November 2002 Chartroom Chatter
Ahoy there! Time to winterize the clubs, piers, and boats and, for many, maybe squeeze in a final outing before winter storage. Soon the CBYCA will change the watch to the 2003 crew. As this is my final article as your Commodore, I would like to thank and commend the 2002 Bridge for an outstanding year! By their dedicated service and sacrifice, the CBYCA has continued to prosper. Although we have a ways to go to be where we want to be, our presence and interaction with legislators, government officials, and other boating and marine organizations continue to expand with more active volunteers involved than ever. This year our representatives testified on bills or met with legislators in VA, MD, NJ, and PA. In MD, we were asked to introduce an amendment to a boating fee bill. On the national level, joining with the NBF, we were active in support of the Saxton Bill for high quality on-board treatment systems. Can we do better? Heck yes! Come join us! To really work well, "Grass Roots" activism requires a lot of grass and a lot of roots.
The Chartroom Chatter, the yearbook, and our website remain high quality products that continue to improve every year. I am particularly pleased with our outreach efforts to promote club interaction and good fellowship. Our officers, board members, and P/C's worked hard to visit as many CBYCA clubs and events as possible and listen to your concerns and interests. Our interaction with the DRYL this year took a huge leap strengthening a relationship that will benefit the clubs of both organizations for years to come. We remain on sound financial footing and although costs are creeping up, we will look for ways to hold the line on clubs dues by trying new means of fund raising. In recognition and appreciation of the Queen of the Chesapeake and all she does on behalf of our clubs, we started a raffle series this year to create a fund, which will grow in future years to provide each Queen with a gift to defray her many expenses. Responding to your comments and suggestions, we formed a Communications Committee that created several changes in how we do things that will provide timely and accurate input to our publications and our website, ensure business, such as dues notices, reaches the right people at the right time, gets the word out to a broader audience, and provides better and faster communications between clubs and the CBYCA Board.
I am pleased to report that Commodore-elect Ken Bean is recovering well from his recent operation. Ken is raring to go and, although he may not get around too well right now, he vows that you will see him at Commodore's Balls very soon.
Recently it was my privilege to represent the CBYCA at the 110th Anniversary Celebration at Capital Yacht Club. The speakers described the rich history of an organization that, since its founding in the late 19th Century, has been friend, neighbor, and an integral part of the Washington, DC community. Quite a few stories accumulate over 110 years. Kathy and I were amazed to hear that there once were sailboat races from Washington to Annapolis, sponsored and organized by Capital YC. They came to an end at the onset of the First World War. Speaking of sailing, Capital was a sailboat club at first and in 1906 was integral in the founding of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. In its early days, Capital was located in a red light district. I understand the ladies conducted their business from a barge tied up on the Anacostia River Waterfront. Being down on the DC waterfront, Capital has had its share of ice, snow, and flood disasters. Many of Capital's boating and sailboat racing stories related to the weather as well. A common theme in the many stories is that Capital YC members always find a way to find fun in these situations and make the best of things. I heard one P/C remark, "when the weatherman predicts a heavy snow or wicked noreaster on the way, my response is to head down to the club". In the early 80's, Capital was displaced for over five years as the DC Metro was constructed. The Metro tunnel runs under B & C Docks. During this time, most of the club and craft hung out at the Gangplank Marina, a period, I am told, of some of the greatest parties ever! In 1958, Capital became one of the Charter Member Clubs of the CBYCA and has been a strong supporter ever since, providing us with several great officers over the years including Past Commodores Ken Johnson (1962, 1963) and Penny Orth (1999).
Kathy and I have had a wonderful year representing a great bunch of clubs and people in one of the best boating and waterway regions in our country if not the world. It has been my privilege and honor to hold the gavel in your service. Thank you all for the hospitality, support, and friendship. From the top of the Delaware all the way south to Norfolk, east to the new Nanticoke River clubhouse, west to Washington DC, and many points in between, we met folks working together, celebrating anniversaries, proudly showing off their facilities, and, with great hope and excitement, just beginning the journey with no more than a spot by the water and a dream. Every place that we traveled and every event that we attended testified to a bright future for our clubs and our wonderful hobby of boating. As my year as Commodore draws to a close, I promise Kathy and I will certainly not be gone and will be very active in support of our CBYCA for years to come. Farewell and following seas and see you around the bay.
