Ron...love your wee barge with the dropdown beaching ramp. When i had a cottage near Parry Sound we saw that many contractors had those for servicing island cottages (zero road access). We see them occas at Bluffers Park, used by Conservation & by movie film crews. Noted the Stouffville facility, thank you.

Here is the site RodC is referring to just west of him. I went there with Donnieboy a few years ago.

An inlet from Lake Ontario abt an hour west of me in Mississauga is signed no gas motors but in my limited experience there are not many nitro boats around anyway. Brushless+LiPO's hav pretty much supplanted gas or alcohol fuelly's.

Just 10min to the west of me is a huge park/multi-marina/2-beach area with a public boat launch, 2 slots. A few of us run there most THUR mornings in better weather. Currently the surface ice is coming & going as the weather fluctuates. We avoid harassing the Trumpeter Swans. Fortunately no alligators here.

Club is invited to exhibit at various consumer shows in which case the promoter provides a rectangular pond, altho seldom deep enough for sail keels & they don't always provide wind (big fans). Sportsman Show coming up soon, recently we attended a Zoomers Show (seniors consumer).

End of month our METRO MARINE Modellers is renting a recreation centre indoor swimming pool for an hour. Costly but a pleasant winter relief.

Some of us meet near-monthly in one gent's home for a show-&-tell to trade information.

Hi Ron,
There are no lakes/ ponds as clear as your pics near me.😭😭😭
Most ponds are privately owned.
Trev

RodC
I agree with you that there are very few clean ponds to go sailing at in the Greater Toronto Area. I know of a camp in Stouffville where the small lake is clear of weeds and then farther north are numerous Provincial Parks where the waters are very clear. I like Balsam Provincial Park which offers clear water and very nice beach.

We have plenty of small lakes and ponds here in Florida. This county (1 million people) as well although many are in private areas, commercial areas, etc., where we can't go. It's a shame because some have some great shapes (not just round or oval) and are very well maintained.

Most city and county parks that have ponds that are kept natural, lots of vegetation and creepy crawlers. The county now and then trims the edge and pulls out pond growth in this particular one. This pond is one of about three that are model boat friendly, and one of the others is "sail only".

Lewis

You hav wonderful municipal support. We are a city of 2.3 million people & our hobby is not well-accommodated at city facilities all along Lake Ontario. In fact, what was our "best" boat pond has been closed for several years for re-development☹️

Great film. Thanks.👍😊

The Suncoast Scale Model Boat Club had our first meet in 2023 today. It was quite cool (for us) with a temperature of about 65°F (18°C). Three weeks ago it was near freezing and last weekend we were in shorts and tee shirts😎. The usual January wind was quite mild😊 which worked well for both the people and the boats.

This video is a little different as I added some about the area we use in the park and how convenient and accommodating it is to model boaters. It is a short distance from the parking lot to the shelter where we set up, and to the boat launching dock. In 2013 I asked Pinellas County to put a small dock in for us and we got much more (and better) than I asked for. Bigger and with multiple step down platforms that make model boat launching and retrieval easy.

So, if you want to see a winter in Florida RC scale model boating day select the video