The Tall Ship Playfair

Summer. The Brigantine Playfair at Parry Sound. Cap'n Weed, if you please, har harr. If'n the Black Pearl be lost at sea, there's a berth or twenty down below, for the likes of your wee teens, wantin' adventure on Georgian Bay. It's the real deal. Toronto Brigantine runs two training ships for high school kids, who'd rather pass on the video arcades and shopping malls for a week or two. For about a $100 a day, all inclusive, you might talk your kids into a working vacation, where they can learn to rig and sail a Brigantine, cook in the cubbyhole galley, and barbecue on a deserted island beach. And meet some other kids. It's character building says our Captain Weed, seconded by his First Mate, Jojo, and it works. It's turned around bored and troubled kids, and polished the rest with a sense of accomplishment, fostering in some a life long passion for sailing. The professional crew of nine, are all alumni of the program, regulars that kept coming back for years, and now training a new batch of kids, 16 on this 11 day leg out from Parry Sound to Midland. The Playfair is a happy ship. Rare for any kid to go home unhappy, even if he or she (it's co-ed) didn't really want to go in the first place. As a registered charity, Toronto Brigantine is doing this for love, not money. Costs are further kept down by sponsors, alumni and volunteers who donate equipment, supplies, and time for maintenance, when their ships winter over in Toronto. Bursaries for some students, are available too. And what's it like? I wandered around on deck and below, talking to the kids and crew. No complaints. But it is so cramped below deck, sardines might be more
comfortable in a can. The mess is really on deck. The galley would fit into your hall closet, berths stacked 3 high, upholstered but hard and narrow. The Playfair was built in 1972, In Kingston, Ontario. It's a Brigantine, a pirate ship in miniature, designed to be maneuvered by a young crew, with a sleek hull, sleeker than than her older cousins, and steel, for easier maintenance and without the timbers creaking and leaking. There's a diesel engine, not much used, but available for dead calms and tricky navigation through narrow or shallow channels and locks. Georgian Bay is mostly where she sails. It's the 30,000 Islands and the rugged coastline that makes her feel at home. Though she sails to and from Georgian Bay, via Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, occasionally venturing to join other tall ships at the festival in Halifax. She might go out more on the high seas, but there are maintenance issues with salt water. Strolling on the big dock to stretch his legs, the Captain pauses by one of the big yachts berthed nearby, wondering what all the fuss is all about. A quarter million dollars for a car on water, with baby buggy plastic canopies. "Usually poorly constructed. You wonder why
they're doing this? The Playfair is overbuilt, so we can push her hard." Of course if you're retired and you've got the dough, you can't push yourself that hard either, though there are plenty of small sailboats that would give you the feel of sailing without the hard work, and the need for deckhands, say your grown-up kids who probably wouldn't show up unless the destination was some Club Med in the Caribbean. But if you feel the urge for more than an adventure out of a DVD box, sailing is still one of the things you can do, even on a budget. It's making a comeback if you read the yachting magazines.
There's skill, of course, even with all the modern navigational aids. And any trip can have an unpredictable factor, usually the weather, that can catch you off guard, like in Lake Erie, a hassle for weekend boaters who have to be at work Monday. Last year Labour Day, says Captain Weed, she was going through the west channel of Lake Erie, very shallow, only 12 feet deep. With shallow water, waves can get whipped up high, and there was a whopping storm. We were stranded for 3 or 4 days. When the coast guard came to check on us, you know these fully enclosed rescue craft, they radioed back, they were turning back. Not going out in that gale, since we didn't really need them. Of course they would have risked it, if we were in trouble. Otherwise the sailing is great,
the best there is in inland waters right around here, all through Georgian Bay. Might be a half million islands. Depends what you call an island. We get a chance to explore some with our students. We've got two big dories for that, plus inflatable lifeboats packed in big drums, if we have to abandon ship. Overcapacity too, it's safety first. Though we let the kids do just about anything you can do onboard, including handling the wheel. Mind you the crew supervises everything closely, so they don't make mistakes or get into trouble. Most of the time we're on the water, only going into port for supplies. So the kids share in the watches 24 hours a day. We hug the shore or sail right across the bay. On this leg we'll be going up to Manitoulin Island, before heading south for Midland. It's a great experience for everyone, the crew and the kids. If you're not a kid anymore, Brigantine does allow for charters and alumni sailings, so you could join them. See http://www.tallshipadventures.on.ca/


2010 Update

For more great pictures of the Playfair sailing, see Yvonne Berg's Tall Ship Adventure.

Climb aboard the Playfair and the Pathfinder in Toronto for the Toronto Waterfront Festival, June 30-July 4, 2010. Sail training 4 hour cruises for groups up to 20 will be available for charter during the Festival from Toronto Brigantine, a not for profit registered charity.

Playfair and Pathfinder 2010 Summer Schedule. Book your kids (13-18) a berth on one to two week sailings through the Great Lakes, part of the Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge.

Follow Toronto Brigantine's Playfair and Pathfinder Tall Ship Adventures on Facebook.

Become a Member of Toronto Brigantine and help support 48 years of service to kids.

