Gabriola Island Squadron

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1 S C U T T L E B U T T Gabriola Island Squadron Canadian Power & Sail Squadrons PO Box 71 Gabriola BC V0R 1X0 Gabriola Power Squadron A Squadron in Vancouver Island North District Spring is in the air! March - April, 2014

2 Your Squadron Bridge POSITION NAME PHONE Commander Ralph Hagen, AP Past Commander Robert Derksen Executive Officer opportunity Training Officer Oliver Woolcock, CN Admin/Supply Officer Walter Berry Secretary Robert Derksen Treasurer Christine Purfield Membership Officer Elaine Pearce PRO Rufus Churcher, AP MAREP Bill Kalbfleisch Assistant Training Officer Bob Weenk Assistant Training Officer Bert Terhart Assistant Training Officer Mike Hoeinghaus, AP Webmaster Robert Derksen Communications Officer Don Butt, AP Scuttlebutt Editor Don Butt, AP Privacy Officer Don Butt, AP Safety Officer Bill Kalbfleisch Member at Large Steve Kitchen MEMBERSHIP REMINDER Many of you have been notified by Headquarters regarding your membership renewals. It is easy to renew on-line. Just go to CPS-ECP and click on membership. On-line renewal and rejoin is a great way to go. It is so quick and easy. And have a look at the CPS benefits of being a member. For more info call our Membership Officer, Elaine Pearce

The Doug Harrison Presentation Doug displaying his painting he is donating for the fundraising raffle Sunday,

presented The History of Railroad Logging on the BC Coast.

new vessel to help equip the vessel with necessary electronic gear.

3 The Doug Harrison Presentation Doug displaying his painting he is donating for the fundraising raffle Sunday, January 12, 2014: Doug Harrison, Gabriola artist and authority on the logging history of Vancouver Island, presented The History of Railroad Logging on the BC Coast. The proceeds of the this evening went to the Ladysmith & District Royal Marine Search and Rescue Society s new vessel to help equip the vessel with necessary electronic gear. Gabriola Squadron donated more Than $300 from the generous donations. See the society s web site. This was the first of our Sunday Series, held monthly during the winter. Photo - Cec Ashley

4 Take heart - better days to come!

The Paul Giffin Presentation - CECA Sunday, February 9 Squadron member, Paul Giffin gave us insight into the skills

We heard descriptions of various scenarios that could wreak havoc among Gabriolans, such as earthquake and fire.

CECA is a volunteer group of skilled and dedicated amateur radio operators who can maintain communications when all

According to Wikipedia: ham radio is a popular term for amateur radio, derived from ham as an informal name for an

The use first appeared in the United States during the opening decade of the 20th century for example, in 1909,

Morton reported overhearing an amateur radio transmission which included the comment: Say, do you know the fellow

5 The Paul Giffin Presentation - CECA Sunday, February 9 Squadron member, Paul Giffin gave us insight into the skills of the Coast Emergency Communications Association. We heard descriptions of various scenarios that could wreak havoc among Gabriolans, such as earthquake and fire. We even had a brief taste of things to come with our recent, but relatively benign, snowstorm. CECA is a volunteer group of skilled and dedicated amateur radio operators who can maintain communications when all else fails. They are integrated into other emergency systems as well. According to Wikipedia: ham radio is a popular term for amateur radio, derived from ham as an informal name for an amateur radio operator. The use first appeared in the United States during the opening decade of the 20th century for example, in 1909, Robert A. Morton reported overhearing an amateur radio transmission which included the comment: Say, do you know the fellow who is putting up a new station out your way? I think he is a ham. However, the term did not gain widespread usage in the United States until around 1920, after which it slowly spread to other English-speaking countries. The term amateur in amateur radio is used to distinguish it from commercial pursuits, as radio amateurs are prohibited by law from accepting monetary or material compensation of any kind for any activities they perform as radio operators.

6 SALUTE THE COMPASS Silva Bay Yacht Club salutes the four cardinal compass points Jan 2, wisely avoiding seas churning in 30 knot winds - and for good measure, a few points between as well! (wink, wink) Lots of Squadron members in there huddled to keep warm

7 SALUTE THE COMPASS cont.

From the Wheelhouse Ralph Hagen, AP - Commander A time of year that is many things. Spring seemingly is here wanting to be the beginning of the boating season.

