A publication of the SABLE POINT SAIL & POWER SQUADRON A unit of UNITED STATES POWER SQUADRONS Sail & Power Boating VOLUME VIII ISSUE 3 21 SEPTEMBER 2009 COMMANDER S MESSAGE Cdr Roger Thompson, SN A few nights ago I stepped outside to witness the beauty of the bright luminous stars. I was surprised to see the constellation Orion shinning so brightly in the eastern sky. As a winter sky constellation, does it indicate summer is really coming to an end? I guess another sign was when I arranged for winter storage recently. I hope your boating season has been good as well as safe. This spring when we began commissioning our boat for the season I noticed the marina mechanic had laid the ignition keys and drain plug all bound together with a plastic tie on the helm. This was a good idea and might have prevented a boat sinking off Ludington last spring. That boat now sits in 300 feet of water so the actual cause of the sinking may never be known. It has been said that there are two types of boaters. Those that have launched their boat without the drain plug and those that have not done so yet. Mark on your calendar Wednesday, October 14 th. The Sable Point Squadron will meet at the Ludington Fine Arts Building at 7:00 PM. New member, Senior Chief Tom Rau, USCG Retired, will speak on boating safety topics. Tom is the author of Boatsmart Chronicles as well as a new book Lake Michigan Devours Its Wounded. Tom also writes the column Boatsmart published in many mid-western papers. You can also visit a website, www.boatsmart.net, to read past articles and other information provided by Tom. This will be a great event and I encourage all to invite their friends and family to take advantage of the boating safety wisdom of Senior Chief Rau. The District 9 Western Rendezvous at Northport is now history and what a great event. We had to put up with a few sprinkles of rain for the Friday night barbeque but nobody seemed to notice. Saturday morning Sable Point s reputation was held intact serving an excellent breakfast. Thanks to the Van Rhees, Van Ameydens, Tufts, Kosnikowskis and Thompsons for your fine efforts. The evening highlight was the lobster boil and steak fry. A good time was had by all and we will probably be invited to do the breakfast again next year. They either like us or they are going to make us do it till we get it right. I am certain it is the former. Lobster, Sweet Corn, Clams, Sausage, Potatoes All make for a delicious evening at Northport COMING EVENTS September 23 ExCom/Gen Mtg 7pm China Buffet October 3 D/9 Council Mtg Mac & Rays, Harrison Twp 14 ExCom/Gen Mtg 7 pm Council for the Arts Building Tom Rau Presenting 15 Breakfast Get Together 9:00 Old Hamlin Café 23-25 D/9 Fall Conference Sterling Inn, Sterling Hgts, MI November 11 Change of Watch Cocktails 6pm Dinner 6:30pm Van Rhee home 19 Breakfast Get Together 9am Old Hamlin Café *Dates & places subject to change
SQUADRON EDUCATIONAL REPORT SEO Sidney A. McKnight, Jr., AP One morning this summer at Harbor View, I arrived to find that the adjacent slip to mine was occupied by a new transient, a 2690 Glacier Bay catamaran named Rick N Roll. It was obviously equipped for long range travel and live-aboard capability with generator, life raft, epirb, etc. In the following four days, I got to know Betsy, Rick and Beamer (their dog) Johnson quite well. They are Great Loopers that began their trip in Snead s Landing, NC. Both are Master Captains and we had much in common with regard to USPS. Rick and I both discovered early on that we were SEO s of our respective squadrons and we both perform VSC s. They plan to be in the Keys in February and I hope there is a chance that our paths may cross again. They had not had access to a vehicle since someplace in Maryland so I made ours available to them and Carole remarked she had never seen anyone so excited at the opportunity to visit the local Wal-Mart!! My wish is that each of you will take the time to visit their web site, betsyrick.com. You don t have to register or sign in, just click on the trip blog. If you will follow the links far enough back you will access a picture of Carole and me at Harbor View with them and you will be proud of Ludington and our marinas when you read their generous compliments. They had been through 75 locks when they got this far (many more since). Since river piloting is more commonplace in my part of the country, I asked what they had used for fenders as I can recall when you could legally use square bales of hay and still use castoff automobile tires. Rick showed me two large spheres in netting back in the outboard motor well. He had purchased two of the exercise balls used in workouts for about ten dollars then purchased two net dirty laundry bags for about two dollars! Inflate the balls inside the netting and you have saved a bundle rather than purchasing the large, spherical fenders. Please visit their web site and read some of their adventures on the Illinois River with the Asian Carp you will soon feel as if you know them and will enjoy them as much as Carole and I have. I track their progress every day and write them from time to time. Please note that we have set up 2010 boating safety classes at Harbor View Marina on Saturday, June 19 th and on Saturday, July 17 th. You might note these in whatever is your usual manner as we will be asking your help again next summer. I recently asked Roger Thompson if he had any idea how many safer boaters we have put on the water in recent years. He was good enough to research that I am proud to report that since the year 2000, we have put 309 educated boaters on the water. I like to think that perhaps somewhere in that 309 there may be a small