Lake Lisgar Sailors to offer beginner class for new modelers
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Norm Harris - Lake Lisgar Sailors
Sadly, in our modern society, manual skills seem to be on the decline, especially among the present younger generations.
Seemingly, the only people using their hands to actually make something, are traditional trades persons like carpenters, plumbers, mechanics and machinists. And possibly electricians.
Constructive hobbies are definitely on the decline among younger people, but are still popular with older and elderly people. I happen to be one of those!
In Tillsonburg we have a rather pretty lake with a jetty and a rowing dock. These two facilities are absolutely ideal for model ship enthusiasts. We have a small group of remote control model sailors, sailing mainly ships made at home, either on the kitchen table or in small workshops such as shared laundry rooms or the garage. We call ourselves the Lake Lisgar Sailors, a small club originally started by a couple of fairly senior guys about 17 years ago. It grew to about 20 modelers, but that number has declined due to people moving away, or sadly passing on!
We meet fairly regularly, enabling useful exchanges of information, or tips to solve problems in whatever we might be building. At our last meeting someone came up with the idea to encourage people with time on their hands, to take up our hobby. It would be great to see more than just two or three ships on the lake on our traditional sailing days.
I am sure that among the readers of this article there are those who have the potential to create a model ship, whether from a kit, scratch built, sail or powered, and having the real pleasure of seeing it navigate around our lake. With that in mind, we came up with the idea of setting up a sort of beginner’s class, when new modelers could come and get advice and encouragement. It would probably start in the new year.
With this in mind, perhaps you might be interested enough to make a telephone call to either Norm at 519-688-1016 or Judy at 519-842-9770.