Grassroots Sailing
1155 Gilford Rd. L0L 1R0 Innisfil, ON, Canada

The Perseid Meteor Shower is Approaching Each year, the Perseid Meteor Shower with its many shooting stars returns to the night sky in August. This year, the shower is predicted to peak on the evening of August 12, but there should be good observing possible on adjacent nights as well. The deck of your boat in the middle of the bay is a perfect spot to watch. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, which is close to the more familiar Cassiopeia in the northeastern sky. Have fun!

Dear Grassroots Sailors, After long last, we are ready to sail!! With help from Alain, Troy and Dmitry, we launched u4ric last week, and she is now rigged and ready to go. Same slip as last year -- B11 at Cooks Bay Marina. Since we have a shortened season, we decided to keep Waterbaby on land.... Check the google calendar for times available for mentoring and recreational sailing (link below). We currently have skippers set up to sail on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. If you want to book the boats for any other time, please contact me, and I will slot you in. Remember our rules are that skippers need their Basic cruising and need to be skippered off to take out the boats. A minimum of one crew with SKS is required. Skippers with Intermediate level cruising are able to take the boats out themselves with no crew. We have put in place new protocols for COVID-19, including sanitization of the boat, and wearing of masks when in close quarters. Please see attachments for a COVID waiver and safety protocols. Everyone will need to sign a COVID waiver before sailing. Waivers are on the boat.

https://youtu.be/CIdyE6qO50k

Dear Grassroots Sailors, We have fantastic news! This week, we were advised by Ontario Sailing that with provincial Stage 3 opening, clubs can conduct more sailing activity on the water. Based on this, Grassroots will re-open the club for course instruction, and all boat sharing activity including recreational sailing, mentoring and racing. We have lost 2 months of the sailing season, but still have 3 months left to sail. For members that have paid their 2020 memberships, we... will be able to apply a portion of your fees for time lost to your 2021 membership. More to follow on that soon. We will be communicating more in the coming days on this exciting development, including when you will be able to begin sailing and the schedule of courses for this season. Stay tuned @GrassrootsSailing . https://www.grassrootssailing.com/ Hooray! We're almost back! Fair winds -

Hmmmm! I never knew?

Will the things get back to normal this season ?

It's that time of year......

Chuckle of the day

Might be a necessary treatment until this pandemic is over.

An interesting take on dealing with self isolation and adapting to the new reality from a solo round the world sailor

COVID-19 Update - May 14 Hi Grassroots sailors, following is a short update on what is happening with the start of our sailing season. At present the re-start of our sailing season remains on hold. However, marinas are able to begin operations including lift-in of boats, and owners of those boats will be able to access them starting tomorrow! Each marina is laying out its own rules, and we expect to hear from Cooks Bay soon. There will be rules and guidelines to maintain... social distancing in the marina setting. As a Sailing school and boat share club, our mode of operation requires different people from different households to be in close quarters on the boats. Guidance is still being developed for schools and boat-share clubs on how to operate while maintaining social distance and/or hygiene on the boats. This past week, Sail Canada announced the formation of the "COVID-19 Health and Return to Sailing Task Force". This expert group is providing advice and recommendations to Sail Canada so that Provincial Sailing Associations, Member Clubs, Schools, Camps and Outdoor Centers can make informed decisions on how and when allow members to return to sailing related activities in a safe and prudent manner. Members of the Board also are attending conference calls held by Ontario Sailing, and there will be a call next week focused on Operation of sailing schools and clubs. As we get more information and guidance from these groups, we will be updating our plans to re-start the year, and will communicate that with you as soon as its known. In other news, we are preparing u4ric for launch as soon as we get the green light to operate. If the rules permit, and we have enough demand for boat time, we will launch Waterbaby as well. We're moving slowly in the right direction! Stay tuned for further updates. Thank you to everyone for your patience, and hopefully we will be able to get back on the water soon! More to follow,

Joys of electronic navigation

COVID-19 Update Hello Grassroots sailors, following is a short update on what is happening with the start of our sailing season. Last Friday, the Ontario Government announced that marinas can begin preparation work to support the recreational boating season as of Monday, May 4! Accordingly, Cook's Bay Marina staff is beginning to prepare the facilities, yard and marina for the upcoming season. They have tentatively set May 15 as launch date barring any further restrictions... from the government. At present, marinas are still closed to the public. The Grassroots Board of Directors is working on a re-opening plan for our club based on guidance from public health, Sail Canada and Ontario Sailing. At present, we are still not able to go sailing together due to social distancing, but the board is closely watching developments and changes to relevant guidance from public health authorities. We plan to begin sailing together once restrictions are lifted by government authorities, and we are currently developing plans to maintain hygiene while together on the boats. As always we are keeping the safety of all our members our first priority. We will continue to send updates as the situation evolves, please stay tuned for further messages. All members should continue to follow advisories and comply with information provided to the public through the Public Health Agency of Canada, and provincial and municipal public health authorities in order to protect themselves and their loved ones. We appreciate everyone’s patience, help and co-operation as we navigate our way forward, but the good news is that the situation is looking positive! Please continue to stay safe and keep healthy. If you have any questions please contact us. MTF (More To Follow) ;)

Practise test for ROC (M)