Bilge Pump: April 2012

Well, we are now at about the halfway point in our Club calendar year. I am happy to report that the Club is running along, in line with the budget forecast that was set for this year. While income is somewhat down, so far overall expenses have been down more than budget. This is good thing. We are still on track to finish the year with a surplus of cash to help replenish the contingency reserve fund.

I am very pleased with the performance of your Club Board, and the good working relationship developed with the Club Bridge. Together we have tackled some tough issues such as addressing the problem of long time, inactive, or so called “storage boats.” The enforcement of these Club moorage rules has made it possible for new slip assignments to be made to waiting, active members. We think this is healthy for the Club. As always, all members are invited to attend the Club Board meetings. There is time allocated on the meeting agenda for member comments, and new business discussion. In addition, we strive to get the meeting minutes posted on the Club website in a reasonable time frame.

If you would like to attend, the meeting is held the second Monday of each month at 1900 hours, third deck.

To address the issue of lower income, the Board earlier approved, at the recommendation of Planning and Finance, a membership recruiting drive to help encourage new member prospects to join QCYC. Membership revenue has been off a bit. These funds are an important part of Club income. If you aren’t talking the “membership” special this up to your boating friends, please do so! The current drive features a lowered initiation fee which will save a new member $1,000.00! This promotion will only run for a limited time, and this temporary reduction makes joining Queen City a terrific value.

The Board also approved funding the rental of two electric boats to serve as the Opening Day shuttles for visitors who travel back and forth between Queen City Yacht Club and Seattle Yacht Club. I don’t know which captains were at the helm of the borrowed shuttle boat last year, but the damage it suffered cost more to repair than the rental being planned for this year. (I do know that last year’s boat handled very poorly at low speed.)

At the last meeting, the Board approved spending funds to seek permits for an extension of Dock 1 over water the Club has already paid for, and controls. This extension, when completed, will add several slips to our marina capacity. Committee Chair Capt. Gary Stone and Capt. Pat Dore have had an initial meeting with the project managers of Waterfront Construction to assess what permits are needed and determine the costs for the permitting process. The prospect for securing the permits looks good. Please note Capt. Stone has been extremely busy the last few years with the Club’s 520 Bridge Committee activities. He would like to step back a bit and mentor a successor for that role. If you have an interest and the time to assist, this is a great opportunity to serve the Club in an important role, helping to insure the interests of the Club are represented for the future benefit of all members. See Gary, myself or an officer if you are available to fill this slot.

This is just a short recap of some recent highlights. Now we are looking forward to some warmer weather for Opening Day, and the summer beyond.

Mark LaFountaine
Board Chairman 

This is a crazy name for a reading group, but it meets the basic definition: we eat soup and dinner rolls for a social time and then discuss the book chosen for the evening.

The March 21st event missed being published in The Bilge Pump, but we want anyone interested in participating to know that the next selection is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It is a newer release and is in high demand at the library, so plan ahead if you want to read it without making a purchase. The date is not determined at the time of this writing, but will be most likely near the end of May.

Anyone who enjoys reading and stimulating conversation is encouraged to join us. The next newsletter issue will have specific information.

There will be two mandatory meetings on April 3rd and 4th to cover bar setup, teardown, and overall procedures while you are bartending. Meetings will be from 6:30 – 8:00 PM in order to cover the material and have time for questions and clarification. Pizza will be provided so please let me know which night you will be attending so I have a head count.

I have scheduled two consecutive nights for those of you who cannot make one or the other. This is an important meeting, as we need to have all bartenders on the same page with regards to bar procedures.

Please email Andy Gerde @ agluvs2sail@msn.com prior to April 1st for planning purposes.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Andy Gerde
Club Manager
206-999-5606

I took a brief sabbatical conducting interviews about the history of the club, but now I am eager to continue talking to long time members and past commodores about their recollections of how things used to be.

On two Fridays, April 6th, 13th, and possibly a Saturday morning TBD, I will videotape stories in about 1 hour segments on the 3rd floor of the clubhouse. Please call me to schedule an appointment time. I will be happy to talk with you about what you may wish to share and will provide question guidelines. There will be other dates in the future, but I hope to get a good start this month.

These interviews will be preserved in the club’s historical archives and also will be helpful for a 100th anniversary project for 2016.

If you are interested in sharing your knowledge, please call me to schedule an appointment. Thank you.

