Peachland’s across-lake swim expected to draw 200 entrants

An upcoming across-the-lake swim in Peachland has a much lower profile than the one recently held in Kelowna.

About 200 swimmers are expected for the Aug. 5 swim, compared to the 1,200 who took part earlier this month in the Kelowna event.

“We’re really hoping to grow the Peachland swim, because it costs almost as much to put on as the Kelowna one,” Valentina Miller, race director for the Interior Savings Across the Lake Swim Society, said Wednesday.

“We don’t lose money on the Peachland swim, but it’s sort of a break-even proposition right now,” she said. “We’d like it to become bigger, because all the money that’s raised goes for a good cause.”

Proceeds from swimmer registration fees go toward the expansion of swim lessons for elementary school children in the Central Okanagan.

The upcoming Peachland swim has two courses — a 3.1-kilometre route from Rattlesnake Island back to Peachland, and a seven-km route from Peachland across the lake and back.

Despite the lower registration numbers, costs for the Peachland swim are comparable to the Kelowna event because organizers must charter houseboats to take swimmers for the shorter course across the lake to Rattlesnake Island.

“The houseboats have to leave Kelowna about 2 a.m. to get to Peachland for the pickup time at 6:45 a.m.,” Miller said.

So far, 109 people have registered for the 3.1-km swim, and 35 have signed up for the more challenging there-and-back course.

This is the fourth year the non-profit society has organized the swim to Rattlesnake Island. The group took over from Peachland town staff in 2013, when only about 60 swimmers took part.

For more information and to register, see rattlesnakeislandswim.com.