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Feature Article February 5

Feature Article February 5, 2004

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Canoe club seeks approval for canoe/kayak course

Canoe_clubs_seek_approvalThe Sydenham Canoe Club has big plans for Sydenham Lake.

They have received the necessary funding from the Trillium Foundation to build a permanent, 1000 metre racing course on Sydenham Lake, which would make Sydenham Lake the most up to date Canoe/Kayaking race lake in the province.

Until now, the course has been a low budget, virtually home-made affair that was installed each year, using whatever materials that could be scrounged, according to a Canoe Club press statement. But this led to some potential problems for the lake due to loose buoys, broken wires, and a course that stayed on the lake longer than necessary.

This will change this year, starting with the sinking of 44 300 lb concrete weights to precise spots at the bottom of Sydenham Lake. Attached to the blocks there will be 3/16 steel cables, which will be affixed on the other end to ABS floats suspended 7 feet below the surface of the water. When a race is planned, a diver will be able to use these materials as a base for a perfectly straight, nine-lane 1,000 meter course, which Sydenham Canoe Club Commodore Marv Ostopovich says will give us the possibility of hosting provincial, national, and even international events - events which would bring thousands of people to the area.

The National championships, which were held in Welland last year, were attended by around 30,000 people.

The Sydenham Canoe club was founded about six years ago by George Jones and Susan Bayly-Jones. They started with six paddlers and have steadily grown, reaching 45 paddlers last summer. Although most of the paddlers are in the junior ranks, there are older paddlers participating as well.

In the 2002 and 2003 Canadian Sprint Canoe Championships, Sydenham Lake Canoe Club paddlers came home with a total of 20 medals. This was accomplished even though the Canoe Club only has rudimentary boats, more stare of the ark than state of the art, and a club that consists of two retired highway trailers, suitable only as boat storage, that are parked behind John and Ginny Trousdales IGA store.

The club would like to deal with the lack of high quality boats and a clubhouse as soon as possible, but putting in a permanent race course to complement the natural advantages of Sydenham Lake as an inland lake with normally low winds and tremendous sightlines for spectators, will be this years major project.

Marv Ostopovich says the club will continue, bit by bit, to improve its facilities whenever we can find the money. They are planning to go back to the Trillium Foundation and other funding sources, to get the additional $40,000 that would be needed to purchase a reasonable fleet of racing boats.

The Canoe Clubs request to Council was to approve their race construction plan and arrange a public meeting to address any citizens concerns on the endeavour.

Assuming all potential problems are overcome, the process of building the course would commence as soon as possible. It will take two weeks for the concrete weights to be delivered, and a bit of time to get all the other materials, and then we plan to send the weights to the bottom of the lake through the ice. Its a lot easier to take a 300 lb. weight off of a truck than a boat.

The rest of the work will be done in the spring. If the work is completed in time, the Canoe club will be hosting the Ontario Canoe/Kayak team trials in mid to late June. Later in the summer, a Master Regatta is scheduled for July 17; the Sydenham Canoe Club Annual Regatta is set for August 7; and the Eastern Ontario Finals will be run on August 15.

Approval for the project will come through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Cataraqui Regional Conservation Association will be consulted. It is anticipated there will be no effect on the use of the lake from the course construction, nor on the health of the lake.

With the participation of the Government of Canada