WAUKEELOG. Feb - Mar. Coming Events COMMANDERS COMMENTS CDR. MIKE LUDTKE, N. Mike

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1 Feb - Mar 2011 WAUKEELOG Waukegan Sail & Power Squadron, a Unit of the United States Power Squadrons District 20 Promoting Safe Sail and Power Boating Published Six Times per Year COMMANDERS COMMENTS CDR. MIKE LUDTKE, N I hope you're looking forward to another successful year for the WS&PS. We added some new faces to the Executive Committee; Betti Mors at SEO, Sean Sullivan at AO and Bob Sloat & Dennis Pearson as members at large. New people bring new ideas, which will make the coming year very interesting indeed. We have enough familiar faces staying on board to blend the new ideas into our already successful programs and keep us moving in the right direction. I'm particularly excited about the new USPS partnership with Brunswick, who owns Sea Ray. Through the local dealerships, which in our case is Skipper Buds, we'll be able to reach their customers with our safe boating message. All the details still need to be worked out, but it should be a win-win for us and Skipper Buds. This will also give our squadron the ability to work with the other squadrons in the area to provide a strong network of support for the project and I hope encourage more inter-squadron activity. We'll continue our partnerships with Waukegan Yacht Club, with our seminar series presentations at the club. I hope we can also work together on some social events this year. Don't forget to mark your calender and save the weekend of March for the D/20 Spring Conference in Northbrook. We'll be the host squadron, so we'll need considerable people power to make sure all the weekends activities go smoothly. The theme is a Pub Crawl, with various hospitality suites decorated as different pubs on Friday & Saturday night. Our suite will be an Old West Saloon, so dig out your cowboy boots and hats for Friday night s fun. See you there. Mike Waukegan Yacht Club is Open for dinner Friday and Saturday Evenings 5:30-9pm Featuring Weekend Fish Fry $10.50 Open to the Public Reservations Call (847) Coming Events Jan StrictlySail, Navy Pier 1-6 Feb, Orlando Nat l Conf 9 Feb Marine Electrical Systems Class Location TBD 15 Feb 1900 Excom Feb Miami Boat Show 19 Feb D/20 Ops Workshop Deerfield Hyatt 1 Mar 1 st Tuesday Seminar WYC Topic TBD 3-6 Mar Boat Show Lake County Fairgrounds 5 Mar 1800 Members Meeting Dinner Green Town Tavern 8 Mar 1900 Excom 24 Mar Piloting Class Starts Mar D/20 Spring Conference, Northbrook Hilton In this Issue Commanders Notes SEO Comments, AP Grads XO Comments AO Comments Major Upcoming Events Birthdays Cool Web Sites Editor: Be Responsible Another New Captain WSPS Photo Gallery 2010 History Record D/20 conference, Workshop

