Vancouver Boat Launch: Want Vanier Park Boat launch improved?

[fishin_magician]

NOW is your chance to have your say and possibly get Vanier Park boat launch reworked.

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!!!

 

[waddy29]

Gee - great idea..
but what a surprise, the 'Customer Service Hotline' number 604 873 7000 is not in service - pfffht on COV

from other thread......

FM do you know if there is another number? I cant find anything

 

[fishin_magician]

from other thread......

FM do you know if there is another number? I cant find anything

It's back in service now. Was down for a while.

If you live in Vancouver proper, dial 311. It's direct to the service line.

 

[terrin]

I agree FM it is a joke down there. For a world class city I would rate the launch worse than 3 rd rate. Definitely not worth a fee of any kind as there is a good chance disaster at low tides unless of corse the idea is to provide amusement for the balcony crowd on the other side of the inlet. I will call tommorow

 

[Reeltime]

Thanks for starting this thread , i will be putting my call in ....

 

[Pippen]

I called to add in my $.02 AND about the **** bike lane changes which make it VERY difficult for a lot of people getting their boats down here.

I live on Kits Point and to say I am sick of Gregor is a massive understatement.


If you check on the COV website there may be a way to submit feedback electronically as well.

 

[dmurph]

Pretty narrow sighted. All that time money and effort at the entrance to kits for bike lanes is obnoxious, had they actually put some thought into the planning the truck boat trailer access could have been improved. Love how Cornwall gets so narrow I am not sure if my set up would even fit through there, the main access to the only boat launch in vancouver. Poor job.

 

[fishin_magician]

Bump...keep calling guys!!!

 

[Scalper66]

Fish cleanin table there would be nice

 

[Pippen]

Fish cleanin table there would be nice

Come on Scalper......let's not go overboard here.

 

[pescador]

maybe a couple of special bike lanes down the ramp too

 

[fishin solo]

hey guys I started fishing last year in august and I always launched at port mann and ripped down the river to the south mouth think that area is called sandheads? this year plan to start fishing sooner was looking to get some feed back on other launches in the Vancouver area closer to the fishing grounds

 

[Dogbreath]

hey guys I started fishing last year in august and I always launched at port mann and ripped down the river to the south mouth think that area is called sandheads? this year plan to start fishing sooner was looking to get some feed back on other launches in the Vancouver area closer to the fishing grounds

MacDonald Beach in Richmond puts you close to most places and since you like 'ripping down the river' there should be no issues.

Vanier Park OTOH always has issues and looks like it always will.

 

[Daveroo]

Now that they have replaced the west dock, does anyone know whether they made improvements to the ramp to enable launching and takeout at a low tide by the new dock? Or is it still unuseable at low tide?

 

[fishin_magician]

Now that they have replaced the west dock, does anyone know whether they made improvements to the ramp to enable launching and takeout at a low tide by the new dock? Or is it still unuseable at low tide?

west launch remains undredged and the ramp will require resurfacing. The East dock will be replaced in September or something like that with a lower profile dock will be installed. that ramp is also disintegrating and will require dredging and resurfacing as well.

Call 311 and keep complaining to the City of Vancouver.

I have an acquaintance who has an excavating business.

He says it would take like 10-20 minutes to improve things big time on the West ramp. 95% of the guys who launch there are pick ups anyways. He said he and his Bobcat may just show up down there on a low low tide one morning about 20 minutes before dawn and push the sand out and do everyone a big favor. He uses the West Ramp too. There is pavement under the sand about another 10-15 feet---and it's about 2-3 feet deep with sand at the end of the actual ramp. The sand has drifted from the west over the end of the ramp and built up all the way to the low low tide mark where it then drops right off.

You used to be able to launch reasonably well on a 3 foot tide, now a 7 foot or higher tide is needed to prevent dunking the truck.

Anyways, said acquaintance called the Parks Board and COV a bunch of incompetents and corrupt. He said he bid on a contract for some work in the area and he didn't get the contract. As it turns out, he said, they awarded the contract to someone who did less for more money. He only found out because as it turns out the very firm which won the contract was a firm his sister in law knows and it turns out the people who make the call in awarding the contract went with " someone preferable". He said he's considering options.

We pulled a minivan out of the West launch in June....someone who went In a little too deep. Mr. minivan is going to be rusting out Ontario style I think...

The Parks Board/COV gave me some spew about environmental impact when I mentioned the dredging and reengineering of the slope/surfacing extension. I asked them if does a sunk vehicle leaking oil and fuel qualifies as as minimizing environmental impact?! LOL. I think the person got my point.

If a couple of dozen of us show up with some shovels....... We could organize this faster than a bunch of paper pushing bureaucrats and administrators could...