Black Jack was launched at the Britannia Yacht Club on Saturday May 5. The Ottawa Citizen was there and took some pictures and video. Check out the st...

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2012 is proving to be one exciting year! There are War of 1812 re-enactments, SCUBA and kayaking courses and lots more. Spaces are filling up fast; don't be disappointed, complete your online registration today.

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Our first issue of our e-newsletter, Looking Aloft: A Rigged for Adventure Newsletter, has just been published. Check it out or click on Looking Aloft in the menu above.

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Ahoy to all Bytown Brigantiners! Welcome to our newspaper, “Looking Aloft”. If I recall correctly, the last issue was in 2009, after the Tall Ship gathering in Halifax. Bytown Brigantine has once again rewarded this “ancient mariner” volunteer by asking me to become your paper’s new editor. I have accepted with great enthusiasm and look forward to this honour. I have never been an editor before, although I have been writing stories for a quarterly newsletter for the past two years. I am also working on my biography.

I’m looking forward to this project, with Don Booker as assistant editor and one of our directors. Don has been doing our directors’ meetings reports and minutes for several years. Also we have much help from our Executive Director, Captain Mary Acton-Bond, along with her partner, Captain Jason McNaught. We initially anticipated publishing on a monthly basis, but my intuition tells me that every two months would be more practical.

We will retain the past issues front page masthead and add additional information such as our directors’ names and positions, and also present captains and the vessels they serve on. We especially look forward to receiving articles from our trainees about their adventures (and trials!) aboard the ships and during the training exercises. Also input from parents will be greatly appreciated, along with opinions and recommendations. Presently we are hoping the new issue of “Looking Aloft” will be ready for January 2012.

On December 17, 2011, BBI sponsored their annual Pancake Breakfast, to which all officers, trainees, parents and volunteers were invited. Naturally, it was a great success, with our Captains back from their sojourn in Nova Scotia.

Our winter program is now well underway. (Please see report from Christine, our Winter Program Coordinator)

We are looking forward to your participation.

W/O John H. Grahame
Editor

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the latest news Our esteemed and notable Captain Kathryn Whittaker has recently accomplished her First Mate Unlimited certificate and now is applyin...

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A Parent’s Perspective Is it really only three years ago? Back in the summer of 2008 I was a harried parent, looking for a way to keep my energ...

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ASTO Exchange to OYT South’s John Laing by Christine Chesterman This summer I was lucky enough to travel to Ireland and join the UK sail trai...

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2012 Bytown Brigantine and Bytown Brigantine Academy Programs As the Bytown Brigantine organization grows, so too does our depth of programming. Th...

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As I write this, the winter program convoy is underway to Kingston for the weekend. Our early-morning venture is a result of a massive winter storm th...

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Ahoy fellow Bytown Brigantiners! The story I am about to tell you is my first notable sea story aboard “Fair Jeanne”. It was the late ...

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By Jason McNaught Program Director, Bytown Brigantine As the ship tossed itself up the steep chop building quickly off the coast of Toronto, a numbe...

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Well, folks, this concludes our first edition of “Looking Aloft” since 2009. I wish to thank our trainees, officers, and parents for their written submissions and pictures that form this edition. Due to volume, articles submitted but not published this time will appear in future editions.

Bytown Brigantine Inc. is very proud to have a newspaper again. Due to heavy work load in the head office, and our enlarged and extensive programs, there was not time to keep up a newspaper. Some of these new programs are kayaking and SCUBA diving, which have been well received, as well as the extended winter program.

This past year we welcomed two English trainees, Viki Lough and Edward Bennett, and sent our own Christine Chesterman to Ireland for her Irish Sea voyage to Scotland aboard the “John Laing”. Christine will be our new Captain of “Black Jack” for 2012.

This summer season will see our Great Lakes program taking place in re-enactments of the American/Canadian War of 1812. More information will be forthcoming in future issues.

This newspaper will be published on our website. However, one issue per year (probably the Christmas issue) will possibly be printed as a newspaper, as in previous editions.

So keep the stories coming, either fact or fiction, along with pictures and we will include them in Looking Aloft.

As your new editor, I wish you all a good season to come, and a fair wind and following sea!

John H. Grahame
Editor
January, 2012

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January 30 & 31, 2010

This past Bytown weekend kicked off with an early morning of shop work for some and CYA Coastal Navigation for others, and by lunchtime there were two spars with a fresh coating of Cetol and several sailors who were ready to plot positions off of anything they could find. The afternoon was more shop work for everyone, and by the time dinner rolled around everyone was ready to kick back and relax...with a trip to the bowling alley. No final tally of points was taken, but without a doubt the youth sailors swept the game.

