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BusinessPoliticsEnvironment
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Peninsula Daily News
Victoria tall ships festival is scuttled Lack of money sponsors ends event for 2011
from Russia and Mexico, both of which exceeded 300 feet in length. Victoria also held a tall ships fest in 2008 which Peninsula Daily News featured a rare news sources Pacific coast Girouard VICTORIA — Tourism profes- visit of the sionals in Victoria say they are 295-foot U.S. Coast Guard tall worried about the loss of revenues ship, Eagle. likely from the cancellation of the 2011 Tall Ships Festival in Inner 2011 gathering nixed Harbour. But the tall ships won’t gather Tourism Victoria CEO Rob in Victoria in 2011, Girouard said Gialloreto, whose organization represents hotels, restaurants Dec. 16. “The gap between the funds we and other tourist-dependent businesses, called the cancellation have raised in the community and what it will cost to stage the festi“extremely disappointing.” “We were extremely surprised val is too large to bridge,” he said. The 2011 Tall Ships Festival, to hear this. It’s shocking that it’s not happening,” Gialloreto said of which was expected by Tourism the event scheduled for next June. Victoria to inject $8 million of The cancellation, announced visitor spending into the Victoria earlier this month by Victoria Tall economy June 9-12 next year, had Ships Society President Roger 22 ships signed up to visit. They were to use Victoria as Girouard because of the lack of sponsors, will also have a minor the second port of call of an Amereffect in Port Angeles and Port ican Sail Training Association Tall Townsend, where many tall ships Ships Challenge tour that begins at past festivals came to enter the June 7 near Vancouver, B.C., with U.S. ports of entry and dock for scheduled visits at San Francisco, Long Beach, Calif., and Honolulu. provisions. The Victoria Tall Ships Society The ships were popular waterfront attractions, and a few have — a volunteer group of people allowed tours and staged mock who are passionate about bringbattles offshore before moving on ing tall-ships festivals to the picturesque provincial capital — in their West Coast tour. Notable among the visits in needed to have corporate sponsors Port Angeles were the 2005 to accommodate the ships at Inner appearances of giant tall ships Harbour.
Peninsula Daily News
The Amazing Grace, an 83-foot topsail schooner from Gig Harbor, heads toward Victoria’s Inner Harbour during the opening day Parade of Sail to start the 2008 Tall Ships Festival. “This is a fiscally responsible decision by our board of directors,” Girouard said of the Victoria cancellation. “The society is not prepared to spend money it doesn’t have or to make promises to the community and our partners that we will be unable to keep.”
$250,000 short The estimated budget for the festival, which drew 32,000 people in 2008, is $1.2 million. Girouard said the organization was about $250,000 short when it pulled the plug. “It was clear the trend line in terms of cash and our capacity to pull it all off was not getting to where it needed to be,” he said. “The society carried a bit of a
war chest over from the last festival so from a pure cash position it seemed fine, but we realized at this time in past years we had promissory notes and handshakes that covered a lot of things that we don’t have yet this year.” Gialloreto, the Tourism Victoria CEO, said the festival was to play a big role in Tourism Victoria’s 2011 marketing plans — it had set aside $30,000 to promote the event — to say nothing of boosting tourism revenues. Tourism Victoria even had a tall ships image set for the front of its annual visitors’ guide. It’s now looking for a new cover shot. Girouard, a retired Canadian Navy rear admiral and former commander of the Pacific fleet, said there is a slight chance the
festival could be revived but that window of opportunity is small. “If someone calls and says, ‘Here’s a quarter-million dollars,’ then sure we will aim to do it, but the challenge, of course, is we have started to talk to stakeholders and partners and we’ve initiated the process of disassembly so it is a limited-time offer,” he said. Girouard said the society will work to bring the festival back ahead of the usual three-year cycle that would have it in Victoria again in 2014. “We intend to be back,” he said.
________ Andrew A. Duffy of the Victoria Times Colonist, a news partner of the Peninsula Daily News, contributed to this report.
Lasers aimed at pilots worry aviation officials By Joan Lowy The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal Aviation Administration officials are worried about a substantial increase in the number of people pointing lasers at aircraft cockpits. They say the intense light can distract and temporarily blind pilots and has caused some to relinquish control to co-pilots or abort landings.
No ‘On the Waterfront’ Columnist David G. Sellars is taking the week off from his maritime column.
This year, there have been more than 2,200 incidents reported to the Federal Aviation Administration, up from fewer than 300 in 2005. California, Texas and Florida have recorded the most, but the problem is widespread across the country. There hasn’t been an air crash so far, but the incidents have aviation officials concerned. “It sounds silly, but this is a serious problem,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt wrote in a Transportation Department blog. “We know that laser pointers are an important tool for astronomers and casual stargazers,” Babbitt wrote. “But we just can’t stress enough the importance of being careful when you are shining them into the night sky.”
The rise in incidents has coincided with a growing hobbyist market for handheld lasers that are far more powerful — and potentially dangerous — than the typical laser pointer. At the same time prices have dropped. Lasers that once cost more than $1,000 can now be bought online for a few hundred dollars or less. Some lasers are marketed with holsters that can be clipped onto a belt, creating a gunslinger-like appearance. Earlier this year, Lucasfilm threatened legal action against Wicked Lasers, a Hong Kong-based company whose lasers have aluminum handles that resemble the lightsabers of the “Star Wars” movies. Lucasfilm later dropped the threat. “Wicked Lasers defeats
dark forces of George Lucas,” respond to an e-mail request the laser company’s website for comment. brags. Dozens of people in the United States and around Eye damage the world have been arrested for pointing lasers at aircraft The American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a cockpits, most often near airstatement in September ports during takeoffs and warning parents that new, landings. Those are the most critipowerful laser devices can easily cause eye damage and cal phases of flight, when pilots need to be their most blindness. The academy pointed to alert. Interference with air the case of a 15-year-old boy navigation is a federal who suffered severe eye crime. Last year, an Orange, damage while playing with a Calif., man was sentenced to laser in front of a mirror. Lasers don’t have to be 2½ years in prison for aimpointed at someone’s eyes to ing a handheld laser at two cause harm — reflected light Boeing jets as the passenger planes were about to land at can cause damage as well. A laser pointer like those John Wayne Airport. In August, a Baltimore used by lecturers typically generates about 5 milliwatts police helicopter pilot was temporarily “flash blinded” of power. Wicked Laser’s website by a laser, preventing him offers a 1,000-milliwatt from helping fellow officers chasing a suspect. handheld laser. The laser company didn’t The pilot recovered, cir-
cled around and spotlighted the house where the beam had come from as officers on the ground rushed in to arrest the culprit. The same month, green lasers were pointed at the cockpits of two medical helicopters transporting patients in Pittsburgh, including a 5-year-old boy injured in a bicycle accident. There are red, blue and violet lasers as well, but the green is the most visible against a night sky. The green lasers are also 35 times brighter than equivalently powered red lasers because humans are much more sensitive to green light, according to the Congressional Research Service. Last year, pilots of dozens of planes taking off and landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reported being flashed with green lasers.
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