Newsletter - United States Power Squadrons

www.nh-ps.org
• D EC E M BE R
2015 •
CALENDAR
10 December 1800 (second Thursday)
NHPS Membership Meeting & Holiday Social
Lt/C Peter DePascale’ home
839 Donna Dr., Orange, CT
12 December 1800 (second Saturday)
D1 Christmas Party
Campagna Restaurant,
151 Marlborough St., Portland, $35
per person. Details in Sounds of One.
• W I N T E R
201 6 •
14 January 1900 (second Thursday)
NHPS Membership Meeting
Pequonnock Yacht Club
26 January 1900 (fourth Tuesday)
Bridge Committee Meeting
Pequonnock Yacht Club
7 February 1200 (first Sunday)
Change of Watch Amarante’s Sea Cliff, 62 Cove St.,
New Haven
10 March 1900 (second Thursday)
NHPS Membership Meeting
Pequonnock Yacht Club
For more information about
Squadron Events, visit the NHPS
website: www.nh-ps.org.
For District 1 Events, see The
Sounds of One or D1’s website:
d1events.blogspot.com
Message from Cdr. James Yeske, P
$4,500 Raised at the
NHPS Wine Tasting
Fellow boaters,
It is with regret that another New England boating
season has come and gone. This year, we closed it
out with the New Haven Power Squadron’s Wine Tasting extravaganza with over 100 people at Amarante’s Sea Cliff enjoying fine food,
music and wine. The superb dining choices, the delightful music by Trio
de Parri, and the flavorful wines offered by Amity Wine and Spirits mixed
well with the Halloween spirit demonstrated by those who showed up in
costume made for a memorable evening. Never fear though, we do intend
to make this an annual
event. Through the generosity of the donors and the
ticket sales, we managed
to raise over $4,500 after
expenses. Special thanks go
to Donna for spearheading the wine tasting and
to Peter D for selling the
most tickets. An honorable
mention should also go out
to all the volunteers who
Banana Girl, Squadron Secretary Patricia Kaiser,
worked tirelessly to make
checks in guests at the Wine Tasting fund raiser.
this happen.
For those of us who are not fortunate enough to continue boating in the
warm southern climates, we look forward to the upcoming holiday season. A
special thanks to Lt/C Peter DePascale for volunteering to host our annual
Holiday Party at his house at 839 Donna Drive in Orange, CT on Thursday, December 10. Please bring an unwrapped toy to benefit the Smilow
Cancer Hospital.
For those of you interested in a larger bash, don’t forget the upcoming
District Holiday Party on December 12 at Campagna Restaurant in
Portland, CT complete with an Ugly Sweater Contest. I still have tickets
continued next page
2
DECEMBER 2015
NEW HAVEN POWER SQUADRON
Message from the Commander
✪
Wine Tasting Extravaganza
continued
available at $35.00 each for the District
Bash, contact me if interested.
Because of a wonderful venue for our
Wine Tasting, we will hold our annual
Change of Watch luncheon at Amarante’s on Sunday February 7. More details
will be forthcoming.
While the next boating season is
months away, there is one final “Save
the Date” activity.. New Haven Sail and
Power Squadron has the honor of hosting the District 1 Spring Conference
Meeting on March 19, 2016 at the Branford Yacht Club. Volunteers are needed…
please contact one of your Bridge Members if interested. In the meantime, till
the warmer weathers come, fair winds
and following seas.
Squadron SEO and D1 Commander Art Andrea
posing with Linda Leonardi as Jackie O.
Cdr. Jim Yeske, Linda Leonardi, Samantha Marone, Patricia Kaiser and Rich Hackley
What’s In A Name?
P/C Richard Hackley, AP
When doing a web search for that
question, a response came up stating that names are arbitrary labels.
“What’s in a name? If you know
her by Elizabeth or Lizzie, she’s still
the same person.”
A name is one of the first things
we receive when we enter the world.
Some people choose to change
theirs. Famous examples are Norma
Jean Mortenson, who became
Marilyn Monroe, or bad boy Carlos
Irwin Estevez, we know as Charlie
Sheen. Some names make no sense
at all, such as Henry McCarty, aka,
Billy The Kid. How about that
hot little sports car in mid-70’s,
the Datsun 280Z. Can’t buy those
babies anymore, because Datsun is
long gone. The company spent a
reported $30 million dollars over 3
years to make the name change to
Masked ladies P/C Donna Ferrucci and
Margo Nimiroski
Nissan. Useless trivia moment, the
company was always called Nissan
in Japan. It was only their exports
that carried the Datsun name.
From time to time the NHPS
Bridge has kicked around the idea
of changing our name to include
the word sail, as that more accurately reflects who we are. The
thought was shelved a few years
back as we wanted to complete our
100 year anniversary with the name
that we all know, New Haven Power
Squadron. Now with that major
milestone behind us, it may be time
to move forward with a newer, more
modern name.
At our October Bridge meeting,
the motion was made and a vote
cast in favor of changing the unit’s
name to the New Haven Sail and
Power Squadron. This is a common
theme that has been embraced by
other squadrons around the country. The Bridge, therefore, proposes
to amend Article 1, Section 1.1, to
state “The name of this organization shall be the New Haven Sail
and Power Squadron, Inc., constituting a squadron and unit of
United States Power Squadrons.”
The proposed amendment will
be stated in full and discussed at our
next Membership Meeting, 10-December. During the business portion
of the Change of Watch ceremony
on 7-February, a vote will be put to
the members present to adopt the
change, provided a quorum is present. If two thirds or more are in favor
of the revision, then the amended
bylaws will be sent to the USPS
Committee of Rules for approval.
