Quartermaster

General

The Quartermaster is responsible to maintain our gear. We have two trailers, five canoes (one was stolen in 2015), and a locker full of camping gear.

The storage facility is located at 94 Braid St., New Westminster. You can access the site off of Braid St. or Brunette Ave. The trailers are accessible from 5:00am to 10:00pm daily. Both the trailers are locked.

Carriage House in Burnaby has quite a bit of equipment that they lend out for free or a nominal cost. We have rented snowshoes, archery equipment, and a cargo net for Climb Up. They are inconveniently only open on Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:00. The contact is Gordon Tilley on Tuesdays from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at (604) 614-6576. The address is 6344 Deer Lake Ave., across from Burnaby Art Gallery and the Burnaby RCMP at Deer Lake Park (N 49° 14.488 W 122° 58.310).

Trailers

We have two trailers – an enclosed box utility trailer and a canoe trailer that holds 6 canoes.

The canoe trailer is a home-made trailer with a 2” ball that can hold 6 canoes.

The utility trailer is a Wells Cargo model RF581 that is about 8' long and 4' wide, with a 2” ball, and the curb weight is 790lb. It does not have a wheel at the front and is really heavy to move by hand.

The insurance is under Scouts Canada’s fleet insurance and is therefore due on the fleet renewal date of August 31st. The trailers are in Scouts Canada’s name and therefore they get the renewal forms, not the Group. In August, the renewal forms are mailed to the Group Commissioner by Leo Siu at the Scout office. He can also provide a letter indicating that the Group Commissioner has the signing authority to sign for and renew the insurance.

Insurance papers for the utility trailer are kept in the trailer and the insurance papers for the canoe trailer are kept in a threaded pipe on the tongue of the trailer.

Storage Locker

We have quite a bit of gear in a storage locker.

In 2016, we moved the gear to a 10’x15’ interior storage locker at the Public Storage facility at 94 Braid Street. The site is accessible from 5:00am to 10:00pm daily. The locker number is G902 in the building directly across the lane from where the trailers are. It is on the top floor near the southeast corner.

The access code must be entered at the gate even if it is already open. The code is tied to an alarm on the individual locker space. If you don't enter the code and you follow someone in, the keypad chastises you as you exit.

The gear in the locker includes:

• Camping gear (lanterns, 1 person tents (MEC Tarn 2), 3 person tents (Eureka El Capitan 3), four 10’x10’ pop-up shelters, white light-weight and green heavy-weight shelter sides for the shelters for use on winter or wet camps, 3 large and one small light weight (aluminum) tables, 1 large folding table, a dozen water jugs, 2 spare sleeping bags, etc.).
• Cooking gear (coolers, pots and pans, propane & white gas single & multi-burner stoves, etc.).
• Gear for winter camps (1 and 2-burner propane heaters, 3 snow shovels)
• Paddling gear for the canoes (canoe dolly, life jackets, paddles, bailers, throw ropes, etc.).
• Miscellaneous other gear (axe, saws, some firewood, etc.).
• Event gear (apple day boxes, signs and cans, wooden spars for the banner, reindeer for the Christmas Parade, torches, etc.).
• Patrol boxes (2 wooden Scout boxes and 1 metal Venturer box).
• Propane tanks are kept in the box trailer, not the locker. There are at two 20lb ones and a few small ones.
• Bike trailer.
• Inflatable boat with oars.
• White pipes holding four bows and dozens of arrows.

Repairs

Tents

There are tent repair kits in a bag in the locker. These are good for small rips, but larger rips needs to be sewed and sealed with tape.

Tent Poles

Every once in a while a tent pole breaks and needs to be repaired. If one of the metal coupling breaks, it can be replaced by a 3/8" copper piping coupling. If the shock cord breaks, a new piece needs to be fitted. The orange tents require 9' of 3/32" cord, which is available from Skyview in packages of 18', i.e. one package can fix two poles. Dig the dirt out of the end of the poles and pull out the knot and all the old cord. Thread the new cord through the pole end that has the coupling on it and tie a figure-8 knot in the end. Thread through the rest of the pieces. When you get to the 7th or 8th piece, you need to put a half hitch around the end of the pole so you can thread the next piece without fear of it snapping back. When you get to the last piece, take a piece of wire and jam it into the end of the cord, gently pull the cord through the last piece, and tie another figure-8 knot. There are metal couplings, shock cord and a piece of wire in a toolbox in the locker.