Joan Eyolfson Cadham / Awards and Honours

A member of CPS since 1981, Joan had been devoted to making boat-writing good-reading since 1983, when she took over "The Wheelhouse," the newsletter of the Lake St. Louis Squadron where she started combining her passions for sailing, writing and water-safety. She opened her acceptance speech Sunday night at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto with, "Let me dispel one big myth right now - there is navigatible water in Saskatchewan." Secondly she emphasized that although she was honoured to be recognized by her peers, there is no editing of a volunteer- based magazine without many, many dedicated contributors, from those who tell the stories to those who make the layout look inviting.
The 6-person crew of Private Idaho won Rescue of the Year Award, 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. This 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 and then some to keep a fix on the man in four to five foot swells, manoeuvre 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.
Two marine law-enforcement officers were recognized this year. OPP Marine officer, David Moffatt won Best Boating Safety Initiative. He had an idea that pulling over boats and handing out T-shirt to kids saying, "I got caught wearing my life jacket," would do more to reinforce safety to both the kids and their parents, than more draconian policing measures. The campaign took off, eventually adding key-chains and because of Moffat's determination, $58,000 of sponsorship money was raised, other Marine Units picked up the practice and 8,300 T-shirts have been given out.
Saskatchewan native, Josh Lockwood, an RCMP Marine Officer who patrols the waters of North Okanagan won Marine Professional of the Year Award. Lockwood's efforts to ramp up police presence on "party hotspots" resulted in unprecedented records of Zero-fatalities on the water on the May and August long weekend - a time where good-times turn to tragedy with unfortunate regularity.
From Britt, Ontario, the Green Marine Environmental Award went to Wright's Marina. This family-owned operation set the bar to a new standard as minimum requirements were never enough for this imaginative team who found ways to add greener processes, get boat shrink-wrap recycled and aluminium cans and wine bottles turned into community dollars for the local Lion's Club branch.
For more information on the Canadian Safe Boating Council, check out http://www.csbc.ca