Vancouver Boat Launch: Want Vanier Park Boat launch improved?
NOW is your chance to have your say and possibly get Vanier Park boat launch reworked.
Cates Park is inconvenient, MacDonald Beach can be out of the way from the fishing action, Ambleside is a joke, Horseshoe. Bay for obvious reasons, and Sunset Beach is atrociously expensive...
So....
Call 3-1-1 now or 604 873 7000 now!!!
I just spoke to a Parks board official and his advice was for as many people as possible to call in and express their displeasure.
The issues with the launch are well known to us enthusiasts who know about the facility but the people who work in the glass offices and cut the cheques don't!!! But the city needs to hear about it from as many people as possible!!!
Here's a quick recap.
1. The engineering of the launches make launching a boat larger than 14 feet on anything less than a 7 foot tide a risky or costly proposition. It requires backing your vehicle into sand and/or water depending on the size of your boat to launch and/or haul out. Ridiculous! The gradient of the west ramp needs to be reengineered and the ramp improved so that boaters can launch/and or retrieve on a zero foot tide. Totally unacceptable! Who is going to pay $18 for a facility which is unusable 8-9 hours a day?
2. The west ramp docks were damaged behind reasonable cost repair by large deadhead. As a result the docks have been hauled out and there is not enough dock space on weekends on suitable tides. The West side ramp is partially blocked by the eyesore old docks and foul stench of decaying zebra mussels.
3. The east side docks are overloaded when the False Creek Racing Canoe Clubs and Vancouver College Private School Rich kids get into their stupid racing canoes. Sometimes there are 50-60 Kids on the east dock!!! What a joke...they are a commercial enterprise and they're damaging taxpayer funded facilities for commercial purposes...while recreational I nature, they are commercial...it's part of the students phys ed programs!!!
3. The docks do not extend far enough and need at least another 40 foot extension so you can dock your boat after launching or returning at low tide! Hilarious...there is no boat launch at low tide!!!
4. Washdown. If you want to wash down your boat after hauling out there are only 2 water taps. Both are buried in the ground in a small pit. You have to get on your hands and knees to put a hose on the tap!!
5. There is one garbage can at the Launch area. 5000 Starbucks cups fill it up and there is no garbage can in the wash down area.
6. Vanier Park is a summer use facility. There are no tables or picnic tables anywhere.
7. From time to time the facility is used by various commercial enterprises. It is a public recreational enterprise!!! Over the last few weeks I have seen Granville Island Boat Rentals using the parking lot as a boat yard using a large full size cherry picker (hoist) to hang new outboards on their fleet of 16 to 17 foot rental boats over several days. While they were doing this, they had 2 of their rental boats rafted and tied up to the dock. WTF??!?!? W.T.F.??!.,.,.,.,.,.,
There's another firm. He has this double decker trailer which is like 50 feet long and he has these massive canoes...I think he's called Canadian Outback Adventures or something like that. The canoes are probably 40 feet long and seat 20 people or something like that. He launches and holds his team building events at the ramp. He cut off a couple of boaters, tied up the one dock on occasion for a half hour or more then lipped off a few of us. Next time he does that, his trailer and vehicle may not be in the same condition when he returns.
Honestly, the facility has not changed in 30 years and is majorly outdated...people don't fish out of cartoppers in Vancouver anymore.
Call the hotline and make your voice heard before it's too late!!!!
Vancouver needs a working boat launch!!!! If there are millions for bike lanes, they surely there is money for a damn launch!!!
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Topic: Vancouver's Vanier Park Boat Launch needs to be reworked! (Read 4159 times)