Nearly 40 boats will launch from Nanaimo Harbour Saturday morning for the 13th running of the Van Isl 360 International Yacht Race. (Jeff Motley)

By Alex Rawnsley

start your sails

Van Isle 360 International Yacht Race returns to Nanaimo waters

May 31, 2023 | 5:25 AM

NANAIMO — Boats big and small are readying to circumnavigate Vancouver Island.

The Van Isle 360 International Yacht Race sees dozens of vessels sail around Vancouver Island, and begins in Nanaimo on Saturday, June 3 with boats arriving as early as Wednesday, May 31 at the W.E. Mills Landing and Marina, off Cameron Island.

Sylvia Motley owns the race with her husband Jeff, she told NanaimoNewsNOW 39 boats, roughly 325 sailors and around 50 support crew will make the trek around the Island over the next two weeks.

“[The boats] going to range from 24 feet up to 52 feet. Most of the races this year are American, 60 per cent of our fleet are American. They’re very keen on this race…so many anchorages, so much wild beauty around the Island which they just really don’t have once you get south of Seattle.”

Start times on Saturday morning will be at 10:20 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. as the boats navigate around busy Harbour waters with BC Ferries and seaplanes, along with personal watercraft.

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Motley said the start is always a little chaotic with the best viewing along the seawall by the pier.

“The start is always fun, it’s very small and between satellite reef and the pier. There will be a lot of yelling and screaming and hopefully quite a bit of wind so we get out of the harbour quickly.”

After starting in Nanaimo, boats will turn north for the first of nine races around the Island, making stops along the way.

Boats will start in the Nanaimo Harbour before heading north toward Comox on Saturday, June 3. (Google Maps/NanaimoNewsNOW illustration)

Most races are short day trips, however, boats will go overnight against the clock and each other down the Island’s west coast.

While boats are split into four divisions, they’re all competing for top prize through a unique ranking, the Ocean Racing Council system, which evens the field.

“It’s a very accurate form of handicapping the boats in that it takes into account weights of the boats, measurements, how tall their mast is, how big their sails are,” Motley said. “This makes the competitors very, very close because these ratings are so accurate.”

Usually held at the end of May or the start of June, timing of the race is built around one critical junction point.

“The race is totally dependent timing-wise on the tides through Seymour Narrows [between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island, north of Campbell River]. It’s the only place the boats will motor to get through the narrows and the whole race is based when we can get through at a half decent time.”

Boats will begin arriving back in Nanaimo in the evening or overnight hours of Friday, June 16 into Saturday, June 17 with an awards banquet to follow Saturday night.

It’s the first time in four years the bi-annual event has run, after being cancelled in 2021.

The races are supported by crews from the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard.

Stops in a number of communities are planned for the 2023 Van Isle 360 boating event, beginning and ending in Nanaimo. (Google Maps/Van Isle 360)

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