An Ocean Liner Deep In Fresh Water

Summer. The Columbus at the town dock, Parry Sound. Every year the Germans land, twice in August going out and coming back from the Thirty Thousand Islands. It's impressive especially out of context, an ocean liner deep in fresh water a thousand miles from New York harbor. Would be nice if you could meet the Germans, but a Customs fence keeps them at bay during the 2 hour stopover. Probably it's the same Germans every year.

Check Your Kids' Pockets

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting back. Nintendo Alert.

All Aboard For The UN

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting there. The Island Queen V based in Parry Sound. It's like a General Assembly at the UN aboard. For tourists on the go who want to see everything from their car or bus window this is the Ultra Georgian Bay Experience. Mind you just about every one else has a great time, even me.

Fying In And Around

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting there. Georgian Bay Airways based in Parry Sound will fly you around the Islands. If you're in a hurry to get out of Toronto, they'll fly you here. Their charter rates are reasonable and it's a first class outfit. Central Helicopters on the edge of town also do deluxe tours and charters.

Where The Locals Gossip

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting there. Aboard the Chippewa III based in Parry Sound. About the best way to see the Islands and chat with the locals. They know the best places and best deals. In a coffee shop or bar they're rather tight-lipped. It's their place and they want to keep it that way. If you're from the city it's what you get in any small town. They all seem to have had perfect childhoods, growing up in these backwaters, and they don't want a blessed thing to change.

A Cruise Through The Islands

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting there. The skipper and first mate aboard the Chippewa III, based at Parry Sound. A great way to spend a few leisurely hours, as mellow as your favorite daydream. Because she's built to hug a shore, she can dock for lunch at some of the Islands. If you've wondered who the faces are behind the mansions dotting the Islands, you'll see some of them on this cruise, at the marina bars and restaurants, their float planes and yachts parked out front. Before you get too green with envy, remember every stick of furniture and every bag of frozen vegetables has to be boated over. To build a dock or boathouse you'll need a barge. Still green? You're right. It doesn't bother them. Somebody else has to sweat it while the bored of the manor are having their cocktails on the beach.

The Friendly Chippewa III

Summer. 30,000 Islands and getting there. The friendly Chippewa III based in Parry Sound. A favorite with locals and tourists, she's spent all her days sightseeing, first as a Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls and now around the Islands. If you don't have a boat, or your canoe and kayak skills are iffy in these great waters, you could rent something or climb aboard right here.

The Perfect Cottage Vacation

Summer. 30,000 Islands. The Craganmor Point Resort on McLaren Island, between Parry Island and The Massasauga Provincial Park and its islands. For the genuine cottage experience, this is it, cozy and quaint. The resort side of it is you will have all you need for your stay, like at the biguns, but at a moderate price, with traditional creaking floorboards and a wonderful private sandy beach. Don't worry, you won't have to chop wood to feed your Elmira Stove, like cottagers used to do. At $650 and up for a small bungalow per week, it's a really good deal for a family vacation. Locals without cottages would like it here. But with money tight in small towns, locals think twice about a summertime splurge. Save for a boat instead or take a last minute package deal down south when the water turns to ice and the place is buried in snow. But cottage colonies like the Craganmor are always full and there are hundreds of them on the lakes and coastal islands of Georgian Bay. You'll never hear about most of them though, no websites, no advertising, no guidebooks to them. Drive or sail or ask around, get lucky with a vacancy or book for next year. It's the next best thing to owning one. If you're thinking of buying a cottage get your feet wet renting a cottage here and there first. Cottage fever can cost you plenty. People at a fantasy resort who'd spend $5 or $10 million for that one across the lake, will get a better idea of what to expect where they are, after their $150 tab for lunch.

History Sinking

Summer. 30,000 Islands. A Canadian Coast Guard ship on patrol. Classic bent pines of Georgian Bay. In the old days when ships were the only way to go up north, not a few were lost. Sudden squalls in November and unseen rocks ran most of them to the bottom. Search and Rescue by the likes of the Cove Isle and flashing buoys make it safer today, but the lighthouses are largely gone along with a lot of living history. It's hard to imagine what things were like even a hundred years ago, for all the heritage plaques and town museums, which you'd probably enjoy if you were from Mars. Don't know who else goes. I guess they'll be popular in another hundred years when no one will have a clue what we were all about.

The Island Mystery

Summer. 30,000 Islands. Two flower pots in sight. But if you look closely (left click) there's something mysterious going on, a dock with berths for 6 cruisers, another dock like a bunker and a gazebo big enough for a corporate BBQ. We've been expecting you, Mr Bond.

Pretending To Be Famous

Summer. 30,000 Islands. Somehow you know you've made it. You get a lot of grins like that from the boating crowd.

Shaken Not Stirred

Summer. 30,000 Islands. From flower pot size to big enough for a country. These are some of the planet's oldest exposed rock, at about 3 billion years old, gneiss and granite, the sparkle of mica schist, the dark smokey gneiss veined with yellow and white quartzite or pink feldspar granite, mostly layered like cakes and then called banded gneiss. It wasn't until geologists had a good look, that we found out that this archipelago of brooding islands had been stacked a lot higher, into mountains and whole chains of them. The last ice age and a few more besides bulldozed them.