Fall work party this weekend

We'll be having our fall cleanup on Saturday October 28th from 9 am to 1 pm. The rain date is Sunday October 29th.

If you plan to attend please note your attendance on this poll (so we have enough food for everyone). Note: you need to be signed in as a member to our website in order to respond.

AGM announcement

Save the date! Our AGM will be Sunday November 19. Like previous years, this will be a virtual meeting. More details will be announced soon. 

Volunteer hours

Water Rats has a work, pay, or play system where members are required to contribute 10 volunteer/play hours per year. Hours that were not completed are charged at $30 per hour on the 2024 renewal invoice. Please ensure that you have entered your hours on our website by Nov 30. Hours that are not entered using the form will not be counted.

Look for an email with your digital key

If you haven’t signed up for your digital key yet, please watch your email for your invitation to download your digital key. It will be titled Your invitation to Water Rat Sailing from SALTO Keys as a Service. The link in the email will expire 3 days after you receive it, so if you are able to register within that timeframe it would be helpful.

Once you have created your account, please download the Salto KS app on your phone and then you can log in and download your digital key. Many smart watches also support digital keys. To access the locks, open the Salto KS app on your phone and hold your phone to the lock.

Key return

In the clubhouse there is a box for key return. Please write your name on an envelope and place your keys inside. We will discount your membership on renewal based on the number of keys returned. We also need a volunteer to go through the keys and record the names. Please contact Michael if you are able to help.

Fob pickup

Members who have purchased a fob on or before Oct 20, you can find you fob in the clubhouse in an envelope with your name on it. Anyone who would like to purchase a fob can still do so here. The fobs cost $30 and will not be refunded if you leave the club.

Why are switching to digital locks?

The main reasons we are switching to digital locks is to increase security, reduce administrative efforts, and reduce costs.

Currently, Water Rats owns two sets of padlocks. Each year we do a key exchange, where we switch keys between padlocks. While not everyone is aware that this is our system, it provides little security. Someone who does not return a key, for example if they leave club, will still have access every other year. Over the years, we’ve “lost” 100s of keys, both from people who misplace the key, and members who leave the club but do not return their keys. The only way to keep this system secure is to continually buy new locks, which would cost around $5,000 per year. After accounting for the recovery of the fob cost, the electronic lock costs only $4,500. The savings are mainly because to keep a physical key secure, we would need to throw out the keys each year. Finally, our locks have a log on them. If we have a security incident, we can download the logs and see who entered the club on a certain day.

Physical keys are also a large administrative effort. To do a key exchange requires 10s of hours of volunteer work and record keeping associated with it. It’s also a lot of work for members to come to the club and exchange keys. It may take you 5 minutes to download your new digital key, but think of this as your 2023 key exchange and every key exchange you would have to do for a long as your maintain a membership. Beyond the key exchange, there is a significant key effort to meet members who didn’t come to the key exchange, lost their keys, or left the club. Each year, 10-20 people don't come to the key exchange. Think of the amount of work to arrange times to meet all of these people. When someone leaves the club, we refund them for their key deposit. That means our treasurer needs to write a cheque, membership rat needs to get that cheque, arrange to meet the departing member and exchange the key. Each of things adds up to a lot of time that doesn’t really make the club a better place. With the digital lock, when someone leaves we can delete their keys in seconds, and instead of dealing with keys we can focus our efforts on things that improve the club for all members.

We’re modernizing our system in a way that will provide security benefits to members, eliminates key exchanges, and reduces the administrative effort. No organization with over 200 members is giving out physical keys in 2023 and we're simply updating to the modern security standard.

Masts down for winter storage

As a reminder, members are required to demast their boats by November 30. Winds can be strong over the winter and we’ve had boats topple over when stored with the mast up. To protect everyone’s property, we require that boats are stored with the mast down.

Winter storage

Members who would like to store a boat for the winter that they do not normally store at Water Rats may request to do so for a fee of $50. Winter Storage runs from Oct 1 to April 30.

Rules changed to reflect new key policy

We’ve changed the membership rules to reflect the change to our electronic lock, removing the key deposit. This change shouldn’t affect any members, but we would like to announce it so that members are aware when the rules are changed.

Who is interested in having a holiday party?

Please answer our poll if you'd like to attend. Note: you need to be signed in as a member to our website in order to respond.

Have a great winter!