New yacht club modest but nice to see

News that the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club (RCBYC) is returning to Sydney Harbour is great, even though what tangible assets other than its title the club is bringing to the deal is, to say the least, unclear. Or what privileges the so-called members will have above and beyond that of the nonmember boaters who, after all, appear to be funding 100 per cent of the project through their taxes.

Nevertheless, it will be nice to see an admittedly modest development in the area that is ideally suited and in harmony with the waterfront location.

In a story that appeared in the Cape Breton Post (“Floating to the surface,” Aug. 14), it was noted that the original RCBYC building was destroyed by fire. Proceedings against a suspect in the arson eventually went nowhere when the suspect’s diminished mental capacity was taken into account.

Sadly, that’s not the only example of woolly-headed thinking associated with boating and RCBYC in the area.

Not that long ago, a decision by the Enterprise Cape Breton Association (ECBC) to shovel out millions of tax dollars in assistance to another yacht club in the area coincided with the demise of Sydney’s Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club. Why a government agency would support a facility on the Bras d’Or Lake in a location as far away from the ocean as it is possible to get and see one ideally placed on Sydney’s waterfront literally fade away is hard to understand.

However, let’s hope the reborn yacht club heralds a new approach to Sydney’s waterfront development. Let’s get the public involved in what they would like to see on the waterfront. I wholeheartedly support a new library for the city, but surely the community deserves better than pasting it on to an as yet undefined project at one end of the Esplanade or a provincial government pork-barrel community college project at the other.

Frank King Sydney River