All hands on deck
Launch is an all-hands-on-deck affair that involves almost the entire membership.
On Launch Saturday, crews are divided up into two shifts:
“AM Shift” from 07:00 to lunchtime; and
“PM Shift” that operates from lunchtime until the last boat is launched.
Within each of these shifts, members are assigned to the following crews:
Slings Crew - Located at the boat to be launched, manages the slings set-up;
Dock Crew - Located at the landing bridge, gets the boat safely in the water and underway; and
Galley Gang - Prepares and serves lunch and snacks;
On Sunday, April 30th, we have the Cradle Knockdown Crew dis-assembling cradles and getting them stacked and out of the parking area.
In addition to these core teams, we also have smaller teams that do all the planning, measuring, safety and site control, signaling, recording timings, parking shuttle, etc..
Assigning launch crew roles to appropriate members and first mates gets complicated. People's abilities change over time. Members come and go and it's impossible to know everything about everybody. Canadian privacy laws also restrict the club’s ability to collect and store information on members.
Although we do our best to match roles with abilities, some members will feel they are not capable of doing their assigned role. We’d like to avoid that, but the onus is on the Member to communicate their skills, interests and abilities to the HM team.
So, what does this mean to you, a valued HYC Member?
If you've been on previous teams, have no change in status and would like to do the same kind of work as you've done before, there's no need to contact us. We’ll assume you’re ready to assume the same role, and thank-you for your continued service!
If you’re a new member, you WILL VERY LIKELY be assigned a Launch team role. Be proactive and let us know what kinds of work you’re interested in, how physically active/agile you are, and if your first mate is also willing and able to participate. Getting involved in Launch and Haulout teams is one of the fastest ways to get to know other members and establish a reputation as a contributor.
If you wish to master a new role, let us know. It’s always good to have members that can “switch hit”, depending on our needs and circumstances.
If you’re totally up to working more than one shift and want to cross off a big chunk of your mandatory HYC work hours in one weekend, let us know!
If you’ve had a change in status which would restrict your participation in this year’s Launch, we’d like to hear from you. In this case it would be especially useful to know if you’d still be interested in a Launch team role – although a less demanding one.
