Sometimes you have to pull a rabbit out of a hat and make a boat appear out of thin air.  Unfortunate circumstances made one of our Powell River boats unavailable for charter with little warning and there was nothing to replace it with us or our competitors in the region.  Clients were on their way from London, England. 

Time to pull a rabbit out of a hat.  Where is there a suitable replacement boat?   How to we get it in the fleet with no warning? 

We called one of our reliable fleet owners, and saw the fastest deal in our history to come together.  Allen flew out to Sidney by Friday at 8pm and less than 24 hours later he was on his way north to Powell River with a new boat, new tender and new outboard.  

In fact, the boat is currently called "NEW". 



Obviously, we're working on alternate names.  Based on the story so far, the leading choice is "Magic Rabbit".  If you can come up with one better, please add your suggestions. 

Here's the first crew all the way from the UK as they depart Powell River today! Vacation back on track.

Book your holiday today.  She's the finest boat in the north. Magic included.

 

.e

From Eric - one of our owners in the fleet who helped with the repositioning of the Catalina 445 in California:

Victor and I arrived in Morro Bay  on Tuesday April 17th to take Miss Stress up the California coast on her second leg up to Vancouver. We spent the next day, preparing to leave that evening .  As soon as Captain Karel arrived, and we looked at weather and charts, off we went at 8 PM, on the start of an expected 20 hour run up to Santa Cruz.  We wanted to pass the dreaded Point Sur early morning, when the seas were the quietest.  It was an uneventful overnight motor and we turned into Monterey Bay, where we were able to put up sail.  Suddenly we were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins. They crested the water, feet from the boat.  They played with us for ten minutes, and were off.  Behind them came the humpbacks.  We overnighted in the beautiful Santa Cruz Marina, and were off again at 4 AM to time our arrival into San Francisco on the backside of a flood, the best time to cross the sand bar.  At 2 PM the Golden Gate Bridge was in sight.  What a thrill to pass under it.    I suddenly realized that passing under the bridge was a bucket list thing.  I put it on my bucket list and checked it off at the same time.  We continued across the bay and parked Miss Stress in Berkeley Marina, leaving her for the next crew to continue the trek north.

You've got more phone numbers than Telus!  ~ It has been a bit hard to follow all our different phone numbers, so we've moved for something simple moving forward.

For any reservations calls, please dial 604.687.4110 in Vancouver or 888.999.6419 from anywhere else.

For other calls, please call 604.683.6837 or 800.667.9833.~ For Sidney, use extension #16 and for Powell River, use extension #99.

The rain gods stayed at bay so we could have a spectacular Easter cruise.  Check out the photos and don't miss the next flotilla.  May loooong weekend coming up and next Easter is extra late in the season.




















thanks to Chris Stanley for the awesome photos

The open houses are in the schedule.  Come mix with the community and get your season off to a great start.   If you register, we hope to have you on the water with an instructor or member.   April 7 in Vancouver and May 12 in Sidney are booking now. 
 


** Take a moment to register your interest. **



No need to register your interest to come to the open house, but demonstration rides can only occur if you register.  

Let's have some fun out there! 

The folks at boattest.com have done some reviews on the Aquila 44, a boat very similar to our 44's (especially Constellation).   Browse our Aquila page to see what they have to say about these boats.  



ps - we've found a smaller flag for this boat now ... memories of Canada 150!

What's better than heading over to Granville Island or BC Place for the Boat Show? I'll tell you, stopping by the Cooper office to book your next Charter or Course. 

We are pleased to announce the safe birth of two baby hulls weighing in at just over 6,000 lbs this week.  The two hulls arrived in a container each with this past week and were safely extracted by the boat yard and a bunch of people wondering just how to do this safely. 



A third container housed extra pieces including the bridge deck, windows, rudders, stern sections and a host of interior furniture components. 

Once back together, the boat will start to resemble this again: 



Charter discounts available if you're able to deal with "some assembly required". 

Well, not everyone you meet wears a helmet to go sailing, but we've got one such person on site this Friday evening for an off season talk.  Kim Alfreds' father founded the original JIB SET that spawned into national training programs (CYA now Sail Canada) and licensed beyond to become the American Sailing Association.   

This talk will look at the original F33 Cheekee Monkee and some of those adventures while looking ahead to the new F45RC Cheekee Monkee destined for our harbour in 2018 (after a few miles sailing from the Philippines).

We're told standing room only is fine - and it's not too long, so come on by and get a dose of multihull magic from someone who was putting foils on boats before any locals (and even the boat designer) thought it could be done. 



This talk is priced for sailors... just like the wind, it's FREE!

 

Don't miss this one... should be lots of fun!

Three great evenings on the near horizon for all you sailing enthusiasts who need your off season dose of sailing excitement.

BC Sports Hall of Fame Inductee for Sailing - designer, coach, builder DON MARTIN is here this friday following up on yacht design - ranging from his own boats to cutting legendary boats in half to enhance their performance.  We always love having Don on site and 6.30 this Friday you can get your chance.



Next Friday, December 1, we have Kim Alfreds here with a multihull perspective as he looks back at his legenday trimaran CHEEKEE MONKEE and ahead to the all carbon catamaran bearing the same name.   



The following friday it's the holiday party at Kitsilano Yacht Club.




Catch one or all... they will be three awesome evenings!