2 I am honored and grateful to take on the squadron educational program and will do my best. For those that do not know me, I will be very brief in my introduction. I fell in love with boating a little over ten years ago at North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor, IL. I participated in a power boat flotilla cruise to Racine. It was more of a spiritual experience. I then began my endeavor to submerge myself in the boating culture. When I bought my first powerboat (26ft, I/O, cruiser, etc...), I went to purchase insurance and was overwhelmed at the cost per size categories. The U.S. Boating insurance agent suggested the USPS for classes and membership that would significantly reduce my insurance cost. I have been an avid promoter for the USPS since. I now own a 46ft Irwin sailboat that I ve used for educating family, friends and clients that wish to participate in romantic cruises, corporate events and pleasure sailing. I also have participated in the 2008 Mac with 7 crew members aboard my sailboat. I thank the WSPS classes in helping me succeed in passing my Master Captain s License exam back in April I encourage all to plunge into the upcoming classes including on-thewater boating education that is being squared out to the final details by USPS, Brunswick & Skipper Bud s. Whatever your reason is (to lower insurance cost, be a safe boater, increase knowledge to buy a bigger boat, plan to cruise, get your captain s license, etc.). I challenge you to make this 2011 year your educational enrichment plunge. Sign up for the upcoming classes... Seamanship Basic/Advances Sailing Piloting Marine Electronics Cruise Planning First Tuesday Seminars at WYC The winter session will offer to all boaters the ABC (America s Boating Course) which will begin January 27 th at CLC (College of Lake County); presented by Tom Parkinson & Tenney Ford. Spread the word and sign up. As an incentive and to promote more members; every student who passes the ABC exam will be given 6 months FREE membership. Betti EDUCATION OFFICER Lt/C BETTI MORS, AP AP Class Grads Fall, 2010 Instructor: P/D/C Keith Baldwin SN Matt Banach AP, Seaby Bess AP, Robert Dick AP Karen KaiKaris AP, Bob Sloat AP Mark Villano AP, Rosalie Villano AP, Lt/C Sheldon Wecker AP, also Dusty McCoy, Brunswick CEO WSPS Officers Commander Cdr. Michael Ludtke N commander@wspsboating.org Executive Officer Lt/C Sheldon Wecker P smwecker1@gmail.com Educational Officer Lt/C Betti Mors, AP betti.mors@yahoo.com Administrative Officer Lt/C Sean Sullivan SeanSullivan@dls.net Treasurer Lt/C Tenney Ford S illinoiscarbide@sbcglobal.net Secretary Lt/C Elisabeth A. Geltz, JN elisabeth@egeltz.com Waukeelog Editor Bob Kunath, JN bobkunath@gmail.com Cool Web Sites USPS Member Discounts pt/membenefits.htm Get discounts on stuff! District 20 Squadron Activities ents/sq_activities.htm Weather All NOAA Stuff Real Time Buoy Data Free Electronic Charts Wind/WaveProjections

3 EXECUTIVE OFFICER Lt/C SHELDON WECKER, P Happy New Year mates, This is a traditionally a time for making resolutions - Resolutions that are often tough to stick with losing weight, working out and when we break them, we feel even worse than before we made them. There is a way to beat the game make resolutions that are easy to keep. Here are some suggestions: a) Get a Vessel Safety Check for your boat WSPS should be able to do at least as many VSC s as we have boats in the squadron. Our goal this year is for every squadron boat owner have their boat examined. This spring, we ll be contacting skippers to schedule a check. Please say yes when you get the call b) Attend a Squadron event Social Dinner, Pancake Breakfast, Change of Watch, or a cruise. Enjoy the company of fellow squadron members, and tell stories about your sailing (mis?) adventures c) Take a course or attend a seminar become a better boater/sailor by increasing your knowledge about weather, navigation, electronics, d) Tell a friend/dock neighbor about the Squadron, the good work we do, and the benefits of membership Happy Birthday Betty Moran Feb 3 Michael Ludtke Feb 8 Sue Lutz Feb 8 Lynda Zachar Feb 10 Patrick Egan Feb 12 Dennis Pearson Feb 17 Caridad Manns Feb 24 Sean Sullivan Mar 14 Kevin Thieme Mar 17 William Strauss Mar 19 John VanBenthuysen Mar 23 Betti Mors Mar 26 David Sallmann Mar 26 If you don t see your special day listed contact Roster Chairman Ellen Ludtke Best Wishes for Shel Wecher Waukegan Sail & Power Squadron 2010 History Record By Oscar Lutz Education Our education effort was very strong. Six educational courses were presented. Additionally, the Spring ABC Course at CLC was attended by seven people. As a new effort, the ABC Course was also presented in June and ten people attended. A new attempt, an eight series seminar program was scheduled for CLC and cancelled due to insufficient registration. Seven seminars were given at Waukegan Yacht Club and were very well attended. This was part of the program of forming a closer coalition with Waukegan Yacht Club, Anchorage Yacht Club and WSPS. Strong publicity resulted in higher attendance with a max of 70 people. The seminar on Batteries and the seminar on Choosing High-Tech Lines were developed by our members and were well received. Courses were held at Bass Pro Shops and at the Brunswick Corporation. Awards At the District Spring Conference, WSPS received the Journalism Award for our Waukeelog and the Website Award. At the District Fall Conference, we received first place for the best teaching aid. This was for use in the Marine Electrical Systems Course. Keith Baldwin was awarded the District 20 Chapman Award for continued excellence in teaching. Cruises The three cruises were to Great Lakes Naval Station for the Memorial Day Services, the cruise to Milwaukee and the cruise to Kenosha. The Milwaukee Cruise was memorable. On Thursday severe T-storms flooded the Milwaukee River so that on Friday, upstream water levels were seven feet above normal. On Saturday, some of our boats were on the Performance Yacht Services docks and the river water pressure was so strong that some of the docks were swept down with the flood. This forced a rapid getaway by the two sailboats. The get away was not without difficulty and the two boats were damaged by the mangled docks. Engines on both boats sucked in the fouled river water and debris thus clogging the cooling water intake. Luckily, the city marine police and the USCG were standing by and towed both boats to safety. Continued next page

