He’s Canada’s official Voice of Boating, and his battle cry has become part of the lexicon here in Simcoe County – a bright, fun, catchy, boating safety reminder to keep the necessary summer liquids right where they belong, and not to mix them up.
“Water on the water – Beer on the Pier.”
Jeff Sinclair’s merry timbre can be heard every summer, following news and weather reports on the radio, just as he has done for going on 28 years.
Sinclair started issuing his marine reports when the-then fledgling Rock 95 FM station in Barrie. Jeff had met up with station sales manager Jim Cowden, who found out about Sinclair’s outdoor recreation background and his need for summer employment after his ski school director’s job ended for the season at Mt. St. Louis Moonstone.
“They had me come in and do an ‘aircheck’ and as they say, the rest is history. My love for the water and the outdoors here in Ontario made this a match made in heaven.”
And the job has evolved since then.
“It started as three reports per day, live through a ground line (I had to ask to use peoples phones at their homes, cottage or work). With the invention of the cell phone, increased coverage and now technology like the iPhone, I now do up to 51 reports per day on between 14-16 stations per summer all across central and southern Ontario to an audience of approximately 650,000 per week.”
And his sell line about water on the water, etc. has caught on.
“(It’s) much more recognized than I am as we have at least three generations here in Central Ontario who hear it as a ‘chant of summer’. I often get people to do the marine report tag for me at the end of my reports.”
Having come across so many of them over three decades, you could say Jeff Sinclair has acquired an affinity for those who make lakes and rivers their second home during the summer.
“Boaters are, in general, a wonderful group of people, (and) any issues usually (involve) a lack of knowledge or information of how their actions are impacting the environment and people around them, as well as how weather and their actions can impact personal safety.”
Jeff also says the solution lies within the boaters themselves, not at Queen’s Park.
“If you grew up boating, you learned from your elders and by experience with small tippy vessels – i.e. canoes, tin tippy, etc. If your first experience was as a teenager or adult, there are things you just don’t know; even 28 years later, there is much I don’t know and I continue to ask for help and information to help make what I do even more fun!”
To Sinclair, there’s nothing quite like boating to make summer worthwhile.
“Boating and playing in the water (are among) the best things about summer, especially in all the freshwater we have here. It is fun, and good decisions based on good information helps keep it that way.”
Jeff says the best part of his gig is the weather – when it’s clement – and the many people with whom he gets to interact. The worst, well, you guessed it, when the weather acts up, and when the few people act up, don’t handle their crafts in a sane, safe manner.
Still, “I do have the best job on the planet! It is still a job, but I love it.”
Jeff Sinclair can be heard throughout the summer, and fans can follow on radio, social media, as well as at Jeff’s own website. Just click here.
