Quartermaster

General

The Quartermaster is responsible to maintain our gear, but unfortunately, we don't have one right now. 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).

Quartermaster Plea

Please bring the gear back in as good or better shape than you took it. If something is in need of repair, please repair it if you can, purchase a replacement, or alert the Group via the Group Committee.

Some particular things of note when using the Group gear:

• Return the gear to the shelf where you found it it.
• Tents need to be cleaned out (shake the dirt out) and dried thoroughly after use. They do not need to be washed but they can be hosed down if they are particularly dirty.
• Tents need to each be supplied with 10 straight tent pegs. As you are packing the tents up at camp, inspect and count the pegs. There is a small black and yellow toolbox with a pile of pegs to choose from if one or more pegs need replacement.
• Tarps and groundsheets need to be hosed off, dried, and folded neatly. The huge wooden box is good for the large tarps and the blue rubbermaid tub is good for the smaller groundsheets.
• Pop-up shelter tops need to be dried, folded neatly and put back into the pocket on the sides of the shelter bags.
• Coolers need to be washed out, dried and put back on the shelf with a piece of wood propping the top open to allow air to circulate.
• Water jugs need to be drained, white tops removed, and stacked on the shelf with the open end facing out to allow air to circulate.
• Pots and pan need to be cleaned and returned. Often this involves a run through the dishwasher at home.
• Stoves need to be thoroughly cleaned and dried. Again, consider taking them home for a good clean.
• The metal Venturer Company box, and the two wooden Scout Patrol boxes are (at least should be) prepacked with everything the Scouts and Venturers need when they go to a camp. There should be enough other gear in the locker (stoves, pots, utensils, knives, cutting boards, etc.) for the Beaver and Cub Sections. If there is something in the Patrol Boxes that you need to borrow, please return it to the Patrol Box after use.
• Propane tanks should be filled if needed. The Propane Depot at 3390 Lake City Way off of Lougheed Highway in Burnaby only charges for what they put in the tank rather than a set fee like the thieves at the Husky over the fence from the storage locker.

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.

Folding the orange tents

The orange tents are not square and there is an easy way to get them packed up and a hard way. This is the easy way.

• Fold the tent in half lengthways with the doors at the ends. Lay it down and fold again lengthways. As you deal with the fly, the air will escape through the doors. If you folded it wrong, they air won't escape and you will end up with a balloon that won't go in the bag.
• Take the fly and grasp two of the pole straps with one hand and the two door tabs with the other hand.. Your partner should do the same. You have just folded the fly in half. Come together and one person hand the straps to the other person. The other person gathers the loose end. You have now neatly folded the fly into a quarter of of the original size.
• Lay the fly on top of the now-flat tent with the straight edge of the fly along the tent. Fold the excess fly to fit on top of the tent.
• Put the pole bag and the peg bag (with 10 straight pegs) on top at one end.
• Start rolling from the end that will allow air to escape from the other end of the fly as you are rolling. If you start from the end with the fly straps, you will end up with a balloon that won't go in the bag.
• Put some weight into it and roll slowly and tightly. Youth can do this in pairs to get a nice tight roll.
• Have someone hold the bag and slip the tent into the bag.

Repairs

Tents

There are tent repair kits or the orange tents in a bag in the locker. These are good for small rips, but larger rips needs to be sewed and sealed with tape. There are a couple tents where someone tripped over the fly line and has ripped the fly.

Tent Poles

Every once in a while a tent pole breaks and needs to be repaired. If the fibreglass pole breaks, it can be repaired 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.