8 From the Wheelhouse Ralph Hagen, AP - Commander A time of year that is many things. Spring seemingly is here wanting to be the beginning of the boating season. We are sort of mid -term in our instruction program with Boating Basics done, Boating Essentials underway and Radio coming up soon. And it is near the end of our fiscal year with the annual general meeting approaching. Our training program has had good response to all the course offerings. Oliver Woolcock as the squadron s training officer has taken care of this for us this year and from all reports has gone smoothly. We continue to enjoy our teaching venue in the Gabriola Recreation facility at the school. We are pleased with the results of our Sunday Series presentations this winter. We hosted the Doug Harrison presentation in January on railroad logging which was a fund raiser for the Ladysmith station of the Royal Canadian Marine Search And Rescue group to assist them in equipping their new boat. In February Paul Giffin made a presentation of the makeup and function of the Coast Emergency Communications Association with the proceeds going to them to help them in equipping their radio room at the new firehall. Recently this month Bert Terhart made a presentation of his journey last summer to the Aleutian Islands and into the Bering Sea. Our prospective presentation by the RCMP Coast Watch has been postponed and will likely be on in the fall. Take note of our annual general meeting in April the particulars of which are to be found on our website. Ralph Hagen AP Commander Coming soon.. Maritime Radio: March 15 (filling up fast) Electronic Navigation Workshop: May 31 See the squadron website and register on-line for Radio

9 From Training Oliver Woolcock, CN - Training Officer Our weather in the last few weeks has not been an encouragement to think of the upcoming boating season. However with the advent of daylight savings time spring seems to be just around the corner. The spring programme of courses is now well underway. All courses are held in the Gabriola Recreation Society premises at the Elementary School on Wednesday evenings. An update of the programme follows. Boating Basics This four week course leads to the Pleasure Craft Operator Certificate for successful candidates. This is the certification required by Transport Canada for all operators of a powered vessel. The content covers safety and legal issues pertaining to boating. This course commenced Jan 15 and continued on Jan, 22, and 29 with the exam on Feb 5. Congratulations to the twelve students who successfully completed this course. Boating Essentials This course follows on from Boating Basics and introduces the fundamentals of navigation and boat handling. This commenced on Feb 12 and runs through to Apr 9 with an option of writing the exam on Apr 12. Ten students are now working hard on the content of this course. Seamanship Having successfully completed the Boating Essentials course, Seamanship is a natural next step in building confidence for safe and enjoyable boating on the water by offering a more extensive study of seamanship and boat handling. This course was to commence on February 4, 2014 and continue until May 13, 2014, unfortunately this was cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. Maritime Radio Successful completion of this course leads to the Restricted Operator Certificate (Maritime), ROC(M). This is the certification required to legally operate a VHF radio on the channels dedicated to maritime use.this is once again being offered in a one day format and is scheduled for Mar 15 In addition to these courses a one day seminar on Electronic Charting is planned for May This will cover the options available and use of chart plotters and charting software. Plans are also in the works for a Weather course when sufficient interest is shown. Members can now register and pay for these courses online at the squadron website. On a final note any experienced boater with good presentation skills who would like to participate in instructing parts of these courses please contact me. Oliver Woolcock, CN, STO

10 From the Nominating Committee The Committee consists of Bill Kalbfleisch, Ralph Hagen and Bob Derksen. You can find their telephone numbers on the Bridge list elsewhere in Scuttlebutt or you can us at: 2014 Nominating Committee Report The Nominating Committee of the Gabriola Island Squadron has completed its task of presenting a list of nominees for the Gabriola Island Squadron s Executive for , to be presented to the membership for its consideration at the upcoming AGM, planned for April 26, Commander Executive Officer Training Officer Treasurer Secretary Webmasters MAREP Officer Membership Officer Communications Officer Public Relations Officer Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Ralph Hagen Mike Hoeinghaus Bob Weenk Christine Purfield Bob Derksen Bob Derksen, Bill Kalbfleisch Bill Kalbfleisch Elaine Pearce Don Butt Rufus Churcher Jude Briscoe Steve Kitchen Bert Terhart Jean-Pierre van Praet By virtue of his previous position, Bob Derksen is the Past Commander, an unelected position on the Executive. Collectively, the proposed Executive will cover such areas of activity as community liaison, the boat safety programme, squadron social activities and any other areas that might require its attention during the year and which are not the tasks of specific officers. Respectfully submitted, P/C Bob Derksen, Nominating Committee Chair

Smart Investing..? Retirement Planning If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock at a crucial point in the past, it would be worth $49.00 at the time this was prepared.