I would like to thank everyone for all the cards, phone calls and visits during my recent hospitalization. A special thanks goes to Queen of the Chesapeake Bridget Smith and her mother for the surprise visit at the VA Rehabilitation Center this past Wednesday. The Queen and her mother were like two rays of sunshine walking through the VA facility. It was the topic of discussion among the staff and patients for the next couple of days.
The club Delegate will be the point of contact between CBYCA and member clubs. All commodores are urged to appoint responsible individuals to the Delegate and Alternate Delegate's positions. The next Delegate meeting will be held at Bush River Yacht Club on November 16, 2002. Luncheon will be served at 1200 hrs. and the meeting will start at 1300 hrs.This will be change of watch and also the meeting where the participation certificates will be presented to the club Delegate's that have attended all four Delegate Meetings this past year. We hope to see everyone there.
Please make note of my new address and phone number:
512 Red Birch Road
Millersville, MD 21108
(410) 729-1116
Pennsylvania/Delaware Legislative Report
Rex Beers, DSLPADE pbase2000@juno.com
Capital Projects Legislation
The Current Legislation: The Pennsylvania Senate concurred in House amendments to Senate Bill 1213 on October 9. Senate Bill 1213 passed the House with amendments on October 8, 2002. The amendments provide that the Fish and Boat Commission projects itemized in Section 10 of the bill will be financed by incurring debt repaid from the General Fund. The amended bill also increased the amount authorized for rebuilding the dam at Leaser Lake, Lehigh County. Senate Bill 1213 was introduced in the State Senate on November 16, 2001. This bill was amended by the Senate Appropriations Committee, and then passed by the State Senate (50-0) on December 5, 2001. This bill was reported from the House Appropriations Committee, with amendments, on June 26, 2002. The amendments added several projects to the list of Fish and Boat Commission projects.
Projects: Senate Bill 1213 authorizes the PFBC's capital projects to be funded by incurring debt to be repaid from the state's General Fund. Section 10 of the bill itemizes sixteen PFBC projects with a total cost of $49.46 million. Six of these are the hatchery projects that the PFBC identified as priority hatchery projects.
The individual projects are:
PFBC Priority Projects (from earlier version of SB 1213) listed in bold and
italics. PFBC priority projects total $17.87 million. Beaver County, Upper and
Lower Hereford Lakes -- $7.8 mil Bedford County, Reynoldsdale FCS - $5.575
million Butler County, Glade Run Lake - $1.56 mil Carbon County, Mauch Chunk
Lake - $325,000 Centre County, Bellefonte FCS - $2.2 mil Centre County, Benner
Spring FCS - $2.465 million Centre County, Pleasant Gap FCS - $2.09 million
Clinton County, Tylersville FCS - $2.04 million Cumberland County, Huntsdale FCS
- $3.84 million Cumberland County, Big Spring FCS - $8.25 mil Elk County, Brandy
Camp (Blue Valley) Mine Drainage/FCS Recirculation Demo Project - $1.6 million
Erie County, Corry FCS -- $2.655 million Lackawanna County -- Merli/Sarnoski
Park Disabled Access - $720,000 Lackawanna R in Scranton Disabled Access -
$720,000 Lehigh County, Leaser Lake - $5.4 million Potter County, Oswayo FCS --
$2.22 million All the projects must be released for design within four years of
enactment of the bill or they are repealed.
PFBC Position: Senate Bill 1213 contains the PFBC's priority
hatchery projects. Although it contains several projects that have not been
prioritized by the Commission, its enactment was a major positive action that
will enable the agency to move forward with the most important efforts to
upgrade the state hatcheries.
Background: A Capital Project Itemization Act is the means by
which the General Assembly authorizes state agencies to undertake major
acquisition, construction and development projects. All projects with an
estimated cost in excess of $300,000 (each) must be approved by General Assembly
and the Governor as part of a capital budget. The Governor lists projects for
consideration in the capital budget when he submits his state budget message in
February. These projects, with changes sought by the Administration or members
of the General Assembly, are then incorporated into a bill.
National Legislative Report
Earl Waesche, LDNBF emwaesc@erols.com
We have experienced a most active year in the Congress to say the least. With Homeland Security, war resolutions and the coming elections complicating the process, our limited legislative interests are not always served. We have had success in some areas and others still wait resolution. Following are areas that we have been engaged and some of the bills NBF has taken a position on as reported at the annual meeting at Gig Harbor, Washington.
