Vancouver yacht club expansion worries rowers in Coal Harbour

Rowers worry about yacht club expansion Vancouverites are used to tight spaces, real estate disputes, and traffic, and a local yacht club’s expansion plan shows the water is no exc

It's a dispute between two of the longest-running neighbours in Vancouver.

For a more than a century The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and the Vancouver Rowing Club have managed to peacefully coexist, but now the two are tied up in a struggle over the Coal Harbour waters.

RVYC has submitted an application to the Port of Vancouver for what they call a renewal project.

“It's a huge project, something that we have been working on for ten years to undertake," said the RVYC’s Leigh Stratton.

Stratton explained the $12 million expansion would be privately funded. It will add 47 new moorage slips to the 320 it currently holds and make RVYC greener.

“We are the only marina in the entire Coal Harbour basin that is part of the Green Marine Alliance and we want to make sure we continue that and we are in the leading edge of it,” Stratton said.

Next door, the Vancouver Rowing Club is worried the expansion puts their members at risk.

“The appropriation of the water and coming out so far, it could potentially cause the demise of rowing as we know it here," said VRC’s Dimas Craveiro.

Craveiro said there are always close calls in what is already a very tight space.

“In a collision between a rowing shell and a large boat I think we know who is going to be the winner and who is going to be the loser," Craveiro added.

Stratton insists the rowers and their safety were considered in their current application.

“They will be able to safely row and we want them here," she said.

The next steps will be public consultation while the project is under review by the Port of Vancouver.

If the expansion is approved, work will start next year.