By the time you read this, we will have had our first two social events of the season, the Star Party and the Ships and Dips.   Thank you to Peggy Ciolino who organized the Star Party.  Your commander could not attend as he was still recovering from a three-week long cold, but he heard that the skies were clear and the event was inspiring.  Thank you also goes out to Karen Osgood for organizing and publicizing the Ships and Dips event and thank you to the squadron members who opened their boats for more than twenty of us who came to view and admire.

We will be having our first squadron business meeting on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30pm at the Waterfront Classroom as usual.   Well, it’s not really as usual because we are only having one business meeting every three months.  The first scheduled squadron meeting of the year was a fun and entertaining event and those who attended on Wednesday, March 7 appeared to have a really good time.  I was a little surprised by how many attending had not seen the movie Captain Ron before but it was great to listen to the laughter from both first time viewers and those who deemed it worthy of another watch.

As with the movie night, all members are welcome to the business meeting and encouraged to attend to find out what issues and decisions are being made to improve our organization.  Your input is welcome and we hope to see you there.

I want you to mark your calendars now for our next fun and entertainment night which will be May 3.  I plan to have at least two speakers who will relate their boating experiences.  Those of us who may have had similar experiences can empathize with the speaker and may be empowered to add additional perspective to the speaker’s account and those of us who may have yet to have the experience can stash away all the information provided for future use.

 

Things have been pretty quiet since the publication of the March Signal Hoist. Right now we’re happy for the rain, but keeping our fingers crossed as several rain storms make their way through Santa Barbara. We hope that there are no more mudslides in Montecito and that, Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24, will be dry and allow our planned Star Party and Ships and Dips to proceed.  If we need to reschedule, we’ll let everyone know. (The weather was fine as reported in this issue – see Star Party and Ships and Dips.)  Coming up on Saturday, April 21, is our Spring Brunch, held again on the comfortable garden patio of the Swalling’s hilltop home. John Profant is our lead on this event and he will be contacting all former Commanders for their signature culinary creations for this annual event.

Remember to start setting those items aside that you’d like to offer to someone else, at the Nautical Swap Meet on May 12.

 

The entire issue of the Signal Hoist has always been available on our website

sbsps.net

as a PDF – and will continue to be there.  However, if you only wanted to look at the Commander’s monthly report or that of another Bridge officer, you would have to open up the entire issue and scroll through it to find the one you wanted.  We’re now offering some new ways to present and organize all the Signal Hoist articles.

Consequently we’ve been working with Virginia Johns to take portions of the monthly Signal Hoist and have them more easily accessible on our website.  Under the main tab – News And Articles – we have added a tab for “Monthly Reports”.  There you will find the latest monthly reports from the various Bridge Officers.  There is no need to find the issue of the Signal Hoist and then find the Bridge officers report.

In addition, Virginia is now taking individual articles submitted by members, which were included in the Signal Hoist, and posting them individually under the “Member News and Articles” tab.  These are now more readily accessible and not buried in a particular issue of the Signal Hoist.

These individual posts on our website may not show until a few days after you receive the PDF Signal Hoist.

Virginia and I encourage you to take a look at the new organization of the articles on the website and give us your feedback.  Let us know if it does or does not work for you!  Thanks.

 

Our “America’s Boating Course” class (ABC) ended on March 20 with 10 students able to take the final exam.  Four other students were unable to attend but will be given the opportunity to take the exam soon.  For those that passed the exam, all of them, and want to get their California Boating Card, they can go online to the California Department of Waterways to apply for their Card.  It’s a simple process that requires the submittal of $10 and a copy of the certificate of completion they received from us.

The ABC class uses a USPS textbook that contains two supplemental chapters on navigation and charting.  While this material is not required to obtain a certificate of completion from us or to obtain the California Boating Card, it can provide a very good grounding in the use of charts and navigation techniques, and it will serve as an excellent introduction to our more intensive Piloting class.  I polled the current class and they are very much interested in learning this material so we will be presenting these chapters to the current class in two sessions on March 27 and April 3.

We’ve also made good progress in scheduling more classes for this year.  Steve Young will be teaching Marine Electrical Systems from April 24 to June 19 and Pete Seagoe will be teaching Engine Maintenance from September 11 to November 20.  We’ve also scheduled Steve York to teach the Partner in Command seminar during Boating Safety Week on Saturday May 19.

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact me at rdciolino@cox.net or 805-682-4543.  Sail safely!

The following Marine Safety Alert has been issued by the U.S. Coast Guard:

The U.S. Coast Guard is concerned about the sale and availability of unapproved recreational and commercial vessel navigation lights. Purchasers of such lighting should be aware replacement lighting may be improper for its application due to the failure by manufacturers to meet technical certification requirements. Furthermore, technical advances in marine lighting, such as the use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), rope lighting, underwater lighting, and other various types of decorative lighting, may violate navigation light provisions of the Nautical Rules of the Road.

Some manufacturers are producing and distributing navigation lights that do not meet certification requirements. These lights are typically less expensive, making them a tempting choice for uninformed consumers. Use of lights that do not provide the proper chromaticity, luminous intensity, or cut-off angles could result in the issuance of a notice of violation or potentially cause an accident. Recreational boaters should ensure each purchased navigation light contains the following information on the light or its packaging:

USCG Approval33 CFR 183.810

MEETS ABYC A-16 or equivalent TESTED BY (an approved laboratory)

Name of the light manufacturer

Number of Model

Visibility of the light in nautical miles

Date on which the light was type-tested

Identification and specification of the bulb used in the compliance test.