Fall-de-rah

We are excited about our returning seasonal members and thankful for our members who are here year round and keep the club afloat!  As you will see in Rick and Michelle’s report, we did have a few activities this summer and a few more to come.

Believe it or not it is getting close to the holidays, and Fred and Judy Buchas are so nice to host our Christmas Party again this year (THANK YOU Fred and Judy) on Saturday, December 17th.  Of course, we planned it so we can watch the lighted boat parade.  More information will be e-mailed as we get closer to the date of the party.  We also have the date and venue set for our Anniversary Dinner.  It will be at the Isle’s Yacht Club on February 11, the same place as in previous years.  Of course this means election of officers.  Please consider being a boat club officer – the officers are what keep this club going!  If you want to put your name in the hat, please send an e-mail to me.  It really is a lot of fun (well at least some of the time J).

You may notice a new section in our newsletter, our Sponsor Spotlight, which will have articles contributed by our Club Sponsor, Ingman Marine.  We welcome this addition to our newsletter!

We have some great activities planned which are all posted on our Club Calendar.   Be sure to sign up for some (or ALL) of our events.  If you want to take the lead on pulling a trip together, please do, but you can also just submit an idea for a trip and our Fleet Captains Rick and Michelle will handle working it.

I have to admit; I gave up the water these last few weeks for the mountains.  Ron and I spent three weeks at our ranch in Colorado to enjoy the mountains and some elk hunting (yes, I got my elk with a 205 yard shot).  Whether we are boating and fishing, or hiking and hunting, the one thing that is a common theme is being prepared and being safe.  This translates into whatever activity you do, or hobby you have.  So please be safe out there, in whatever activity you do!

Thanks for being a Tarpon Coast Grady-White Boat Club member!

 
Me practicing game management       View of Mt. Elbert from our Ranch

Safe and Fun Boating!

 

Secretary’s  Report

Ron Strich
ronstrich@comcast.net

 

 

Membership

There are no changes to report in membership.

As stated in our last newsletter, at our upcoming November 2nd meeting, I would like to hold a discussion on membership involvement.  If you don’t normally come to these meetings, please do so this time.  We really would like to learn why you don’t regularly attend club functions.  If you just can’t make it, please send Donna or me your comments so we can include them in our discussion.

I am starting a new career in November.  As the President of Verifi, LLC, I will be building a business that brings quality control to the concrete industry by placing networked process control on concrete trucks.  The venture is co-owned with W. R. Grace & Co.  This is all an excuse as to why this newsletter entry is so short and why I won’t be at the Nov 2nd meeting.

The docktails and dinner at the Crow’s Nest on October 29th was a blast.  Thanks to Silver Bullet and Tide Pirate for providing the docktail platforms.  Jeff and Sarah Johnson, who joined the club last spring, were in attendance as was his brother Chris Johnson and his wife Linda.  We had a special guest appearance from Cat in her Hat that was a hoot.

 

Fleet Captain Report 

(October 2011)

Our club has continued a reasonably active “boat trip” schedule in spite of the usual summer doldrums – where weather, travel, work, and other factors tend to conspire to make such outings difficult.  Since our last formal report in late July we’ve had the pleasure of:

• A long weekend trip to Sarasota to enjoy the One Night Rodeo concert at Van Wenzel, lots of shopping, and a productive excursion offshore where a 37” bull dolphin found its way into the fish box.
• Another weekend of fun at nearby Fisherman’s Village for their annual “Pirates Weekend”.  A few Gradys and at least one club member in full wench disguise were spotted (and photographed).
• An extended cruise across the “big ditch” to Stuart and Pirate’s Cove Marina over the Labor Day weekend, with several offshore sorties for adventurous encounters with tuna and sailfish. 

Coming Up
Over the last few months of this year we hope to host additional opportunities for club members to exercise their Grady-Whites and enjoy the camaraderie of other members, including:

• October 29th & 30th (Sat & Sun) – Raft-up & shark tooth dive…plus dining and optional overnighting at the Crow’s Nest in Venice.  Rendezvous starts any time after 10 AM on Saturday about 1/3 mile west of Sharkey’s Pier; dinner that night will be around 6.30 PM at the Crow’s Nest; several boats and about 24 folks are signed up thus far.  Contact Donna Strich if you are interested or need more information.
• November 30th (Wed) – Useppa Island lunch outing (11.30 AM)…so far there are 7 boats and 29 members signed up.  Contact Dan Clark if you are interested or need more information.

