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A Swiftsure communications era has ended. For the first time in 35 consecutive years, Royal Victoria Yacht Club skippers Bob Smith and Gerry Williams will not chase the fleet acting as "spotter boats" in their twin 40-foot Monk tri-cabin cruisers Scot Free and Shelimar. Transponders have replaced their VHF radios. "All the major races like the Vic Maui and Sydney-Hobart are using transponder technology," explains Swiftsure Committee Chairman Bill Conconi. "We’re only staying abreast of what the public expects of sailboat races." After the Royal Victoria Yacht Club became the permanent host in 1949, the Swiftsure committee looked for ways to get reports from the Juan de Fuca Strait. The U.S. Coast Guard sent rounding times from the Lightship anchored on Swiftsure Bank, but these were infrequent and hours late. In 1952, Royal Vic’s Dr. Ben Nickells offered to monitor radio signals from a lead Swiftsure yacht on his home ham radio set. Equipped with her radio from the Trans Pac Races, the cutter L’Apache (later renamed Diamond Head) had powerful industrial-quality porcelain insulators inserted into eye splices in the ends of the main backstay, creating an antenna. The few pleasure craft at the time had to share the one common radio band with hundreds of commercial users. Traffic was heavy on the "Fisherman’s Band." Ben’s son, Gordie Nickells, remembers one Scandinavian voice came through from the Bank. "It’s blowing like hell, and some crazy bougars are out here sailing!" Stationed on board L’Apache, Humphrey Golby managed to relay a few disjointed words back to shore. By the early 1960s, the RVYC ?had set up Swiftsure‘s first public information center in the corner window of Eaton’s Douglas Street store. Bob Smith and Gerry Williams were among the juniors who manned the phones around the clock. Using updates from the strait, the teens thumb-tacked a flotilla of small paper boat cutouts with black-lettered names onto a large map of the strait. Weekend race widows like me made pilgrimages to check the whereabouts of our sailors. Diesel fuel was 13 cents a gallon when Bob Smith and Gerry Williams created the spotter boat system in 1972 to report yacht locations from the Strait. That first year, the pair rafted together at Clallam Bay to form the rounding mark for the newly established Juan de Fuca Race. At first, Smith and Williams used High Frequency radio to call in through Victoria Coast Guard Radio, and sometimes B.C. Telephone. Electronic expert Terry Daniels set up their systems, and spent the weekend in his own boat moored in Cadboro Bay picking up their transmissions. The data was then run up to communications "command central" in the yacht club and posted on a large chalk board. 
By the late 1970s, Scot Free and Shelimar were using a single side band radio. But the Navy ships, that now served as rounding marks, didn’t have any frequencies that recreational boats could pick up. Daniels put in a compatible channel on Smith‘s radio. In 1975, Swiftsure Committee Chairman Roy Barber invented the four quadrant grid system that allowed yachts to be pin pointed more accurately than reports like "just off Sheringham," or "off Port San Juan." Next came the shorter range VHF Radio that follows the lines of sight for 30 miles over the open water, transmitting via Victoria or Tofino Coast Guard Radio. Demand for information grew. As well as the safety factor, Bob Smith comments "to a great extent, it was media-driven." Typically, Scot Free and Shelimar would roam the strait, then overnight in Sooke and pick up the yachts coming home on Sunday morning. They went beyond Neah Bay several times and overnighted in Neah Bay in some years "before the boats got too fast for us to catch coming in on a run. Scot Free was west of the J Buoy (off Cape Flattery) in 1976 when Native Dancer ran on the beach near Carmanah," remembers Smith. "We chatted with commercial traffic, informing them of the approximate locations of the 400 plus boats out there when the rain was too heavy to enable any radar contacts." In those years, Scot Free ran all night - leaving Cadboro Bay at 0800 Saturday and returning as late as 2400 Sunday. For awhile, John Anderson also helped locate racers, and after he sold his boat he continued to spot from the Race Rocks Lighthouse tower. In the mid 1990s, the Mt. Matheson repeater station was built to receive B.C. Telephone radio frequencies. "We used to run out of cell phone range around Port Renfrew," explains Williams. For the last few years, they have used Coast Guard Radio telephone Channel 26. As Bob Smith and Gerry Williams joke about "picking up their gold watches," they are quick to credit their crews. On board Shelimar, 35 year veterans Norm Rivers and John Smith, plus Bob Tubman. On board Scot Free was Bob’s son, Neil Smith and Barry Wright. Some ten years ago, Beacon Hill Systems experimented with the guts of a transponder. West Marine donated a dozen radios. Batteries and other parts were assembled in large, square shaped "tuppperware" containers and the units placed on boats that were potential Swiftsure leaders. In 2006, the Swiftsure Committee tested a new communications system. In this transition year, the spotter boats still worked the strait, but at no charge, the Swiftsure Committee supplied every boat with a transponder consisting of a GPS, power supply and some form of transmission. There are two types: mounted on a rail, the three foot AIS Class B unit uses VHF radio, while the GSM uses the cellular phone system and fits in a small zip-lock bag. The transponders collected a lot of data. "Its representation on the internet was what bogged down," explains Bill Conconi, "Programming errors related to handling the volume have now been corrected. We’ll probably get between 3,000-4,000 reports from every boat." 
Transmitting every three minutes, transponders give the yacht’s ID, latitude, longitude, COG, and SOG. The coordinates are automatically plotted on a map, and posted on a Swiftsure website link. "You see a dot on the map, click on the dot for the boat name, skipper’s name, and where the boat is from," says Conconi. "This gives the "visuals" so people who are interested can see where their favorite boats are." As a safety backup, a VHF radio network blankets the Strait. A transponder can tell where a boat is, but it can’t tell if something goes wrong. Sailing Instructions require reports from yachts of withdrawals, protest and penalties as well as routine radio traffic between yachts and the Race Committee. "If one system goes down, we’ve got the key data that the determines the race," comments Bill Conconi. This year, for the first time, participating yachts can communicate with the race committee on Channel 26 from anywhere in the race area. Previously, they were out of range west of Flattery. As always, yachts can contact US or Canadian Coast Guard on Channel 16. Mark rounding times will be transmitted on amateur VHF radio from Neah Bay, Clallam Bay and Swiftsure Bank. Swiftsure Radio Coordinator Peter Mills explains that HAM radio operators will be stationed on all three mark rounding vessels, at a station in the hills above the Sombrio River, in Sooke and at Ship Point in Victoria. The Sombrio Station is the hub of this network: all mark rounding times flow through Sombrio and only the Sombrio station can reliably communicate with yachts west of Cape Flattery. Voice radio will send the times to Sombrio. There, they will be transcribed into the radio equivalent of an email (packet radio). Sombrio will send the rounding times regularly by packet to a repeater station which will relay it to the Ship Point Swiftsure center for downloading onto a computer, ready for transfer into the Swiftsure information system. In these roles, the HAM volunteers who donate their time, and the Municipal Emergency Programs which donate their equipment make it possible to pin point rounding times and communicate with yachts west of Cape Flattery. They play a vital role in the Swiftsure communications team that relays information from the water to the public who are eager for progress reports. Shirley Hewett and Humphrey Golby co-authored Swiftsure The First Fifty Years. Since 1969, Shirley has been part of the CFAX 1070 Swiftsure broadcasting team. ...back to 48° North title page.
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