The call just came in — a call I’ve come to dread.

“Ann, we’ve had another break-in at the dragon boat trailer. There’s stuff everywhere. And it looks like the generators are gone.”

Every year, without fail, a call comes in about a major theft from our trailer. We also have several smaller incidents dotted throughout the year as well, a wallet here, a bicycle or camera there – but Monday night’s was a big one.

The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society runs a lot of its operations from a rundown green trailer sitting at the north end of False Creek. It’s as secure as we can make it — windows are boarded over, reinforced with iron bars and covered in stiff wire mesh. Unfortunately, an alarm system is out of the question as power is intermittent.

We’ve been running North America’s largest dragon boat festival and scores of related lessons, regattas, clinics, kayak rentals and dragon boat team practice sessions out of this trailer for years — awaiting a decision by the City of Vancouver on whether the paddling community, of which we are a big part, should be permitted to build a permanent boathouse on False Creek.

This year’s robbery feels particularly cruel. We are two weeks away from our biggest event — the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.

It’s our 25th year and on June 21, we’re planning special ceremonies for breast cancer survivors, pyrotechnical displays and live concerts for the community. We have a record number of teams from Vancouver and beyond registered for the hugely popular and hotly contested dragon boat races on June 22 and 23. It’s estimated the visiting dragon boat teams bring $1.2 million into our city coffers at each Festival.

The thieves took our four generators, cleaned us out of power tools and did considerable damage to the trailer. Frankly, with over $10,000 in losses — again — we can’t afford to make another insurance claim.

A crisis like this one — which has a huge negative effect on our staff, our scheduling and our already-strained finances — makes me wish for two things.

It makes me wish more fervently than ever for a permanent community boathouse on False Creek.

For years we’ve been appealing to city hall, with other paddling groups, to designate a building or even just a building site from which to base a range of on-water activities for the whole community to enjoy. (And a boathouse would have power for a security system!)

As development continues to creep around False Creek and no decision is made, time is running out. We don’t want to take our courses, clinics, regattas and festival out of the city — but if something isn’t resolved soon we will have to. Though we are not certain we were robbed by addicts needing cash to feed their habit, the police suspect this. (We know this has been the case before as we have bought back the stolen items.)

If it is drug-related, this crisis also makes me wish our society had a better way of dealing with mental health and addictions. We need more effective programs so this doesn’t have to keep happening.

I hear that property crime rates are down in recent years but you could have fooled me. When I arrived at our trailer and was faced with the destruction and loss and started thinking about what this means to our non-profit society the issue is just as in-our-face as ever.

How many other businesses were hit last night?

Which other people I saw at the hardware store buying lumber and tools just now were boarding up windows smashed in a break-in — again? What does this cost society in lost time, lost income and destroyed property?

Crime rates might be trending in the right direction and the City of Vancouver might be considering our request for a boathouse — but after another break-in we are tired and frustrated that things aren’t changing faster. Anyone got a generator to spare?

Ann Phelps is the general manager of the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society which puts on, among other things, the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. The festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year June 21-23 at the Creekside Community Centre and the waters of False Creek.