4 ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER Lt/C SEAN SULLIVAN 2011 is going to be a Great Year! With January nearly past, the nights grow shorter, the cold slowly abates, and the ice is starting to melt. Soon, we will be in the water and the fun will begin again. ON THE WATER is our mantra this year. We are going to do everything possible to make sure we spend as much time as close to the water as we can; without having to bail. Please take the time to review this year s calendar. If all goes to plan; most if not all of our events will be within sight of Lake Michigan. This time of year presents us with many options. Our choices serve as votes for the organizations, venues, and services we want to perpetuate for years to come. In keeping with this principle, let s take a fresh look at some venues on the Lake. This week, Waukegan Yacht Club is in our sights. Stick with me through this article and take a few moments to visit them on the web at The current WYC Board of Officers has taken the organization a long way in a short time. Their open house philosophy and membership pricing promotion is one of the best values on the lake. They plan to double their numbers by year s end, opening the organization to many more boaters. Gone are all Initiation fees and dining minimums. For the next couple of months, full annual membership is available for a flat $800. This is less than the cost of previous year s total annual dinning minimum and roughly one third of the cost of previous seasons. Past members are warmly welcomed back to make new friends and reconnect with old pals. New boaters or people who have not previously belonged to a Yacht Club are encouraged to see how much fun membership can be. The good times are not just at the bar with an ice cold premium beer, or at a water side table feasting on a perfect prepared Blue Cheese Burger. The WYC have commissioned a small but mighty free use fleet consisting of 420 sailboats, a Sunfish, and some kayaks. These boats are just what you may need to settle a friendly racing wager or paddle around the harbor on a sunny day. The WYC offers so much more than the limits of this article allow. It is worth the time visit them at to form your own opinion. John Simons Membership Chairman export6@aol.com will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to him or stop by. It s going to be a fun year for them. We wish them all the best and look forward to working with them this season to further the goals of both organizations. If you have something to say or a suggestion for my next article; I would love to hear from you. Please me at seansullivan@dls.net. Hope to see you ON THE WATER soon! Sean P Sullivan March Member Dinner Mark your calendar for 5 March Our first Quarterly dinner will be held at Green Town Tavern on Genesee St. in Waukegan. This is an important event as we will be reviewing our role in the upcoming D/20 Conference, which is set for the weekend of 25 March. I will be sending a detailed shortly from seansullivan@dls.net. Please respond with your RSVP so we can get an accurate count History Record continued Membership Increased from 120 to 124 at the end of the year. At the end of December there were 121 active members (this including 6 junior members) and 3 women s certificate holders. As of December 2010, National is converting family members to active members. Member involvement remains strong with about 33% being very active in the squadron. A number of new members also belong to the Anchorage Yacht Club and the Waukegan Yacht Club. Member Meetings Continuing our strong social agenda, the main events were the COW in January, the March Membership Meeting, the June Picnic & Used Equipment Sale, the Waukegan Harbor Sunday Breakfast (open to everyone), the New Member & Old Timers Dinner, and the November Election Meeting. A social dinner was also held at Philly G s for a casual gettogether. Continued next page

