Crew of Private Idaho named CASBA Rescue of
the Year Canadian Safe Boating Council Awards
Joe Chisholm and Joe Gatfield, AP
As co-host Ted Rankine emphasized, the Canadian Safe
Boating Council is not in the business of handing out
hardware to fill a category each year. “Every nominee
and every recipient must demonstrate exceptional com-
mitment and achievement to be recognized,” and as a
result, the five back-stories are each remarkable in their
own right. “It isn’t the awards,” says Rankine, “it’s the
people, it’s the stories and this year we see exceptional
stories behind this year’s winners, Best Boating Safety
Initiative, the Green Marine Environmental Award,
Marine Professional of the Year, Volunteer of the Year
and Rescue of the Year.”
For 13 years, the Canadian Safe Boating Council has
made a determined effort to recognize individuals who
consistently practice and promote safe boating in Canada.
The concept of water safety has expanded to include
water stewardship so the awards also recognize environ-
mental efforts to lessen the environmental wake of water-
craft in Canada. At this year’s CASBAs, five of the potential
10 awards, were presented at Toronto’s Sheraton Centre
in a gala hosted by Ted Rankine and Barbara Byers.
The 6-person crew of Private Idaho won Rescue of the
Year Award for saving a drowning man. The sailor, a fellow racer, was as good as dead, separated from his boat
without a life jacket, when a squall terrorized Lake St.
Clair midpoint in a 24-hour race, after nightfall. His tale
was the exclamation point for the evening, showing how
good times can turn deadly in the wink of an eye when
boating. The crew employed every boating safety lesson
learned to keep a fix on the man in four to five foot
swells, manoeuvring the Private Idaho in 45 to 50 mph
winds and then pulling the waterlogged, exhausted sailor
into their cockpit. It would be three hours of first-aid
and TLC to keep the man alert, warm and hydrated until
they returned to Windsor Yacht Club.
The Private Idaho story, titled ‘When doing it by the
book pays off,’ ran in the Fall 2010 issue of Port Hole.
June 18, 2010, was the 38th annual Canadian Club
Windsor Invitational Race on Lake St. Clair. The crew
of Private Idaho, a Beneteau 34. 5, was eager to defend
their 2009 spot on the Ken Crooks Trophy. On board
for the race was Alan Johnson, captain, his wife Carol
Crooks, their 16-year-old nephew Nick Crooks, and
friends/crew members Alex Baker, Lindie Rudover, and
Chris Busch. All were experienced sailors, with Alan,
Carol, and Chris, members of CPS, the Windsor Squadron.
Alan and Carol had both grown up sailing in the Great
Lakes, Alex honed his skills on an Abbott 22 in Lake
Huron; Lindie had sailed all over the world on many
types of boats, Chris sailed on a tall ship in BC and had
recently completed Advanced Piloting with the Windsor
Squadron as well as adult sailing classes at South Port
Sailing Club. Nick, the newest member of the crew, had
learned the ropes from his grandfather and was now cutting his teeth on a larger boat.
Skipper Alan Johnson was out-of-town and unable to
be present at the CASBAs. The Windsor Star waited until
he was back in Windsor before they ran a lengthy front
page story titled Save me, Save me, I’m going to die. It
was quite the attention getter, but it certainly told the
story and provided the lessons learned, preparedness
and, as the story ends, “we did it right”, said Joe Gatfield,
who helped re-present the award in front of a packed
house at the Windsor Yacht Club during an evening for
family and friends of the crew. Crooks very clearly
thanked CPS about three times for the education she
(they) had received. Local MPP Dwight Duncan has presented each member with a certificate.
“It was a night to be proud of what we do,” said Joe
Gatfield. “It fits exactly into our Mission Statement. In
talking to the crowd afterwards, I made contacts for
future Boating courses and several Maritime Radio poten-
tials. Carol emphasized her knowledge came from the
course which she had taken approximately one month
before the rescue. All in all, a life was saved and the les-
sons learned are still being taught seven months later.”
“Both Alan and I have been CPS members for the last
two years,” Carol said later. “I have grown up a “vicari-
ous” family member as my dad taught and was involved
for many years. CPS was the topic of conversation around
the dinner table for many years. Of course my dad
taught us as much as he could on the many many hours
we spent on the boat growing up.”
The other four awards included Port Hole editor,
Joan Eyolfson Cadham, named Volunteer of the Year
(see page 6), Josh Lockwood, an RCMP Marine Officer
who patrols the waters of North Okanagan as Marine
Professional of the Year, OPP Marine Officer, David
Moffatt, for Best Boating Safety Initiative, and Wright’s
Marina in Britt, Ontario, winner of the Green Marine
Environmental Award.