What’s in a name? If you know
us as NHPS or NHSPS, we’re still
the same organization. Although, it
looks like we may be ordering new
stationary.
✪
NEW HAVEN POWER SQUADRON
NHPS Loses
Two 50-Year
Members
Past Commander and Life Member Martin Wolinsky, P, died
in July 2014. He joined NHPS on
January 29, 1957, and served as
commander in 1994. He earned
26 merit marks. He was presented
with his 50-year plaque by then
Cdr Ferrucci at the January 2014
DECEMBER 2015
3
Taking the Search Out
of Search and Rescue
Recently, my family and I watched a movie from
2006 called The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and
Ashton Kutcher. As the hit 80’s movie Top Gun was
made with the assistance of the Air Force to help promote the service and boost enrollment, The Guardian
seemed to follow suit. It gave a detailed view into the
U.S. Coast Guard’s “A” School, where rescue swimmers are made and broken. Full of action scenes and
a Hollywood love story, I give it a thumbs up.
Appropriately, the story takes place in Kodiak,
Alaska, which is 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, the western most edge of our
national waters. For those who came out to our October Membership Meeting, we were
fortunate to hear from Retired Coast Guard Captain Craig Gilbert, who served at Base
Kodiak for many years. All were entertained with stories of drunken fishermen and an
Change of Watch (see photo).
There was no obituary and no
calling hours.
Past Member Mackey Barron, P, died on October 27,
2015, at age 95. He joined NHPS
on January 23, 1958, and was a
member until recently. The following is his obituary, which was
published in the New Haven Register
on October 30:
BARRON, MACKEY of Westbrook, CT. Entered into rest
October 27th, 2015 at 95 years.
Beloved husband of Erica Hope
Yaffee. Devoted father of Howard
& his wife Joanne Barron, Dana
& his wife Joanie Barron, and
daughter, Jill Barron. Cherished
grandfather of Danny Barron,
Laurie Fromer, Rebecca Brown
and Heather Barron. Expressions
of sympathy in his memory may
be donated to either the International Communications Industries
Foundation (ICIF), ICIF Mackey
Barron Memorial, 11242 Waples
Mill Road, Suite 200, Fairfax,
VA 22030, infocomm.org/icif
or to the Franciscan Sisters of
the Eucharist, 405 Allen Avenue,
Meriden, CT 06451.
occasional encounter with the Russians, but the more serious message clearly had to do
with rescues. His focus was on encouraging the recreational boater to take steps that will
help “take the search out of search and rescue.”
Besides the tools available to us on the vessel itself, such as Digital Selective Calling,
VHF radios, or ERIRBs, the Coast Guard offers an App for smartphones that contain a
wealth of information.
In addition to being a resource for things like boating laws and regulations, requesting vessel safety checks, and accessing weather information from the closest NOAA
buoy, this can also serve to file a “float plan” that can be sent to others before your
departure.
In the event your trip does not go according to plan and you become overdue, the
information provided by you in your plan may have a huge impact in any search and
rescue (SAR), attempt. Last year we had a different USCG speaker share the story of a
successful rescue of a fisherman who went missing in the night during his shift. Based
on his shift duties, his partner gave a window of time and location where the man went
overboard. That information was enough to put spotters in the right area and on the
last pass of an aircraft that was being recalled, he was spotted and saved. Having an
idea of time and position is crucial, and that detail is what a float plan should provide,
when we take the time to create one.
In The Guardian, a question the young cadet asked of the chief instructor was “How
do you decide who lives and who dies,” referring to the fact that sometimes you don’t
have the time to save everyone. Let’s commit that we will never put anyone in the position of making that choice when it comes to us or our guests. Let’s do the right things,
communicate our intentions, and help take the “search” out of search and rescue.
Squadron Notes
• The tentative line up of topics for the winter/spring
membership meetings include:
1. January 14 – Connecticut Marine Trade, “State of
the industry”
2. February – Change of Watch in lieu of Membership Meeting
3. March 10 – Broker from Brewers, “How to buy/sell
your next boat”
4. April 14 – West Marine Store, Branford
5. May 12 – Sea Tow
6. June – Blessing of the Fleet/Raft Up, in lieu of
meeting
• Inflatable PFD Recall:
Last month Mustang Survival has announced it is voluntarily recalling two selected models of inflatable personal flotation devices (PFDs) manufactured in Canada
between September 2014 and September 2015. The
recall is being issued for the reinforcement of a portion
of the bladder assembly that may tear when the bladder
lobes are flexed apart while
fully inflated.
While a solution has been
developed that corrects any
affected products and prevents
occurrence of this issue, the
repair can only be performed
at a Mustang Survival factory.
Boat Owners Association of
The United States (BoatUS) is
urging boaters to check their
life jacket inventory and see
the easy identification guide at www.mustangsurvival.
com/advisories to quickly determine if the life jacket is
subject to the recall.
This recall notification is only for certain models as
identified with model numbers that begin with either
MD315 (sold in Canada) or MD318 (sold in the US).
“No other Mustang Survival products are affected as
they utilize different bladder assemblies or have been
originally produced with the required reinforcement,”
said Mustang in a statement.
Editor:Cdr. Richard Hackley, AP
15 Hickory Hill Lane
Branford, CT 06405
Layout: P/C Cameron Taylor, JN
P/C Richard Hackley, AP
15 Hickory Hill Lane
Branford, CT 06405
NEW HAVEN POWER SQUADRON
First Class
Postage