The Nanaimo Curling Club season is underway following an off season chiller replacement. (Nanaimo Curling Centre)

By Alex Rawnsley

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NANAIMO — Despite being roughly a week late, rocks are sliding for the season at the Nanaimo Curling Club after a stressful off-season filled with a lot of uncertainty.

Play is back underway at the Wall St. facility with a new ammonia and brine chiller in place to keep the house nice and cool for curlers of all ages.

Club president Tom Weinreich told NanaimoNewsNOW some scheduled maintenance after last season ended had them suddenly staring at a bill over $150,000.

“We took our old chiller apart to verify whether there was any corrosion in it, which was a Technical Safety BC requirement. They discovered that there was enough corrosion that certainly we couldn’t operate with that chiller again, so we had to go on the hunt for a new chiller.”

A fundraiser from the club saw $89,500 raised, with the City of Nanaimo chipping in a further $67,950 in grant money.

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Weinreich admitted the stars aligned for them to have the season begin somewhat on time this year.

“One of the stars is that the City of Burnaby was tearing down its Burnaby Lake Arena, which had the chiller we ended up buying. It’s seven years old and…all we needed to do was change out the rubber gaskets then the chiller is good for another 10 years before we have to do another gasket change.

Weinreich added the new-to-them equipment which feeds pipes to cool a concrete slab on which the ice is built, is called a “plate and frame” chiller, featuring titanium places which are corrosion resistant.

Without the Burnaby-based machine, the club would have had to wait 14 weeks to purchase a new one, and then allow additional time for installation.

To help bolster the bank accounts, the club is hosting Canadian curling legend Kevin Martin for two days on Oct. 19 and 20.

The four-time world champion, 15-time Grand Slam champion and three-time Olympian will host a technical seminar, and attend a beer and burger night on Saturday, Oct. 19.

“He’s a real icon in curling and we’re just happy to have been able to get him out to Nanaimo for a wonderful event.”

The club is also raffling off opportunities to play in a game with or against Martin.

Full details on the event are available on the Nanaimo Curling Club’s website.

Skip Kevin Martin throws a rock at the 2013 Roar Of The Rings championship in Winnipeg. (John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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