Sunday started out even earlier than the previous day, with the majority of the junior crew vying for first in the days level training game of Flagtionary. For the rest, the struggle to put the course yard back together was more than enough work to occupy the hours between breakfast and lunch.

After lunch Albert Rolf, one of our volunteers, came into the shop to give a small engine repair class. We started off with some troubleshooting possibilities that could happen on our outboard engines which we use every day at the island, from the whalers to the small dinghies. We also learned about both types of outboard engines which we use, for example a two-stroke versus a four-stroke. We then split up into smaller groups and had to get our hands dirty! We changed the oil, spark plugs, gaskets, and any other miscellaneous parts that needed to be fixed or changed. Michael Rolf and his group dissected an older engine nicknamed the (justeeter vanwolvin) to try to bring it back to life, one more time. After many laughs and a small quiz, we ended another great weekend at Bytown!! Can't wait for the next one :)

Justin Thibault and Sophie Wolvin

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Hi there everyone,

Happy New Year to you all, I hope 2010 has been good to everyone and you are not working too hard. Over the past month or so I have run into a number of you and have enjoyed hearing where you are and what you have been up to. BBI alumni are everywhere! It’s so crazy! Our alumni are doing everything from owning their own restaurants, working on helicopters, sailing in the Navy or Coast Guard, as social workers or working for all levels of government. Whatever BBI crew are doing, they seem to be excelling in their field and look back at their days at BBI with fond memories (most of ‘em, anyway J ).

I am writing with two things in mind; first is a remainder that we are looking for a quick write up about yourself and what you are doing now…and how your time at BBI might have helped you along the way. We would like to have your submission by February 5, 2010.

The email list that I have is very limited as the contacts we have here in the office for some of you have long become obsolete. Could you please send this email to anyone who used to be a part of the program and spread the word that we are looking for any and all alumni to touch base and let us know what they have been up to and how BBI might have helped them along the way.

The second thing I was thinking is that we should organize a BBI alumni reunion. I am not sure how many of you would be interested in that, but please let me know what you think. We tried to have an alumni sail, but it seems like it might be better to simply start with some kind of dinner or lunch as everyone is busy these days and people have a difficult time committing a whole weekend. Please let me know what you think as I know we are all growing up, getting real life jobs, getting married, getting divorced, having kids etc…but I think it would be nice to spend an evening with our old shipmates and catch up.

I sincerely hope to hear from all of you soon!

Cheers,
Mary

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Today we took the dingy to an underground parking garage. We had some trouble with the wiring but it eventually worked out. Last weekend we took Black Jack's course yard down to bare wood and began to refinish it.

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Chrs Patterson sent in a message today letting us know that there is a beautiful picture of Fair Jeanne on page 39 on teh December issue of Sail Magazine. If you get a chance to check it out we would love to see a copy.

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Kate Van Welter and Justin Thibault ran a very successful work party over the weekend. They had a very eager group of volunteers helping them all weekend. Everyone's spriits remaind high even though mother nature was really throwing a couple of curve balls with the weather. Thanks to everyone who came out it is wonderful to see such a dedicated group of young people pull together to get the job done.

Well done and thanks again to everyone who helped out.

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The people at BBI will soon be flying off to Cleveland to attend the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) conference. Right now the Black Jack has been winterized and she is awaiting her cover before the snow fall (hopefully). The Fair Jeanne is resting at her dry dock berth in the Rideau locks in downtown Ottawa and will also be covered soon. Putting both these ships to bed each winter is a lot of work and I hope that sometime soon the Fair Jeanne will be able to set sail south once again- to warmth, sandy beaches and palm trees. The Black Jack won't be finding palm trees on her stretch of the Ottawa River anytime soon, but she's a lot easier to put to bed for the winter. Fair Jeanne, on the other hand, was broken into no less than 4 times last winter, despite the fact that we have a security system onboard. It became a regular routine last year to get a call in the middle of the night, hurry as fast as we could down the highway and meet the police...but unfortunately, we were usually there before the police arrived...in our very intimidating pajamas and small jelly-bean shaped car- a force to be reckoned with!

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Fair Jeanne is in the newest Great Lake Swimmers music video Palmistry that was shot earlier this fall. Check it out here:

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A summary of ports of call made by Fair Jeanne during the very busy summer of 2009.

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