Looking forward to that first time out on the water.

PADDLES UP; TAKE IT AWAY

HHP Scores SILVER at Port Perry Dragon Boat Festival 2017-gallery

By Joan Ransberry

Lisa Werry and fellow paddlers “left it all on the lake” at the Port Perry Dragon Boat Festival Saturday, June 17.
Once again, the Haliburton Highlands Paddlers came home with hardware, placing second in the Mixed Division “D” to win a Silver medal.

The Port Perry festival was especially exciting for the 38 participating teams. In keeping with the commands of dragon boating, all eyes were in the boat. However, when boarding the boat at the beginning of each race, competitors looked up to the sky: The storm clouds loomed all day. The weather gods sure teased: the sky opened just as the awards ceremony got underway.
The Haliburton Highlands Paddlers didn’t mind getting drenched. “We waited in the downpour for coach Scotty Boyd and race captain Ginny Carmichael to hand out our hard-earned medals,” said Joannie Ransberry.

An especially proud competitor, Lisa Werry had one concern at the end of the third and final race.
“I wasn’t sure if I had enough energy left to get out of the boat,” said Lisa.

Team coach Scotty Boyd was very pleased with the results of the day. “The team did a fantastic job, especially in the last race,” Scotty said. “We had four first-time paddlers. They did a great job.”

First-time paddler Julia Donnelly came away from the race very impressed: “Everything was wonderful,” said Julia. “I had a great time.”

The Haliburton Highlands Paddlers appreciated the efforts of steerspersons Lois Deacon and Lillian Hall and, of course, drummer Jane Boyd.
“It was a very precarious race” said Jane. “I’m just glad my team didn’t dump me in the lake.” Once again, Edna Jamieson gave it her all. “There was lots of spirit from the paddlers, from the coaches and from the volunteers. It has been an amazing day,” Edna said.

The Haliburton team’s focus is now on the next festival to be held in Barrie on Aug. 26.
With a few more paddlers needed for this all-women’s race, a call has gone out to “fill the boat.”
Haliburton Highlands Paddlers chairperson Elli Armstrong is excited to enter the Haliburton team in the Barrie festival. “Last year we walked away with the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award. The Barrie festival is a wonderful venue and promises to be a great day. Let’s fill the boat!”

The “FOO” has a Head at last!

Headless since the inauguration of Haliburton Highlands Paddlers, our beloved ‘FOO’ now has a head AND a tail, which, although they may not be used regularly, are certainly available for ‘Special’ occasions. It appeared publicly on Head Lake on Sat 11th for such an occasion. Stay tuned for further details on the ‘fancy’ FOO, the occasion and lots of photos!

If you have photos (or stories) of Saturday, pls forward to admin@haliburtonhighlandspaddlers.ca for possible inclusion.

Foo work – Progress Report April 18th

Foo-ing Around in the Sun = FUN!

This morning, the volunteers made really good progress in preparing the Foo floor for a new coat of slip resistant deck paint. In fact, we moved the Foo outside so that we could be in the warmth of the glorious sunshine.

Haliburton Highlands Paddlers — Together we make it easier!

After finishing our tasks, we had a group pow-wow and came to the consensus that the prep work for painting is now completed. In removing the old paint where it was de-laminated and flaking off, a fair amount of wood surfaces became exposed, more than expected, so we have decided that we will apply a primer first as recommended by the technical data sheet for the paint. We will need to purchase this (in Barrie on Saturday) so painting will start on Tuesday, April 25^th.

The planned work crews for this week (Wednesday & Thursday) are cancelled. For those who volunteered for these times, thank you and we’ll get ya next week, hopefully.

Paddles up

Foo Maintenance Update

On Thursday April 13 and Friday the 14th some of the crew met at the Minden Curling Club to start the tasks at hand. With the dedicated help, a lot was accomplished. Last year the UV light from the sun took its toll on the starboard side of the interior vertical surface of the gunwale. Most of this has now been sanded with maybe about 15 per cent left to complete. When we had 3 or 4 sanders all running at the same time, you would think you’re right in the middle of about 50 bee hives, a lot of buzzing goin’ on.

We also made good headway on preparing the floor for re-finishing. As you may remember from last year, the paint was de-laminating and flaking off in places. Low surfaces and below the seats are the worst. With wood chisels and scrapers we’ve completed our first pass of the full interior length so we’re probably at the 85 per cent stage of being ready for paint. However we need to go over what we have completed to ensure all loose material has been removed.

On Saturday, Phil, while in Barrie, purchased varnish, thinner and paint. Talk about dedication! There is no holding us back now.

Work Plan for Next Week

We will meet at the curling club on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning for a 10 am start. The plan is to complete the sanding of the gunwale, starboard side and to complete the prep of the floor for white paint. When we’re satisfied that we’ve done our best the interior will be well vacuumed and wiped down with tack cloth. Then the paint can be applied next week. As the application of varnish is temperature sensitive, we will hold off till May when we can get some warmer weather.

It is hoped that others will volunteer some of their time. Please reply to Phil’s email, to indicate which day or days you would be willing to help out. If too many respond for a particular time the selection of volunteers will be based on sequence of first respondents. This was not an issue last week.

Boat Repairs Needed

Greetings Paddlers

With the warmer weather about to arrive ( I think), we are just 2 months away from the launching of the Susanna Foo for another season of fun and paddling. Now is the time that we start getting the Foo ready. If you can remember from last year, the interior white paint on the floor was starting to flake off and de-laminate. Also the varnish on the gunwales, particularly on the sunny side at the dock received ultra violet light damage. These are the 2 major issues and there may be other minor stuff to do. The preparation work for painting and varnishing has to be carefully done and based on experience from last year, one gets tired after 1 to 2 hours so the need to have shifts of teams will allow the work to progress without too much burden on a few. You also get an opportunity to socialize as you work and get to know your fellow paddlers better.

At our Open House last February, we had a sign-up sheet for those members who were willing to assist in cleaning, sanding, painting and varnishing. Not all of you attended the Open House so this notice gives you an opportunity to sign up and help. During April and May, some of you may have travel plans and would be available on a reduced time frame. That’s fine. For those who would like to help including those who signed up in February please respond to the email in your inbox indicating your willingness to help and if you are away for part of the time, please indicate the dates.

Next week Scotty and Phil will examine the Foo to determine the magnitudes of the tasks and to see how it came through winter storage. We will also look at the list of volunteers and develop work teams. In reality only 4 or so can work at one time.

I envision that we will have no exact work schedules as essentially we will have to take advantage of good weather when we get it. We don’t have any exact procedures at this time. We may have teams come sequentially or maybe 2 teams at a time. With the latter, one can use a power sander for 10 minutes or so and then pass it on to someone else for a similar shift. The gunwales are relatively easy but the floor will be awkward. We will find out the best procedure when we start.

Paddles up!