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Perry Mack photos
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Perry Mack photos
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Perry Mack photos
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Perry Mack photos
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By Pamela Miller
The Vernon Yacht Club (VYC), at the top of the 135-kilometer long Okanagan Lake, is the furthest north marina in the Okanagan Valley. Whether you own a powerboat or a sailboat, the Vernon Yacht Club has plenty to offer the local boating community. Okanagan Lake boaters share 270 kilometers of shoreline, from the City of Penticton in the south to the City of Vernon in the north.
With the Okanagan’s hot summer temperatures and many parks and beaches along the shores of the lake, boaters have various destinations and activities to choose from. Vernon Yacht Club members with moorage have access to visitor slips, and use of clubhouse facilities at the lake’s six yacht clubs. They also have use of the many mooring buoys, maintained by several clubs, located at all corners of the lake. This makes destination arrangements easier and connects boaters with other clubs’ members and activities.
Off the water, there are countless choices that bring visitors back to the Okanagan year after year, and offer residents one of the best lifestyles in British Columbia. The valley is a food lover’s paradise with annual local food and wine festivals, weekly markets and farm tours, close to 150 wineries, several top quality distilleries, cider producers and craft breweries. Several restaurants take all this a step further, with delicious dishes made by top chefs using fresh local ingredients. The summer temperatures grow grapes, tomatoes and other vegetables, fruits and herbs typically found in hot Mediterranean countries.
The six yacht clubs; Penticton, Summerland, Peachland, West Kelowna, Kelowna and Vernon, are great places to moor a boat while taking tours inland to enjoy some of the Okanagan’s festivities. There are also visitors’ moorage docks available at some of the hotels and restaurants on the lake, and many lakeside activities from paddle and kite boarding, to recreational fishing and water skiing.
The Vernon Yacht Club’s 285 slip marina is home to a healthy count of both power and sailboats. VYC is the only Okanagan club that owns the land, fronting onto Okanagan Lake, thereby giving its members a say in their club’s future. The air-conditioned clubhouse has kitchen and dining facilities, the Gang Plank Bar, a dance floor and audio system, several large barbeque stations, a games room and of course the large wrap-around deck overlooking the lake. There are also new washroom and shower facilities.
The VYC Sailing Fleet meets several times before the crane lifts the boats back into the water on “Crane Day” in April. The fleet organizes sailboat racing, education and fun, including two sailing regattas and weekly races. They start on Sunday mornings for the first and last month of the season, because the evenings are too dark, but as soon as the days get longer, you’ll see clusters of sailboats racing after each other on regular weeknights. All Okanagan sailboat racers are invited to each other’s regattas, and the clubs become chaotic for a few days. In fact VYC has a sailboat applicably named “Chaos”. For many years, VYC’s Okanagan Charity Regatta was the largest annual fundraiser for the North Okanagan United Way. Today, the club hosts the “Okanagan Regatta” and is the starting venue for the annual “End to End” race that pit stops in Kelowna and ends in Summerland.
The largest event of the year at the Vernon Yacht Club is the Annual Boat Show coming up April 30th and May 1st in 2016. This event is open to the public and showcases the best in powerboats, boating gear, paddleboards, water sports gear, recreational gear, safety equipment, and even telescopes to view boats on the water. The club hosts plenty of other social events with the newest and very popular monthly Ladies Nights, and recently added Dance Bands for Friday Dinners, once a month. VYC arranges parties for Christmas, New Year’s, Halloween, Snow-Birds’ welcome home and send-off, St Paddy’s Day, and serves light dinner items select evenings, Saturday lunches and Sunday brunches. During the boating season every year there is the infamous annual Rib-Off in May and an unforgettable Pig Roast every September. VYC and other yacht clubs host the Commodores Ball and Sail Past, as well as various inter-club “Invasion Events” - organized dinner parties where members from all the other clubs “invade” the hosting club for the weekend.
The VYC website has all the club’s activities, documentation and schedules, including a webcam with a clear view of the weather: www.vernonyachtclub.com. The webcam looks west toward the Forestry Campground on the west side of Okanagan Lake and will be of interest to watersport enthusiasts as they will be able to see the conditions on the lake at any time of the day.
Established over 63 years ago, the VYC provides valuable moorage space free of charge to the Okanagan Volunteer Association for their rescue boat equipped with a water cannon, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary for their patrol boat, and to the Okanagan Quality of Life Society, for their pontoon boat “Heaven Can Wait” that their volunteer members use to take the elderly and the infirm on free excursions of Okanagan Lake.
Persons interested in becoming a member of the Vernon Yacht Club, either as a regular or social member, are invited to contact our Membership Director by email membership@vernonyachtclub.com. To speak with any club member or staff, please contact the Vernon Yacht Club by phone (250-545-5518), or by email office@vernonyachtclub.com.
For more information visit our website www.vernonyachtclub.com. Find us on twitter & facebook.