We may be able to squeeze in another before the New Year.  As always, if you have suggestions for other dates and destinations, send them along to us and we’ll be happy to help coordinate.

Rick & Michelle Riordan
TCGWBC, Cape Town, South Africa
October 2011

 

 

From Steve Saunders

 

 

Hello Boat Club Members,

Well, where has the year gone?!   We have had a great year weather wise this summer with the luck of the hurricane draw staying on our side.  No real close calls, no mad-dashes looking for cover for our Grady’s.  Our new Commodore and the Fleet Captains have done a great job of offering the Club many opportunities to visit new places and participate in cruises to keep the cob-webs off our vessels and ourselves.

I hope everyone is on track for holiday plans from boat parades to visits from our friends and family from the frigid North.  It is so nice to know that we can enjoy this great weather all year round.  So, as we wind down this year, let us all reflect on the great trips, fun times together and making memories to last a lifetime.

Safe boating and happy and healthy holidays to all!!

Warmest welcome to our snowbirds – VC Steve

 

SAFETY REPORT

 

I hope everyone has had a safe summer and been able to enjoy great boating.  Here are some safety tips for you.   Whenever you leave the dock for a fun trip or just a short ride you want to be prepared for any unexpected problem or breakdown.  Preparing ahead of time can prevent a ruined trip.  A well stocked toolbox is your key to saving the day.  Here is a list of tools, supplies and spare parts to keep aboard, preferably in an airtight and moisture resistant case.

TOOLBOX CONTENTS
Flashlight and spare batteries & bulb
Screwdrivers, slotted and Phillips head
Wrenches, adjustable and mini and sockets
Pliers, double jointed/tongue & groove and needle nose
Wire cutters (for crab pot lines, etc)
Multi-tool pocketknife
Duct tape & Electrical tape
Zip ties (assorted)
Assorted fuses and fuse puller (tube or wafer)
Fuel filters and wrench to fit
Steering fluid
Bulbs for all your lights
Wire and connectors and crimp tool
Plugs for seacock
Owner’s manual

Hopefully you will never need the above items, but it will give you peace of mind if they are needed.

Other items that should be checked on a regular basis include seacocks, bilge pumps and the float switches, fire extinguishers, life jackets, and all thru hull fittings.  Don’t forget that flares are required safety equipment.

Let’s all have a fun and safe boating season.

Bob Mayes
Safety Office

 

From The Treasurer

 

There has not been any financial activity since the last news letter. No new revenue but no expenses either.

That's more than we can say for our friends in Washington D.C.

It is time to renew our Flickr account so I will be doing that shortly.

It is getting cold in Wisconsin. Time to pack up soon and head south.

 

 

Lost at Sea
A book review.

By Capt. Dan Clark

 

John Harrison

 

Capt. Ron Slimp loaned me his copy of Longitude by Dava Sobel. A terrific and recommend read. (Also available on DVD as a narrated NOVA movie.) I thought I would share a recap with you.

This November marks the 250th anniversary of the first time in the maritime history of man that he actually knew where he was when sailing the oceans.

For many years, perhaps even thousands, sailors knew where they were north or south of the equator. Latitude was a fairly simple “fix”. A little geometry and a clear day or night would give the ancient mariner their position relative to the equator. That was helpful but the real problem in avoiding obstacles or even finding your way back was to know where you were east or west of your starting point. Determining longitude went from completely unknown to taking very inexact and complicated celestial measurements that only the finest sea captains could possibly hope to grasp. Longitude is a function of time calculations. If a clock shows midnight in London and the local time of where you are is noon then you are half way around the world. Each 15 degrees east or west of home is equal to 1 hour of time. To find your longitude position you need to find out the local time (this was before satellites).

This all changed through the life long efforts of John Harrison (1693-1776). The problem was so severe and complicated by the intents to discover “new worlds” by several nations that Great Brittan even had a contest with a prize of several million dollars to the person that could solve the problem. Determined, the British Parliament enacted the Longitude Act in 1714 and offered a bounty to find the answer.

