Lac Deschenes Sailing Club
On the Ottawa River, Ottawa Ontario

We are an incorporated, non-profit organization founded in October, 1966 by a group of small boat enthusiasts dedicated, (in the formal language of our By Law), to promoting "good seamanship, sportsmanship and fellowship". The atmosphere is informal and family oriented. ... No blazers, no braid. The land that we occupy are leased from the National Capital Commission. In the early years, we made do in one of the original cottages expropriated by the NCC in 1945. We built our new clubhouse in 1981 when the cottage, by then tumbledown, was demolished.

Membership

Membership in the Club carries all the usual rights and privileges you would expect. It also implies responsibilities which can be summed up in one word, "sharing". The maintenance of facilities, organization of events, implementation of programs - everything in short - is handled by Club members. This self-help approach allows us to operate within a very modest fee structure. In practice, the burden placed on the individual member is not that onerous and involves only a few hours of labour in a season. Pitching in and sharing the chores can be great fun and is undoubtedly one of the best ways of getting to know other members.

Site

The attractive site has many trees to provide shade and lawns which extend down to a stone beach. A perfect place to picnic and made even better by the gas barbecue and many picnic tables provided for the use of members. The clubhouse itself, constructed of cedar, comprises a large furnished meeting room with a woodstove*, a fully equipped kitchen (oven, microwave, refrigerator, utensils, etc.), an office, and sail locker for storing sails, and other sailing bits and pieces. Washroom facilities and change rooms are contained in an adjacent building affectionately known as the "ablutions block". Both clubhouse and washroom facilities are connected by a large deck which spans most of the width of the buildings.

Boats

There are approximately 100 boats in the Club, 80 dry-sailed and the remainder moored out. A wide variety of classes are represented, Lasers, Wayfarers, Albacores, 505s, 420s, Tanzer 16s among others, together with a large fleet of catamarans including Hobie 21, 20, 18, 17 and 16 and Dart 18s. The boats moored out range in size from 16 feet to 25 feet. The Club also owns a number of sailboats which are available to those with a Club Boat Membership, a Hobie 18, Wayfarer and three Lasers. The Club also has a number of power boats, two Boston Whalers on hoists at the end of a floating dock and a Rosborough 18 which serves as a race committee vessel.

Serious Stuff

Our Privacy Policy (to which all members must agree) can be found here.

The Club's Rules and Regulations can be found here.

The Bylaws of the Lac Deschenes Sailing Club can be found here.

* A small clarifying corrigendum from the new webmaster: the woodstove is not currently in use.  We can either buy the insurance, remove it, or it can remain in its current, decorative role, sans smoke. 

(...and if you find mistakes on this page, the fine print says you can hassle the person here)