5 WAUKEELOG EDITOR Bob Kunath, JN 2010 History Record continued Used Equipment Sale The event was a success. Over 70 people participated in the flare shoot and the Waukegan Harbor looked like a war zone with smoke hanging over the water. Brunswick Corporation has formed a closer link in partnering with USPS. Consequently, we started to use their corporate headquarters facility for teaching some of our classes. We hope to support their efforts as they will publicize our educational programs. Kenosha Harbor A PFD display station has been added to the Southport Marina. We also have locations in Waukegan Harbor and at the North Point Marina. Responsible Boat Ownership A boat is a responsibility as well as a hobby. The care you do or don t do can have a profound effect on your neighbors boats, or even their lives. The link at the bottom of this site tells the story of a recent fire in Washington, NC where 26 boats were totally destroyed with, fortunately, only minor injuries to three of the residents. There is a link within the story to a facebook video, also below in case the story expires. The fire appears to have been caused by a faulty shorepower connection on one of the boats, a fairly common problem. It doesn t take much to compromise the integrity of the cords we all use, for which the design goes back over 70 years. A little water in the plug or receptacle, a slow breaker, some corrosion on the pins, overloading by use of space heaters, it doesn t take much to set the stage for a catastrophic fire like this one. Imagine your boat and inadvertent carelessness being the cause of such a disaster? Sans Souci is now ten years old, and my insurance carrier required a survey to continue coverage. Rex Miller did the survey and found to my surprise that both my cords and one of the receptacles showed soot from overheating that I had not noticed, and which my carrier says I must replace, so I ve got some work do before Spring launch. I replaced one of the receptacles seven years ago for the same reason. Jeff Geltz recommended an alternative product to the typical Marinco cords called SmartPlugs, web site also below, which seems to solve the problems of the old system. No twisting, positive grip, waterproof, and an internal thermal breaker to prevent overheating. I think I ll use this system. Take a look at your power connections. Your marina may be at stake. Bob [

6 Support your WSPS Sponsors Contact Lt/C Sean Sullivan for Ad rates WSPS MEMBER Buy, Sell, Trade No Charge to WSPS Members. Pictures OK. Will run one issue unless advised to rerun. Send ad to YOUR FREE AD HERE! Hilton Head Villa 2BR 2BA 1400 sf Villa for rent, 2011 weeks from $695 for WSPS or YOUR FREE AD HERE! Members can post a free classified ad here. Or, this space is for rent for member s commercial ads as well as sponsors. WS&PS BENEFIT New 2011 Editions 20% OFF Log on to use coupon code WWG20 to get a 20% discount. Now available: 2011 Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic ICW, Southern, & Bahamas Editions, Northern and Great Lakes, cover price $ Skipper Bob s Cruising Lake Michigan, updated for 2010 by Bob Kunath, is now also available at the same web site.