Margaret Krows (425) 488-3202 or mmkrows@aol.com 

When you read these words, the club should have its new work float in place and maybe even secured and ready for use. It’s a very substantial structure that is stable, sturdy, durable, and built for long term use. Several alternatives were explored and considerable man-hours were expended to achieve our standard for effective use of resources. These projects take a lot of unseen time, on a volunteer basis. This particular project comes thanks to the efforts of Ron Stevenson, Arthur Mauldin, and Dick Dow. Discussion at several committee meetings brought a great many of the issues into review by many of your fellow members. Many more thanks will be needed when we’ve towed the old float out and the new one in and for the project that will install it.

Replacement of the safety ladders has been an issue here for several years now. It’s a very large project in its over-all scope. When it seemed small, several persons took it on, but the reality of it has overwhelmed previous efforts. No more. There’s a plan including 280 ladders in all that will provide a suitable standard of access to ladders. This plan places ladders at the end of each finger pier and one ladder on the main dock at each one or two wide moorage berth. In addition there will be ladders at the loading /U-dock, the south side of Dock 3 and at the work floats and floating moorage units. The planning even includes budget planning to perform the work over a period of four to five years. Memorial contributions have been very generously aimed at this worthy project and we should see first results happening soon, for that reason. Special thanks go to Carolyn Rolstad for the very generous donation in memory of Ron. This makes me remember my friend so fondly right at this moment. Thanks for that, too. Here’s recognition also for the wonderful Tarette organization for their dedication to safety, and for the contribution from the past presidents of the Tarettes. It means so much that you care in these safety oriented ways. The Memorial Fund is more generalized in its funding, but is critical for this project as well. My personal thanks go to the caring people who thought of using these meaningful funds for such an ideal and generous purpose.

Committee members Mitch Garton, and Ron Stevenson deserve high praise for tackling a complex project and staying with it to a fine end. Several alternative ladder designs have been shown at club meetings and input from members has always been asked. The committee spent too many of its limited hours trying to find the very best solutions to a multitude of complications. Captain Mike Cochran provided a terrific sample ladder that has become the basis for the major portion of the ladders that will be deployed. This makes the construction of the ladders an in-house project, of sorts, and certainly gives us some cost benefits. Thank you, Mike, for making this possible.

The committee continues to perform serious maintenance on our docks. These efforts certainly extend the life of the docks and reduce the value of needed major repairs as we do tend to deal with problems before they grow too large. Many people do planking on these docks and I am terrified to name them because I well know I will leave out some names, but here goes and please go easy on me for my failures here: Gary Stevens, Jim McFadden, Chuck Gould, Mitch Garton, and more.

Our fire stopping draft stops are being replaced as needed at long last. These double planked walls beneath the docks, inhibit the flow of air or flame lengthwise on the piers. They can slow and stop the progress of a fire and limit the losses. As such they are a critical part of our safety systems. This work is done for the year, with new units installed on Dock 3. The other docks wait for lower water. Huge thanks to Pat Dore, Gary Stevens, Mitch Garton, Jim McFadden, and more.

Lighting is being tended to by Tim Dies and Dustin Bago. Ray Huggins has researched and done light plumbing work. There are so many I’ve left out. Do know that my thanks goes to a lot of the membership for making all of this possible. So many have participated over so long a period of time now.

Committee Meetings: the Fourth Tuesday of every month: April 24, and May 22. 6:00 PM

Next work parties: The second Saturday of every month: April 14, May 12, & June 9

Arthur Mauldin
Docks Committee Chair

Many of the club members now have an inside experience of the major doings in the engine rooms and bridges of our Washington State Ferries. On three occasions in March, groups of ten or more visited the Winslow Ferry Shipyard for a personally guided tour by the Port Engineer himself, Vern Day.

We were issued hard hats and had access to engine rooms, control rooms, electrical distribution compartments, repair areas, shaft alleys, and even the bridge on the new ferry Salish. Some of the technology is cutting edge and some of the machinery running the ferry Elwa came from a WWII Destroyer Escort installed when the ferry was first built.

The ferry that makes calls in Sidney BC is certified by the Coast Guard for ocean voyages as it technically passes out of the US on its short voyage to the Canadian waters off Vancouver Island.

All those attending these tours had a grand start with a lunch in our outstation prepared and organized by our fleet captain or his assistants. We look forward to other exciting events to tantalize our curiosities about our everyday lives.

Mike Cochran
Fleet Captain