Wave of volunteers for Swiftsure at 75
The largest yacht race on the west coast of North America celebrates a milestone
The volunteers at the Swiftsure International Yacht Race love sailboats — and it shows.
“All the different boats that come in, that’s the enjoyable part for me,” said Swiftsure volunteer Brian Dodsworth, 74, of Saanich. “It’s something you understand when you are a boat person, a true boat-aholic.”
“When I first met my wife the very first question I asked was: ‘Do you own a boat?’ ” said Dodsworth. “She said yes, so that was good for me.”
This year’s Swiftsure International Yacht Race, the 75th annual running of an event that bills itself as the largest yacht race on the west coast of North America, will run from Thursday, May 24, to Monday, May 28.
This year it’s expected to attract at least 200 boats and their accompanying crews. That’s less than the all-time high of 1981 when 441 boats showed up. But it’s well off the low of 2011, when there were 152 entrants.
Behind all the racers are more than 200 people, including Dodsworth, who show up and volunteer their time by planning, organizing and assisting on race weekend to make sure the event runs without a hitch.
Gale Bryant, a longtime sailor, Royal Victoria Yacht Club member and volunteer co-ordinator for Swiftsure, said it’s those people who come out on their own time to help who deserve the real credit for the race.
“We try to say it over and over again and I’m not sure it’s ever enough: ‘This event just would not happen with you, the volunteers,’ ” said Bryant.
She herself has long memories of Swiftsure, going back to when she was a little girl growing up in Esquimalt.
When the weather was nice, she and her family would drive over to watch from Dallas Road in Victoria. But on rainy days they would stay at the family house — with its windows that offered a peek at the ocean — and watch the race through binoculars.
Save for few years spent in the provincial Interior, Bryant has always been a sailor.
She confesses, however, to a few years of owning a motor boat — “the dark side,” as sailboat sailors call it.
Bryant, 61 and retired from the provincial civil service but still working, said her biggest marine thrill these days is sailing Mini 12s. These are one-person miniature versions of 12-metre, racing yachts, scaled down so they don’t exceed 12 feet, or 3.7 metres.
She also has fond memories of her days as part of a crew on a racing yacht.
“You are feeling the waves, you are feeling the wind and feeling it all at once so you really have to be present,” said Bryant.
“Then all of a sudden you can get this little gust of wind that almost knocks you over.”
“It’s just so amazing to be part of a crew,” she said. “Now, build that scale up and add all these different races and make it even bigger and you have Swiftsure.”
Bryant said the chance to help and contribute draws racers and volunteers back to Swiftsure again and again. They even come from the U.S. and overseas to race and help out.
But these volunteers do much more than just sell and punch tickets.
They also solve high-tech issues so the racing boats can be plotted in real time using GPS. They solve high-tech communication issues. And they call on their personal contacts in Victoria to overcome unexpected obstacles.
“There are just so many things these people can do and it’s amazing to see them pull it off,” said Bryant.
Last year, for example, a vessel measuring 108 feet, or 33 metres, showed up and needed a berth. With most racing yachts measuring 12 metres, that’s a big vessel.
Bryant said volunteer dock masters just started working the telephone.
They found a suitable dock space and arranged for a berth.
“There is always something that comes up, that needs to be resolved,” she said. “But the volunteers and the resources they have and their ability to solve issues no matter what, is just amazing.”
Ellie Conconi, of Central Saanich, said she started volunteering for Swiftsure in the early 1990s. Now 75 years old with volunteer duties on another committee at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Conconi said it’s time for younger people to step up for Swiftsure.
But she said her time at Swiftsure gave her wonderful opportunities to meet people from Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and other cities.
Also, the Swiftsure volunteers are a special group in themselves.
“The whole volunteer group for an event like Swiftsure is like one big family,” said Conconi.
“In many cases, the participants come year after year and so you see them again and again, and get to know them.”
She and her husband still own a boat. But their days of sailing are now over. They have gone to the “dark side” and purchased a power boat.
But they still love to see the sails at Swiftsure and hear the stories.
“Once a sailor always a sailor,” said Conconi. “And I grew up on the Prairies, so in the beginning my experience with boats and water was zilch.”