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NW. SHORE LIFEBOAT SOCIETY

THE NORTH Shore Lifeboat Society (NSLS) is preparing
to initiate court proceedings in a bid to regain possession of
a 20-foot Boston Whaler, currently being used by the B.C.

Lifeboat Society (BCLS) at Pender Island.

The $30,000 boat, partly funded
by a $15,000 provincial lottery
grant obtained through West Van-
couver-Howe Sound MLA John
Reynolds and a $5,000 grant from
the North Vancouver Kiwanis
Club, had been based at Fish-
erman’s Cove, west of Point
Atkinson.

The boat was seized earlier this
year by a bailiff and impounded
for non-payment of storage fees.
The boat was subsequently retriev-
ed from the bailiff by the BCLS,
which claims legal ownership of
the vessel.

The NSLS had been operating
the boat since the organization was
formed last year when the North
Vancouver station of the BCLS
broke away from the larger group
to ‘fulfill local goals.’’

North Vancouver lawyer Jim
Poyner, who is donating his ser-
vices to the local lifeboat society,
said he was surprised that the fi-
nance ministry had not initiated
court proceedings itself, given the
findings of a recently concluded
$50,000 investigation into the af-
fairs of both lifeboat societies by
the provincial Financial Institu-
tions Department of Investiga-
tions.

The report recommends the boat
be returned to West Vancouver.

Said investigator W. A. Clark in
the report: ‘‘The taxpayers of
British Columbia have a half in-
terest in this boat and I believe
morally this is the place the boat
should be stationed. There is no
doubt persons raising funding for
this boat were from North and
West Vancouver....’"

Said Poyner: ‘The fact that the
lifeboat service here is endangered
is appalling. These people risk
their lives every week providing an
exceptional service, and it must be
continued,”’

But in a letter to BCLS president

Horst Klein, Finance Minister Mel
Couvelier said after reviewing the
investigation findings, ‘‘I have
concluded that if would be inap-
propriate for me to intervene in the
internal operation of the BCLS at
this time.”’

Said Klein of the $50,000 report
expenditure: ‘When | hear that I
could throw up.”’ Klein said the
BCLS would consider returning
the boat to West Vancouver,
‘tomorrow if we can find some
qualified people. What we have
over there is a bunch of weekend
warriors — we don’t need that.’*

The skirmish over the ownership
of the lifeboat is part of an ongo-
ing bitter paper battle between the
two lifeboat societies. A major
sore point between the then-North
Shore station of the BCLS and
Klein had been the question of
how monies raised on the North
Shore would be distributed.

Said Klein: ‘The only reason we
put a station in on the North Shore
was because it was a high profile
area and a good fund-raising area.
The location is already adequately
covered.”’

But said NSLS member Peter
Howard-Jones: ‘‘We’ve got to get
this community lifeboat back
where it belongs in Fisherman's
Cove.”

According to the provincial
report, the Coast Guard, which
has lent a boat to the NSLS to
cover the absence of the Boston
Whaler, believes the Whaler is
needed to serve Burrard Inlet,
where there is a large boating pop-
ulation and a correspondingly high
rate of boating mishaps.

Since January of this year, the
NSLS has launched 53 search and
rescue missions in Burrard Inlet.

ROR Sue P ae tet We .
Chine poe veed rin ape Exar ‘
NEWS photo Nell Lucente

DAVE REDWORTH moors his Taser at Ambleside Beach. Warm, sunny weather is forecast for the next
few days, making this week an ideal time to go sailing.