Cultivating a Rich and Proud legacy of Boating for Pleasure & Sport

I N S I D E

Upcoming Events Don’t Forget to Check the Club’s

Online

For Up-to-date

Information

WATERLINES STAFF

Board Meeting

January 14, 2014

Club Ski Weekend February 8 & 9, 2014

Join your friends at

Boyne Highlands.

For More info

contact Mike Morris

@ 231-342-7377

Weather Seminars

February 22 & 23, 2014

Basic Weather &

Advanced Wind

Forecasting by

Mark Thornton

• Misc. Ramblings

• Cruiser’s Corner

• Pot Pourri

• Weather Seminars on Basic and Advanced Wind Forecasting

Meets in the main

room at the Club.

All Members

Welcome

I’ve started a number of new years now. I won’t admit to

how many but experience has taught me that every time I

experience a new one, I actually get excited; not easy for me as my wife will testify. All the things I messed up last year and

all the things I meant to do but didn’t get a new chance. Too

bad they also have the same obstacle – me.

We’re planning for some new beginnings in the Waterlines.

We want to highlight members, provide better coverage of up-

coming events, and give credit where credit is due for the great work of the volunteers of the club. All of this will take time

and effort, not just my time and effort but everyone’s time and

effort. So the next time you see something memorable, take a

photo or jot it down and send it to me. We all enjoy a good story. And maybe I can become less of an obstacle.

New Year…New Beginnings Hope Springs Eternal

JANUARY 2014

Fred Wilmeth Editor

Volunteer TBD Club Reporter

Volunteer TBD Club Photographer

Articles Due to Editor by the 15th

of Month Prior to Publication

waterlines@gtyc.org

EVENTS CALENDAR

Misc. Ramblings Eric Lind PC 40

Grand Traverse Yacht Club – Waterlines – January 2014 Issue

Wisconsin, and Illinois from the West in addition to the Michigan/Ohio regulars. The conditions were not the greatest, but we did get in 3 races on Friday for the tune-up and 4 races for both Gold & Silver fleets over the weekend. The event was won by 17 year old Griffin Sherry, son of multi-World/North American champion Ron Sherry, with 9 points to his dad’s 10. The best part was hearing the Silver Fleet sailors and spectators cheer for Griffin as he and his dad sailed side by each around the bottom mark. Who says youth sailing is not active!!! If you are interested, look for the 2014 edition to take place in the coming few months, but it all depends on the fickle nature of the weather. Next meeting of the GT Ice Y C will be 7pm, Tuesday, Jan 7th, at our Club. All are welcome and food will be served.

While on the ice I noticed one of the organizers using his iPhone as a GPS. He is using a Navionics app that costs $15 or $20 for the North American chart package. I intended to get more detail from him, but with all that was going on did not. I’ll do some research and report back next month. If any of you are using this app or something similar, please let me know. I’ve tried using a few GPS apps on my phone with little luck and found that they tend to use a ton of battery. Also complicating iPhone usage on the ice are cold fingers and hard to read displays.

(Continued on last page)

Lunching today with a few friends the discussion turned to water and the Great Lakes and as the ultimate authority (unrecognized) on the Great Lakes Water Levels I asked how many at the table knew that the surface of Lake Ontario was lower than the lowest point in Lake Erie. I was not surprised to find that only one other person knew that. With that in mind I mentioned the constant erosion of the river bed by the Niagara Falls and wondered if it ever reached Lake Erie what the drastic results would be. All at the table being of senior status we deemed it not our problem!!!

The topic then turned to the ‘Adult Science Quiz’ that has been passed around the internet. Please take the quiz, it’s only 13 questions, and report your results. I’m confident that as a group we will score a cut above the general population, the results from which were quite disappointing and really quite alarming. Of particular interest will be your answers to question #7.

Speaking of water, I spent the past three days on Lake St. Clair off the Eastern terminus of M-59. This is the 3rd or 4th year in a row that we’ve held the Annual Central Lakes District Regatta for DN Iceboats during the last half of December. This was an interesting gathering as we had sailors from Rhode Island and New Jersey to the East and from Minnesota.

Kismet Cruising... Desolation Sound

A dream became a reality last summer when, the crew of Kismet

towed their Ranger Tug across country to join the Ranger Tugs

2013 Cruise to Desolation Sound – British Columbia, Canada.

Striking out on our own to explore Desolation Sound… finally. We

left Gorge Harbour mid-morning to find yet another perfect boating

day awaiting us. History states that Captain George Vancouver first

sailed the waters of the Sound in 1792, thinking the landscape

remote and forbidding, he named it Desolation Sound. We think he

must have had a run of bad weather to have taken such a gloomy

stance on such a diverse and stunningly beautiful area, but we’d

have to admit that the name has a certain draw to it.

