3. Rear Commodore's Report

Greetings:

Whoever would have thought that summer could go by so quickly? Just when we were starting to settle in with all the wonderful weather, it’s time to start thinking about the changing of the Queen City Watch on Sept 21st. My, how time flies. Of course there is still a lot of cruising left for those who can get away to enjoy it.

GOOD NEWS: Captains Rod Hilden and Craig Ranta have purchased two new webcams for our club. When they are installed and tested, the first camera will provide members with the opportunity to view the Boyer main station general “U” loading dock area. Our second webcam will be mounted at the Winslow Outstation and will show our docks in Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island. Access to the cameras will be added as a new feature to our existing Queen City website, and you will be able to check out these areas (during daylight hours) from anywhere you have access to the internet. Along with our new free WI-FI system we’ve all been enjoying, this should be yet another great benefit for all members planning to get under way, or for even just checking in on Queen City Yacht Club facilities when out of town.

HISTORY: The Bridge elected to undertake this project in two separate phases. We completed phase one by installing the infrastructure for our WI-FI System at both Boyer and Winslow in our previous year’s budget. We are now proceeding to complete phase two with the final equipment and cameras under the current year’s budget. I’m not completely sure when we will see this package fully operational, but I think it would be a nice early Christmas present from the two captains.

SECURITY: Most of the action in July involved some minor vandalism to the junior boating equipment on dock #4 which sustained under $100.00 worth of damage and loss. Thanks for the quick action to R/C (elect) Bob Myers; P/C Daryl Anhalt; Deborah Cobain, QCYC office manager; Sophie Thomas, sailing supervisor; and John Rogers, QCYC Treasurer. We extend a special thank you to Bob for providing information for the police incident report which had to be filed. There was some missing hardware from one of the sailing boats that had to be replaced, and one of the two Laser sailing boats had been untied and left to drift on to the shore under the 520 high-rise near Queen City property.

GROUNDS: I want to give special thanks to Queen City’s office manager Deborah Cobain for her quick action to head off what could have been a very serious fire in one of the two dumpsters adjacent to Cummins Hall. Deborah shared that a QCYC member alerted the office that the garbage dumpster appeared to be on fire and there was smoke coming out of it. Capt. Orrin Phillips also had noticed the smoke and was already on his way to investigate. When he opened the lid, the contents in the bottom of the dumpster burst into flames. Orrin quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher from Cummins Hall and put out the flames. QCYC members Bob and Diane Prestebak, Orrin and Gary Nelson all sprang into action and raked apart the still smoldering debris from the bottom of the dumpster, and completely soaked the container with water from the dock hose. It appeared that someone may have thrown in a foil -wrapped package that caused the fire in one corner of the dumpster. Please let this serve as a cautionary reminder to not put anything that might be smoldering or hot in the dumpsters! Once again, we really appreciate the quick action that everyone took to get this incident under control thus averting the need to call in the fire department.

MAIN-STATION PARKING LOT: Unfortunately, were unable to schedule the repair and asphalt seal coating of the main In-station parking lot this year due to a timing conflict with the asphalt contractor. We have agreed to reschedule this work for early summer next year the week of June 8, 2012. The work will involve cold patching, crack sealing and a full float coat of asphalt emulsion over the entire parking lot. Please note on your calendars that there will be no access to the club parking area during the early part of the week of June 8, 2012. I want to give special thanks and appreciation to Captains Prestebak, Purvis and P/C Anhalt for their contribution in performing temporary repairs to the most vulnerable paved areas of the parking lot so that we will be able to get through this winter.

CAR PARKING ISSUE: Yes, we have all faced the frustration of no parking space availability at the Seattle In-Station parking lot during the summer months. You only have to read the comments from members on the QCYC Website under the “Parking” forum to get a picture of the frustration. For the record, the rule is that members must post the current year QCYC parking summer decal with their member number on it in a conspicuous place within the vehicle. And yes, the same old questions come up again and again: do we have members parking more than one car in the lot? The other question is: do any of the non-decal cars belong to guests of members?

I want to appeal to all Queen City members to respect rules of the club and not expect special parking privileges. As we all know, there is sufficient off-site parking along Boyer and the side streets off of Boyer and it’s only a short walk to the club. As we work to build our membership rolls, we need to ensure that the club rules are respected and that special parking privileges are not a part of the club’s rules. I hope that our members will join me in support of this important issue.

MEMBERSHIP: No change from last month, 475 total members, 360 active and 115 Senior Life members. Our 2011 goal is 45 new memberships, and we are currently at 48% of our goal.

Although Lois and I were unable to join in on the Fleet Captain’s cruise north this year, we have heard it was a blast with lots lot of fun, socializing and the usual “high jinx.” I look forward to seeing you at the Sept. 7, 2012 meeting.

Regards,
Bob Stettner
Rear Commodore