11 Smart Investing..? Retirement Planning If you had purchased $1, of Nortel stock at a crucial point in the past, it would be worth $49.00 at the time this was prepared. With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1, With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left. If you had purchased $1, of Delta Air Lines stock, you would have $49.00 left. But, if you had purchased $1, worth of wine at the same time, drank all the wine, then turned in the bottles for the recycling REFUND, you would have had $ Based on the above, the best investment advice is to drink heavily and be sure to recycle.

12 There s a lesson to be learned here.. (from the Ontario Yachts group) This accident should never have happened... and I believe you will agree after you read the accounting below (provided, in most part, by Tom Brown, SV Eagle, La Paz, MX). On February 18, 2014 John [Spicher} on SV Time Piece was very badly injured, doing what John can usually be found doing... helping someone else. In this case another boater in the anchorage was operating his very large (15-17 ) dinghy with a large outboard (30-40 HP) but without wearing his safety kill switch lanyard. He, for whatever reason, was thrown from the boat. The kill switch lanyard would have immediately turned off the motor had it been engaged. Instead, the situation quickly became that of a run-away dinghy spinning wildly in circles, with the owner/operator in the water and no longer in control. John quickly jumped into his dinghy and went to pull the man from the water, all the time watching the run-away dinghy carefully. John managed to get the swimmer into his dinghy and was making his way back to shore, when the run-away boat struck an anchored sailboat, and changed course... directly at John. The runaway dinghy ran right over the top of John, throwing him and his newly acquired passenger into the water. John was not immediately aware that his left foot, ankle, and lower left leg had been struck by the prop, leaving it very badly mangled. Then, to add injury to insult, the run-away (still spinning in deadly circles) ran right back over John just as he got back into his dinghy. This time, it landed right on top of him and pinned him down. He was not hit by the prop this time, but in pushing the boat away and off of himself, he landed back in the water again. John was rescued by another local Mexican Captain who helped stop the bleeding (an artery had been severed), got him to the beach and arranged for an ambulance. By 2 PM that afternoon, with Jeanne Walker (SV Eagle) accompanying him, John was on a medevac flight to UCSD (University of California, San Diego) trauma centre. At the time of this writing, John remains in hospital after numerous surgeries and medical evaluations. He has a long road ahead of him and the extent of his recovery has yet to be determined. As well, the cost for his care and recovery will be high.

13 Boating Basics, Spring 2014 Boating Essentials, Spring 2014

The Bert Terhart Presentation - third in the Sunday Series They left Gabriola mid

conditions in colorful description and expert visuals.

in the water. Such is the kindness of the local fishermen on the way.

waves the put the boat vertical. Yet they came back, marriage and boat intact.

14 The Bert Terhart Presentation - third in the Sunday Series They left Gabriola mid May, and returned at the end of October, 2013, having christened his sailboat in the Bering Sea. Bert gave a roomful of people a thrilling ride through some incredible sea conditions in colorful description and expert visuals. Imagine dining on fish every day for two months, without even having to drop a line in the water. Such is the kindness of the local fishermen on the way. Imagine facing a wind of 40 knots with a following current of 10 knots - standing waves the put the boat vertical. Yet they came back, marriage and boat intact. Amazing, Christine, for your grit, skill, and, well, there had to be a sense of humour. Thanks Bert, for an inspirational evening Sunday March 9. The donations are to assist with the Squadron s Youth Training program.

Gabriola Island Power and Sail Squadron

S C U T T L E B U T T Gabriola Island Power and Sail Squadron Gabriola Power Squadron Happy New Year January - February 2016 Your Squadron Bridge 2015-2016 POSITION NAME PHONE Commander Mike Hoeinghaus,