With Cortes Island behind us we headed for Desolation Sound

Marina Park, a large dedicated group of islands, along with a bit of

mainland BC, set aside as a marine park in 1973 for the benefit of

recreational boaters, campers and hikers. Our goal for the first day

out was to head to an anchorage in Grace Harbour, a well-protected

cove on Gifford Peninsula we heard about from another boater.

READ MORE – Visit Trailer Trawler Life's Blog

Our Cruisers

Have Tales

to Tell

of Far Off

Boating

Destinations

All Boaters

Welcome…

GTYC Cruising Club

meets the 2nd Thursday

of each month

fall through spring.

All sailing and powerboat

cruisers are welcome. A potluck dinner is followed

by cruising stories, seminars,

and planning for cruising destinations.

For more information

contact: Lisa Wilmeth

CRUISER BLOGS

Verkennen

Calliope

Kismet

Wind / Weather Seminars Offered at GTYC

Register at GTYC.org. Go to Calendar, GTYC Special Events,

and scroll down to “Basic & Advanced Wind Seminars”. Costs

are $30 for a single seminar or $50 for both days. Workshops

start daily at 8:00 AM and end at 4:00 PM. Space is limited and on a first come, first serve basis. This event is open to the general

public. Advanced registration is strongly recommended.

Grand Traverse Yacht Club – Waterlines – January 2014 Issue

What you can expect to learn at the Wind workshop:

• Why the wind behaves the way it does

• How to translate the confusing symbols and meteorological short- hand on forecast graphics

• The basics of lake breezes, land breezes, thunderstorms, clouds and other dynamics that produce localized and short-term changes in the wind

• Ways to judge the likelihood, strength and duration of headers/lifts

• A methodology for observing the wind and using on-line resources to develop your own forecast

• Strategies for using your wind-forecasting knowledge to your advantage, whether you are a day sailor, cruiser or serious racer

The workshop combines traditional classroom instruction, case studies and several hands-on forecasting exercises to create an engaging learning experience.

What you can expect to learn at the Weather workshop:

Section One: Introduction

Section Two: A Solid Foundation

(Basic Meteorological Principles)

Section Three: Interpreting Weather Graphics

Section Four: The Invisible Forces Controlling the Wind

Section Five: Clouds and Precipitation

Section Six: Dissecting a Low Pressure System

Section Seven: Observational Tools

(Radar & Satellite Imagery)

Section Eight: Thunderstorms

Section Nine: Waves

Section Ten: A Daily Forecast Routine

Section Eleven: On-board Resources (Monitoring the Weather After You Leave

the Dock)

Day 1: Basic Weather

February 22, 2014

Day 2: Advanced Wind

February 23, 2014

Pot Pourri

Now you can get all the ship reports within 300 Nmi of your location at sea that

were transmitted over the past 6 hours to the Voluntary Observing Ship program,

worldwide. Just send an email to shipreports@starpath.comwith your lat and lon in

the SUBJECT LINE of the message (in decimal degrees as shown below) and you

will get the reports back by return mail. This is a free service compliments of

Starpath School of Navigation. The reports are compiled by the National Data Buoy

Center in collaboration with the US Voluntary Observing Ship program. These data

are available online at the NDBC. We are simply forwarding it to vessels at sea via

email as a convenience to them. In coastal waters this is a way to get near live

weather data in the offshore direction. It is also a way to calibrate your barometer

when sailing offshore if you have any doubts about it.

Grand Traverse Yacht Club – Waterlines – January 2014 Issue

Headline Goes Here

(Cont. from Misc. Ramblings)

Another topic on the ice was the usage of DSC equipped VHF radios to determine range and bearing of each other, i.e. windward mark to leeward mark or end of start line to center point. I’ve written about DSC in previous columns, but have not heard from anyone that they have ever hooked it up or used it in any way. If you have please let me know your experience with it. SPOT tracking devices have also been a topic of previous articles and again I’ve never heard from anyone that they have bought or used one. As others are coming on the market now I’d be interested if anyone has bought or used one and their

experience with them.

As we wrap up the holidays and move into the New Year, things are ramping up quickly for the coming ‘soft water’ season. Planning for the Chubb/US Sailing Junior Nationals is ongoing and we are meeting weekly. If you haven’t found a niche where you can volunteer and be part of the effort let us know and we will help you find one. I’m positive that we can ALL work together and make it a successful

and FUN event.

Advertise in the

Waterlines Want to have 500 readers a month

looking at you ad? Just place an ad in

the Waterlines. Ads start at $15.00 per

month. (Discounts for annual

contracts)

Business Card Ad …. $15.00 per month

Quarter Page Ad ….. $35.00 per month

Half Page Ad ……… $50.00 per month

Full Page Ad ……… $75.00 per month

For more information contact Fred

Wilmeth at fwilmeth@sbcglobal.net.

All pricing based on publish-ready copy.