For years (actually 114 until the Board of Longitude was officially disbanded) countless remedies and plans were presented. These included incredibly complex celestial measurements (you were still lost if it was cloudy) to the very bizarre which included anchoring ships at prescribed intervals across the oceans of the world (at the time it was thought that the deepest ocean was 1800 ft when in actually the average depth is more like 12,000 ft) to firing loud canons at prescribed intervals for surely the sound, if loud enough, would carry across the ocean but the most bizarre was the “wounded dog theory”. This was based on a miraculous powder that could transmit its powers over great distances. All one had to do was to take a wounded dog on board and precisely at noon in the home port, a bit of the bandage from the wounded dog was sprinkled with the powder and the dog aboard the ship anywhere in the world would react thus giving the official time. Too bad if the dog got better and its wounds healed while at sea.

The dilemma and naturally the prize attracted the most brilliant minds of the time including Newton (the apple from the tree guy) and Halley (the comet guy). Years previously even Galileo and Tyco Brahe tried but failed. Until John Harrison came on the seen all serious thinkers felt that the only way to determine longitude was celestially. Sir Newton even said that he doubted that a watch could ever be devised that would be able to keep accurate time at sea. It was for this reason that Harrison had such a hard time selling his concept. The popular thought dismissed the possibility of solving this problem with a time “machine”. The thought was that only through heavenly measurements could the answer be found.

Mechanical clocks were still in its infancy in the early 18th century and certainly one could not imagine a clock that would keep precise time with all the motion, humidity, temperature change and pressure change that a long voyage would present. (Loosing or gaining only a few seconds per day could leave a ship that was a long voyage stranded on the rocks or missing its destination). John Harrison was convinced that he could do it.

H1

Harrison, a self educated carpenter (and not a clockmaker) went about the task. His first model called H1 (weighed 75 lbs.) took him 5 years to build. It saw its first sea trial in 1736 and was almost perfect but John knew he could do better and tried again. He came up with H2 after another 5 years and then H3 in 17 more years. Finally after another 6 years he came up with a watch, the H4 (5.2” in diameter) and it had its first sea trial November, 1761. It worked almost flawlessly, became the standard and is still running today in the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Once copies went into production they were well guarded as the cost of one would be about 30% of the price of the whole ship. (Makes your Garmin seem like a real bargain.)

H4

It is hard to relate to the problems our maritime ancestors had navigating the oceans of the world. Next time you fire up your GPS, say a brief thanks to John Harrison. (By the way, due to amazing politics and perhaps a bit of British snobbery, John Harrison was never granted the full prize by the Board of Longitude)

 

 

 

 

To All Grady White Club Members,

I’m Gary Ingman and I hope all of you had a great summer. Things are better than they have been the last few years. I hope they continue to improve for all of us.

I would like to let you know that Grady White’s Freedom line is one of the best sellers because it is such a versatile boat for our area.  They make a 19’, a 20’, a 22’, a 25’, a 27’ and a 30’ Freedom.  All of these models allow our customers to cruise with the capability of carrying many passengers comfortably.  The layout of the Freedom is very conducive to the interaction of the passengers.  This is a great cruiser for off shore or the harbor.  The Freedom is very friendly for fishermen.  It has a tremendous open cockpit area for bottom fishing or trolling.  It comes equipped with fish boxes  and a nice livewell.  Another of the many great features is the capability to build an enclosure around the windshield area to protect from the weather without eliminating the view.

All Grady White club members will receive a reduced labor rate in the service departments at our Placida and Pt. Charlotte locations from $88 down to $75.  Just show the service manager your Grady White Club card to receive this discount.   We are also offering a free full detail on your Grady to anyone in the club that refers a Grady White customer to us and they purchase a new Grady White from us at Ingman.  That is a $750 to $1,000 value.

 

Happy, safe boating to all,

Gary Ingman

 

______________________________________________________________________________

From The Editor

Fred Buchas

 

 

I also now include a .pdf version of this newsletter as an attachment to the newsletter email that goes out with each new issue.  This could be helpful for offline viewing or if your browser has any problems with our web version.  These files are also available at our website under “Newsletter Archives”.

This issue features the continuation of our new "Waypoints" column. We hope to be able to continue this with each issue but it all depends on your contributions.

So as always I'll continue to look for member contributions.  It could be almost anything that would be of interest to the membership.  Maybe your personal fishing or cruising stories or just information about hot fishing spots, dining or cruising destinations etc. Another suggestion has been to post club members marine items for sale. Just forward any of your submissions to my e-mail listed below.

Thanks to all of our contributors for this issue. 

 Now that we're back on our old schedule of publishing at the beginning of every third month our next issue will be out at the beginning of February and I would ask that you get your contributions to me by the middle of January.

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Fred Buchas  fbuchas1@comcast.net