History is stories, and there are always different perspectives and different stories.  It will come as no surprise that there are many differing opinions and viewpoints about the exact dates and circumstances which led to the forming of the sailing club we all now know.  Whether you subscribe to the notion that we began as a club of junior sailors constructing their own sabots or to the notion that the club actually began when adults met and offered debentures as a way to finance the start up of such a club, stories abound and opinions differ.  But all are worth highlighting and celebrating.  Rather than try to sort out which perspective is “correct”, it was decided to celebrate 2019 as the 50th year, it being 1969 when the sabot construction was started by Lawrie Neish and his students at Gulf Islands Secondary School.  It is these earliest days which are reflected here.  Historical perspectives on both the clubhouse and the docks are given their own pages.

John Prothero, in his stint as Club Historian, put together an adapted version of Lawrie Neish’s story in 2007, along with this preamble.  This has served as the “official” story since then.  Lawrie has recently (2019) updated and revised the 2007 version of those earliest years.  You can read Lawrie’s latest revision of his remembrances here

The now historical photos of the early “juniors-in-sabots” days can be referenced on John Prothero’s abovementioned page, but are offered here in a single photo album: historical-sabot-photos