7 WSPS Photo Gallery Change of Watch 2011

8 Another new Captain. by Bess Seaby I had the privilege of taking the Master Captain Exam at our club in November and would like to share with all of you the experience. First of all, I have never studied so intensely for anything in my life. Captain Neil presented everything in a clear concise manner that helped me understand every concept that was shared. For me, having a goal in sight always helps me be more engaged. Having the water outside WHYC to glance at ever so often solidified that goal. Every boat that came into the harbor (not many November) got our acknowledgement. I learned during this class the skills that I have dreamed of because my goal is to live on the water someday on a coast. To do so involves currents and tides that we don t deal with on Lake Michigan. There were four of us, Steve who has been the First Mate on the shuttle to Blarney s Island. Eric who is a Deckhand on the Anita Dee in Chicago and Arthur who works for Sailtime out of Racine. My desire for a captain s license is just to assist Captain Betti so that all of the responsibilities are not on her shoulders alone. What it looked like was Saturday to Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in class and 3 4 hours studying every night. I couldn t have done it without Betti s encouragement, tutoring, support, and supplying me with anything I needed to complete the task. In the midst of the intensity I suggested to Captain Neil that we do a field trip. I called the owner of Skipper Bud s, Dennis and asked if we could get a tour of the Azimut we saw come in the harbor. He was more than happy to oblige and gave us the full sales tour. When we finished there was another craft we saw come into the harbor which was a 36 Trawler named the Manatee. As we surveyed the craft from the pier one of our crew knocked on the boat to see what it was comprised of, suddenly Ted the owner popped his head out and welcomed us aboard. Now Ted, Sarah, and their dog Patches have been live aboards for the past ten years, spending half the year in Michigan and the other half in Florida. We caught them enroute to Chicago on their way to the Mississippi for the long ride home. One of the things we learned about during the class was what s called a composite tow, the reason I bring this up is due to the ingenuity of Ted. If you will notice in the picture, Ted took a dinghy rated for a 30hp motor, reinforced it with steel and hydraulics to handle a 90hp motor. The steel you see in the front of the dinghy s purpose is to rigidly affix the dingy to the back of the tug along with bracing to provide propulsion should the motor on the tug fail. Amazing, we heard quick stories of rescuing boat friends that were in need either using the dinghy, the tug, or the Kevlar reinforced boom from the stern. McGiver doesn t have anything on Ted! I have realized many times that it s not always what I m doing but the people I meet along the way. Back to class, so we had this huge test that scared me to death, but we were blessed to be in a small class that allowed us the time to ask Captain Neil about what we didn t understand. Sunday came and I was the first one to walk out with a passing grade. Thank all of you for allowing the class to be at WHYC and for helping me along the way. I would encourage any of you who considering doing so to follow through and make it happen. You won t regret it.

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12 Chicago/Northbrook Hilton Chicago/Northbrook 2855 North Milwaukee Ave Northbrook, IL : Fax: District 20 Spring Conference March 2011 Hosted by Waukegan Sail & Power Squadron Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Phone: Arrival Date: Departure Date: Room Rate: $ per night plus taxes Single Double King Smoking Non-Smoking Hospitality Room Rate: $ Payment: Circle One: Visa MC Discover Amex Name on Card: Card Number: Expiration Date: Signature: Reservations are subject to cancellation unless guaranteed with a credit card or one nights deposit. To qualify for the District 20 room rate, reservations must be received by the hotel no later than 3 March 2011 For Hospitality Suite Reservations please contact P/C Oscar Lutz, N at The suites are limited, unique and reasonably priced 9

13 Pub Crawl night at the hospitality SUITeS DISTRICT TWENTY SPRING CONFERENCE Hosted by the Waukegan Sail & Power Squadron MARCH 2011 LUNCH & DINNER RESERVATIONS Rank Name Grade Squadron 1 2 Address City State Zip Phone Number: Meals Number Total Cost Luncheon: Roast Beef Sandwich w/provolone $20.00 Turkey Wrap w/lettuce Tomato & Cheese $20.00 Lunch includes coleslaw, chips, dessert, coffee & iced tea Dinner: Chicken Piccata $30.00 Tilapia $37.00 New York Strip Sirloin $38.00 Dinner includes salad, rolls/butter, potato, vegetable, dessert, coffee & iced tea Total PLEASE RESERVE BY 15 MARCH 2011 MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO DISTRICT 20 SPRING CONFERENCE District 20 Spring Conference Schedule of Events FRIDAY 25 MARCH Registration Squadron Commander's Meeting 2000-???? Hospitality Rooms SATURDAY 26 MARCH Schedule* Friendship Room Registration Education Meeting Council Meeting Expo Verification of Delegates Luncheon Verification of Delegates Spring Conference Website Seminar Seminar #2 - TBA Cocktail Reception Dinner/Change of Watch 2200-???? Hospitality Rooms *Schedule is subject to change Dress Code Friday Night - Casual Saturday (Day) - Uniform F white long sleeve shirt,black pants & tie Saturday (Night) - Uniform A with Bow Tie or Appropriate Attire SEND RESERVATIONS TO: P/C Paul Green, SN 2552 N. Burnside Way Questions on reservations Waukegan, IL Call Paul at Check here if this your First Conference