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Devastation for Lincoln family By Tristan Marks NewsNow It began just as any other Sunday would for the Janssen family of Beamsville. Diana Janssen quickly popped out to the store around 4 p.m. while her husband, Mark, took a nap after a long day of yard work. Their son and daughter, twins Luka and Shayne, were in their rooms changing after swimming in the backyard pool and the whole family was waiting for Mark’s father, Simon Janssen, to arrive for his weekly visit. That Sunday, May 23, a fire would ignite in the Janssen’s sunroom, quickly spreading heat and smoke throughout the house, located on Hwy. 8 near Thirty Road.
They would lose their home of seven years, many beloved family pets and more - but this tragedy also came with some relief. All family members in the house at the time of the fire, Mark, Luka and Shayne, escaped with their lives and without significant injury. Mark said his father’s arrival that day played a pivotal part in his family’s escape. “When we first heard the fire alarms go off, my daughter and I kind of put it off since we figured my son might have set it off by burning some popcorn in the microwave or something,” Mark said. “Then my daughter knocked on my door yelling, “there’s a fire!”. See FIRE, Page 4
Old man will be in a boat, soon, hopefully By Mike Williscraft NewsNow At the first opportunity, Ian Robertson is going to be doing what he loves - sailing - but his next voyage will be decidedly different. The Grimsby resident has charted out a route which will take him around the Great Lakes on a sailing/ rowing expedition - the Old Man In A Boat Tour - with a goal to raise $10,000 for the World Wildlife Fund as part of the plan. While his initial plan start-
ed about four years ago was to develop a route to sail a European tour - including along the Danube. A bout with cancer set those plans back and now COVID-19 impacts have affected travel, so his plan has morphed into a localized rendition. And like the route itself unique and one of a kind so too is the craft in which Ian will execute his plan. “Rudder fittings are one of the only standard pieces, but this boat has never been designed before. It’s
different,” Ian says. “The sails are different. We’re trying lots of new stuff, actually. It’s a little scary, but I have enough experience that I feel it will work. We do not have a blueprint for some of these parts.” There really is no prior design to go by at all, save for a drawing Ian once saw from a Swedish craftsman years ago. “These things are all untried. Now, I didn’t invent that idea. I found it on a
sailing canoe that a Swedish guy drew but has never built. I wrote to him, but he was too busy with other projects to suggest how to build these mast supports, so we’re having to make that up as we go along,” said Ian. “He has built it for larger boats, so he knows the system works but we are left with how to make it strong enough to support things at an angle because you’re counting on a lot of strength. We’re improvising.”
And that is very much how the retired math teacher has lived his life, ready for change and prepared to adapt. “My parents started me in a sailing program at the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club when I was 10. I came home and said, ‘That’s what I want to do’,” he recalled. “I went through their junior program and then was an instructor. Then at 17 or 18, I ran their programs for them for a couple of years.” See BOAT, Page 2