percentage of lives saved relative to the national statistics. We will be running the boat to its winter storage this week always a bittersweet last voyage of the season. *************************************** BOATING SAFETY By: Phyllis Thompson, SN You take your boat out for a wonderful day of cruising when suddenly you find your boat surrounded by thick fog. You cannot see far enough to detect another boat or obstruction. What should you do? If you do not know your position, stop the boat. Look and listen for any sound in the area. If you have not already donned your life preservers now is a good time to do so. Post a look out as far froward as possible because the sound in fog is tricky. It may come from a direction other than the true source or may not be heard at all. Display lights and sound appropriate audible signals with a horn or bell to alert other boats in your vicinity. If you don t have a horn or bell, you could bang 2 pans together. If you are close to shore, check your depth sounder so you don t run aground. If you call the Coast Guard, they maybe able to give you a bearing so you can proceed slowly on your course. Good listening and visual look out are essential in fog. Your goal is to see and be seen, to hear and be heard, to avoid all collisions. SAFE BOATING WEEK ICE CREAM SOCIAL GENERAL MEETING WED. 21 SEPT 2009 7pm CHINA BUFFET US 10 ACROSS FROM WALMART Featuring Bruce Trudgen presenting a history of pleasure boating as we know it began to develop in the years following World War II. Things were quite different back then. The boats, equipment and facilities were different. We will look back 30, 40, and 50 and even 100 years. If your memory is short, come and learn what boating was like. If you have memories of years past, come and share a story or two.
MEMBERSHIP REPORT By: Phyllis Thompson, SN William Tufts, AP and Kathy Tufts, P from Hesperia, transferred their membership from Muskegon Sail & Power Squadron to Sable Point Sail & Power Squadron in June. Kathy and Bill have been Associate Members of Sable Point since 2002 and decided to join because they live a little closer to our Squadron. In the Fall of 1999, Muskegon sponsored Sable Point and Bill assisted in Sable Point s very first Boating Course for the public. Both Kathy and Bill have been active Associate Members throughout the years and we are pleased to have them as Active Members. We are also pleased that Senior Chief Tom Rau joined our Sable Point Sail & Power Squadron in July. Tom s wife s name is Beverly and they live in Manistee. Tom is a retired Senior Chief of the United States Coast Guard. Tom writes the Boat Smart column promoting safe boating which appears in the Ludington Daily News, as well as a number of other Midwest newspapers. Many of his columns are taken from real life experiences and rescues conducted by the Coast Guard and other marine rescue agencies around Lake Michigan. A warm welcome is extended to each of you. *********************************************** NEW USPS E-MAIL ADDRESS MANAGEMENT TOOLS Lt/C Joanne VanAmeyden AP Secretary In order to make managing the e-mail addresses of squadron members simpler, a new tool has been added on the USPS website. This tool allows squadron bridge officers, roster contacts, and ITC contacts to update the e- mail address for any squadron member in real time without the use of DB2000. In addition, the tool allows any USPS member to update their own e-mail address. To use this tool, you must be logged on as a USPS member and you must be using the New PIN security code you were issued by national. To access the tool to modify your own e-mail address, click on the menu item in the left hand column of the Information center pages www.usps.org/national/tools) "Manage Your own E-mail" under the heading "Membership Information". Click on the "Validate" button. On the returned page, follow the link to update the e-mail address. To access the tool for other squadron members, click on the menu item "Manage E-mail Status" under the heading "Other Tools". Enter the certificate number of the desired member and click on the "Validate" button. On the returned page, follow the link to update the e-mail address. Any questions may be addressed to Dan Bartell at dtb@usps.org September 18 September 21 September 25 September 27 September 27 November 3 December 1 December 2 December 10 December 10 December 14 December 20 Charles Van Ameyden Nils Strand Phyllis Bowlin Bob Kosanovich Karen Strand Alice Kosnikowski Renee Mika Gene Van Rhee Caryl Ferguson Robert Ferguson Carole McKnight Sid McKnight I am missing some of our Associate Member s Birthday so please contact me with this information at prthompson@wildblue.net or send a note to: Phyllis Thompson, 4024 South Ordway Road, Custer, MI 49405. We want to wish everyone a Happy Birthday. Thank you *********************************************** SABLE POINT SAIL & POWER SQUADRON VSC REPORT 2009 Sid McKnight 21 VSCs Charles Van Ameyden 25 VSCs Gene Van Rhee 10 VSCs Shirley Van Rhee 28 VSCs Total VSCs 84 VSCs Congratulations to Shirley Van Rhee as top SPSPS VE for 2009 Charles Van Ameyden SPSPS VSC Chairman. The VIEWPOINTS is published quarterly by the Sable Point Sail & Power Squadron, a unit of the United States Power Squadrons. Material is welcomed from ALL SPSPS members on any boating topic. Publications are scheduled for March, May, September & November. Deadlines will be announced in sufficient time for anyone to contribute. Preferably, submit materials by e-mail at solitude@goldcommcable.com but can be submitted in any other form as well. Articles and opinions do not necessarily reflect USPS policy or endorsement unless so designated.