HR 5005 - The Homeland Security Act of 2002. This bill incorporates 22 government agencies with some 160K employees in a single office of Homeland Security (HS) for the protection of America against terrorist attacks. As it stands now, all of the USCG will be part of the new agency. This will greatly expand the Coast Guard role in HS and provide it additional money and prestige. A contract has been awarded for $17B to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to revamp the CG defense system with an electronically linked armada of new ships, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles under Project Deepwater. This is in addition to the $611M being spent under the National Distress and Response System and Modernization Program to upgrade CG stations' communications and location networks along coastal waters. General Dynamics has just been awarded this contract. Along with the good news, however, is the concern that some of the support to recreational boating could be compromised under the greater role of Homeland Security. In that regard, NBF prepared a resolution citing the many important Coast Guard functions, in addition to Homeland Security such as boating safety, aids to navigation, pollution prevention, and search and rescue and, therefore, recommended that any reorganization affecting the Coast Guard not compromise these important functions. This was sent to members of the Select Committee on Homeland Security in the House and other legislative and boating interests. The bill has passed the House but is still in floor debate in the Senate.
HR 3983/S 1214 - Marine Transportation Antiterrorism Act of 2002 - This bill, having to do largely with port security, sets out new requirements for the Coast Guard and international shipping. It requires all vessels entering territorial waters to be equipped with the new Automatic Identification System (AIS). The AIS is an automatic transponder that transmits position, course, speed and other information to other ships and shore-based stations. Additionally, vessels must provide 96-hour notification for entry into U.S. territorial waters. The area of jurisdiction is extended further seaward, Coast Guard personnel are assigned as sea marshals under this act further extending their many new responsibilities. This bill has passed the House and has now passed the Senate unanimously. Currently the bill is in House/Senate conference.
HR 2732 Stopping Westward Aquatic Threats Act - This bill would implement a system of controls to prevent the spread of zebra mussels, which have caused so much damage on the Great Lakes to the Western waterways. We have communicated our support to the relevant committees. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Baird of Washington, has decided to imbed the bill's language in two other bills that would have a better chance for passage. These are HR 5395, the Aquatic Invasive Species Research Act and HR 3596 and the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act. These bills were introduced on September 10 and have a number of important co-sponsors. It is unlikely these bills will get through this year and will be reintroduced in the 108th Congress. We will continue to monitor this bill and provide support, as developments require. HR 1310 - The Corps of Engineers Reform Act. The bill purports to enhance the now protracted process for gaining approval of Corps projects. We feel the opposite is true and have opposed the bill. It is not scheduled for committee action in Water Resources. We believe the bill is dead, at least for this year.
HR 3673 - The Recreational Waters Protection Act. As you may recall, this is the bill that provides superior technology for Type I MSDs, its use in no discharge zones and eliminating the need for holding tanks. This bill was heard on 2 May in the House Water Resources Subcommittee. The hearings were successful in that the support panel successfully argued the case and thoroughly debunked the panel against the bill. Subsequent to the hearings, several environmental groups visited Chairman Duncan, including the Ocean Conservancy, expressing their opposition. To date there has been no mark-up and vote on the bill. We doubt the bill will be scheduled for mark-up and thus will not go further this year.
Boat US was active in its support of the bill.
HR 702 - The Personal Water Craft Responsibility Use Act. This bill sets out Federal rules and regulations for the use of personal water craft. We opposed the bill feeling there were sufficient state regulations on PWCs. There has been no recent action so we believe the bill is dead.
Re-authorization of Wallop-Breaux. We are in active session with the American League of Anglers and Boaters (ALAB) to begin drafting language for the re-authorization of the Wallop-Breaux funding for FY 2004 and beyond. Funds will be provided for Boat Safety, Sports Fish Restoration, pump out stations (Clean Vessel Act), Boating Infrastructure Grant Program, etc. Meetings to date have not been without controversy as the sports fish side attempts to keep the greater amount of tax receipts for their projects at the expense of the boating safety account. A new method of distributing Federal boating tax dollars has been proposed by ALAB.
Current: Permanent or fixed allocation from the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (Wallop-Breaux) account.
Proposed: Funds allocated on a percentage basis from the Wallop-Breaux account.
With the percentage method, everyone shares in the projected growth of revenue. A final meeting is scheduled at the end of the month to obtain agreement on the allocation of funds.
