visiting vancouver

[Cutwater28GG]

Im thinking about a trip to Vancouver this year on the cutwater.

Anybody have advice for visiting by boat?

I was hoping to stay in the city and also up at Deep Cove on the north shore.

[aculverwell]

We stayed in False Creek at Fisherman's Wharf (http://www.falsecreek.com/) last summer. Whilst we were tied up with a a lot of working boats, it is reasonable inexpensive, has good amenities and is a short walk to Granville Island (our favorite place in Vancouver) as well as an excellent walking path.

[Red Raven]

We also stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf last summer. Very convenient! There are also automated bike rental stations along the path. Just download the app and check one out!

A caution I would add is if you come in from the south or leave that direction (via Point Roberts) give yourself time to swing wide around the Fraser River delta. It was pretty nasty when we went past on our way south. If the wind comes out of the west and the tide is going out some pretty nasty waves can develop from the combined tide and river current bucking against the wind. To top it off when we came through a log boom had come apart and thousands of logs were floating in the water. Many of the logs were floating vertical (dead heads) with only 1 foot or so exposed. In four foot seas it was terrifying as the logs disappeared under the waves and popped up in between! We ended up going out to the middle of the Straight of Georgia before finding clear water to get around back to Point Roberts. Coming or going across from the Gulf Islands is a better option in these conditions.

[knotflying]

We stayed at False Creek Yacht Club. What we liked about it was that it was walking distance to the trolley stops. You can get on and off the trolley all day and see the entire city.
False Creek Yacht Club
1661 Granville St.
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1N3
Office: 604-682-3292, Marina: 604-868-4275
(0) Rate it
Show details

[Osprey]

For information regarding Vancouver area marinas go to www.boatersbluepages.com and follow to relevant "tabs" (links). These blue pages are published by the Pacific Yachting magazine. In addition to West Coast marinas, the pages provide lots of useful marine store and services information. A free app is available At the APPLE APP STORE and also GOOGLE PLAY. Free paper copies are generally available at larger marinas and at marine stores.

[Cutwater28GG]

thanks all!

[20dauntless]

Another option is anchoring in False Creek. You need a (free) permit that you can get online or at a few public marinas in the area when you arrive. All the seabus stops are dinghy docks so getting ashore is easy!

http://vancouver.ca/streets-transportat ... oring.aspx

[Hydraulicjump]

Since we are kind of a Yelp group, I thought I would relay our experience from last summer. We stayed in False Creek for three days. It is a great location, relative to the City. And Vancouver is a fantastic, albeit somewhat chaotic, city to spend time in. There is so much growth in the city, along with plans to “calm” traffic (good luck) that the place is pretty torn up. Still, we will be back again this summer. It is fun.

But our False Creek experience wasn’t so great. According to the locals we talked to we hit the marina when the B team was in charge (a holiday). They were thoroughly disorganized. And keep in mind this is a working marina. They put us up against a boat that was being refinished, so all you heard was sanding all day long and into the evening; we were covered in dust. Despite numerous empty slips, moving us taxed the capacity of the B team and we were ignored. Took all day to even get power.

We are going to try Coal Harbour next summer.

Screw ups happen at all marinas. Normally we are pretty thick-skinned, but this was a pretty grim stop and deserved complaint. But the measure of marina is how it responds to screw ups. To their credit, the managers of the marina (the A team) got back to me afterward by phone and email to hear my concerns and apologize. I appreciate this. So I give False Creek two and a half stars.

[Olytuggers]

We stayed at Coal Harbor in the summer of 2015. It was pricey, but we thoroughly enjoyed the location, with the aquarium and Stanley Park within walking distance in one direction, and Canada Place in the other. We have a posting of our visit on our photo blog, http://www.boatdays.weebly.com. You will really enjoy a visit to this colorful city with its surroundings of mountains and water. We hope to make a return visit!

Dan and Lois Cheney
North Star R27