Administrative Report P/R/C Shirley Van Rhee The attendance for the meeting on Saturday morning was 427 at 1:128 am, down, as was the overall attendance. All who were not able to attend missed one of the best ones we have had in recent years. It was casual, yet done properly. The seat packets with all officer s reports are online and can be obtained through the USPS Secretary s department and this also includes the whole new set of USPS bylaws. The Ensign will be issued quarterly but have more pages, and the Compass will be online monthly with all the latest up-to-date information. The finances are improving but not without significant reductions from everyone involved. Membership has had a 15% loss this year but not losing quite as fast at this time. The contract with Chase with the USPS Credit card will expire in January and will not be renewed. For all of those who order supplies from headquarters shipping is now down to one day plus if a problem and progress can be checked online. I attended the Cooperative Charting meeting and this was very informative and interesting. Ronnie Babin from OceanGraphics explained how charts can be printed on demand with all the updates listed daily. Another item for squadrons who are not near oceans or great lakes and no chart available for their area can submit only an inspection report from their local lakes. This may be much easier for members who still want to participate in cooperative charting. planning to do but when I mentioned it to others at the national meeting they were excited for us by trying something new. *********************************************** YOUR 2009 BRIDGE: Cdr Roger Thompson, SN 231 757-4332 PRThompson@wildblue.net Exec Charles VanAmeyden, SN 231 845-2094 cjvan@t-one.net SEO Sidney McKnight, Jr. AP MI 231 843-4145 KS 913 898-2413 DrSAMcK@aol.com Asst. SEO Phyllis Thompson, SN 231 757-4332 PRThompson@wildblue.net Adm Shirley Van Rhee, 231 266-8149 solitude@goldcommcable.com Asst Adm Thaddeus Kosnikowski,AP 231 843-1408 Sec Joanne VanAmeyden, AP 231 845-2094 cjvan@t-one.net Treas Adrianne Slaymaker, AP 231 873-8473 aslay@ix.netcom.com Addresses can be found in the roster sent to you periodically. Please call anyone of your bridge members if you have any questions or problems The national committees of Vessel Safety (VSC) and Recreation Boating Safety (RBS) have now been combined as both of these committees main objective is PREVENTION and SAFETY. It explains what is happening and where and how to go forward. This does not have to effect district and squadrons. They can still keep the committees with separate names if they desire. Statistics show and average of 32,000-33,000 VSC s performed the last 3-4 years with 2300-2400 Vessel Examiners showing the program holding well even with fluctuations. A discussion involved all members getting into the SailAngle program and a CD is available with instructions for using it. The schedule of meetings for the rest of the current year are in a separate article, but please put all dates on your calendar now so you won t miss a thing and I am hoping everyone of SPSPS members will be involved in some way towards making 2009 a great success. As you know in 2010 we will have a very different format for meetings and I am looking forward to trying something new once again. Wouldn t it be fun if we could get every active, inactive member plus their guests to attend some functions. Look for all the information coming up for our Change of Watch. I don t know if any squadron has tried what we are necessarily reflect USPS policy or endorsement unless so designated. BRING A FRIEND
Past and Present recipients of the D/9 Teacher of the Year award Vessel Safety Check Ellenwood Landing Grand Rapids & Sable Point Squadrons Testing students in the Boating Class At Harborview Marina Lunch before the Sleeping Bear Dunes tour Our Commander telling Joel how The Manitou Islands were formed Part of the group who toured