NRBSC. NBF continues its representation at meetings of the National Recreation Boating Safety Coalition. The NRBSC is a large coalition of industry, government and private organizations that work together to affect boating safety legislation in the States. It is informal and does not require any dues. The group has been effective in forming State coalitions to pass a variety of safety bills focusing on BWI, PFDs, mandatory education and personal water craft legislation. Meetings are held about quarterly where reporting, dissemination and coordination of various state initiatives take place. The meetings are very productive. We can thank Ev Tucker of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Association for our entree to this organization.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lack of maintenance dredging along the southeastern portion of the ICW continues to be a problem especially the "Pine Island Cut" in SC and Ponce Inlet, Daytona, FL. NBF is on record in support of allocating a greater portion of the Corps' budget to the Civil Works Program. We have also requested Congress increase the total Corps' budget. The problem was, and still is, the Corps is operating under a reduced budget as mandated by the Office of Management and Budget. President Bush proposed cutting the Corps' budget by 10% to 4.175B for FY 03. Fortunately both House and Senate committees have reported out budgets about 500M over the President's request. At present the Corps is operating under a continuing resolution at the FY 02 funding level since Congress has not yet passed the appropriations bills.
Loran-C. NBF has been asked to speak at a meeting of the International Loran Association on 28 October. It may be remembered that NBF was instrumental in gaining continuation of Loran-C at the original DOT hearings. The title of this year's meeting is "Determining Loran's Role in Mitigating Vulnerabilities in a Post-9/11 World."
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ). A bill was proposed to set fuel economy standards for all vehicles to 35 miles per gallon by 2013. Current standards are 20.7 miles per gallon. It was proposed that light trucks would be exempt but SUVs and all other vehicles would comply. This would have a major impact on boating since a large percentage of the boats in the U.S. are towed. Fortunately the bill did not pass.
Art Murray, CBYCA Safety Committee,
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
The person who came up with the term "stainless steel" was either a dedicated joker or an out-and-out charlatan. There is no such thing as a steel alloy that is stainless. The metal alloy called stainless steel contains very little, if any, ferrous material. In fact there are a variety of alloys referred to as stainless steel that contain no ferrous material at all. Nickel is the primary metal used in these alloys. Stainless steel of the 300 series alloy is widely used on recreational vessels for railings, stanchions, cleats, chocks, wire halyards, shrouds, and stays, blocks, chain plates, and a host of various fasteners and fittings. Its popularity is due to the ease with which it can be kept looking bright and clean in Bristol fashion, as well as its strength and resistance to corrosion. However stainless steel can develop stains and can corrode.
When stainless steel is heated for bending or welding, those areas that are subjected to high heat can, over time, develop rust-colored stains. These stains can usually be removed by the application of a suitable polishing compound and a good deal of elbow grease. Corrosion in stainless steel is much more insidious. This corrosion is referred to as crevice corrosion and usually occurs in areas where it cannot be easily seen. A part that appears perfectly sound may suddenly fail, and sometimes fail catastrophically. The corrosion causing the failure will develop where two items of stainless steel are pressed together and then subjected to immersion or soaking in seawater or brackish water. An example is swag in a stainless steel wire into a stainless steel eye fitting to make a mast stay or shroud, or bolting a stainless steel chain plate to a stainless steel base plate both of which create a crevice. Allow these married materials to be submerged or soaked in salt water and crevice corrosion will usually develop.
If one were to clamp two plates of stainless steel together and submerge them in seawater, or a saline solution for a few weeks, the results would be quite surprising. When the plates are separated, one would find the interfacing surfaces covered with worm- like holes. They would resemble wood that had been attacked by termites. This is crevice corrosion and it can substantially reduce the strength of a stainless steel item. Usually this type of corrosion will develop over a much longer period of time than just a few weeks. It may take years to develop a significant problem. Metallurgists claim that it is the free chlorine ion in seawater that attacks the stainless steel where a crevice exists. Determining the presence of crevice corrosion is difficult since it usually occurs where it cannot be seen. A close examination of the edges where two stainless steel parts form a crevice may sometimes show the presence of any such corrosion. However the prudent person should understand that crevice corrosion could exist even though there is no visual indication of it. Disassembly for examination or replacement of suspected parts may be the best course of action to avoid the failure of a critical item.
Mark Your Calendars!
| Date | Time | Meeting | Location |
| 16 November | 1000
1300 |
Board Meeting
Delegates Meeting |
Bush River YC |
| 14 December | 1800 | CBYCA Commodore Ball | Martin's North Point |
| 21 December | 1000 | Board Meeting | Belvedere YC |
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