55 Years of Four-Legged Friends!

5 years is a real milestone. It’s the emerald anniversary, and we are proud to have been representing the boating community in BC and beyond for more than a half-century! But 55 years isn’t the grand, golden anniversary of 50 years. Nor is it the diamond anniversary awaiting us at 60. So, I thought for our 55th anniversary we would look back at some of the more lighthearted stories PY has published about our beloved four-legged cruising companions over the years.

Looking through our archives the first story I could find dedicated to boating with pets was written by R. Gehman in April 1982 (it’s possible I missed something from the 1970s.) Gehman’s tale recounts a cruise from Vancouver to the Gulf Islands in a 20-foot O’Day sailboat with two kids and two(!) dogs aboard. The highlight of the story is when one of the dogs gets stuck under the dock at Pirates Cove. It takes some coaxing to free him from captivity.

In August 1996, we published a humorous story encouraging boaters to clean up after their dogs—a reminder that holds true today. It reminded me of a letter we published a couple of years ago from a reader who calculated the amount of doggy doodoo entering the most popular Desolation Sound anchorages during the summer… His conclusion was not pretty.

Over the years, we’ve published numerous articles providing thoughtful tips on how to make your pet more comfortable on board. The top tips from Christine Green’s August 2005 article included providing a shaded area for your pet, ensuring you have a constant supply of fresh drinking water and checking regularly for cuts and heat burns on their paw pads—good advice!

In June 2018, Diane Selkirk reminded readers to bring plenty of treats and to practice “animal overboard drills.” But don’t practice with your pet.

In July 2014, Larry MacDonald and Fern Magnus-Brown wrote an interesting article detailing the best dogfriendly marinas and anchorages in the Broughtons. These included Turnbull Cove, Forward Harbour and Sullivan Bay Marina. We’d be interested to hear if these locations still hold up.

Our most recent article on the topic came from Barb Muir in September 2021. It included specific first aid tips for boating with your pets. The most important reminder was to locate veterinarian clinics in your cruising region before leaving the dock.

These articles have been some of our most popular reads over the years and we are happy to share them again online at pacificyachting.com.

The tradition of publishing doggy boating stories continues in this issue with long-time PY contributor Anne Vipond reminiscing about boating with her family pets—the good and the bad. And that’s certainly a theme throughout all of these stories. Boating with your pet isn’t always easy, but it’s almost always worth it. Cheers to 55 years on the water and to 55 more!

–Sam Burkhart

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