WANTED: Evening Sail Scheduler

ASI is seeking an Adventurous, Level 2, 3 or 4 Captain with a desire to introduce guests, and other A.S.I. Members to the " JOY OF KEEL BOAT SAILING" !

We are in search of a new Evening Sail Scheduler.

Responsibilities would include:

1. Scheduling Evening Sails

2. Recruiting Evening Sail Captains and First Mate. ( or you may Captain:)

3. Coordinate schedule with Level 2 Managers, and L2 Maintenance Director.

4. Record keeping / collection of donations.

5. Must enjoy: Sunset sails, Cool summer breezes, & Sailing along moon beams!

Interested? Questions?

Please contact:

Marilyn Leece

Level 2 Co- Manager

Sailrmare@sbcglobal.net

Don't forget! Level 4 North Channel Lottery is TONIGHT - - Norm Schmidt

The Level 4 North Channel Lottery will be TONIGHT!

Location: Wayne State University - Orchard campus on 12 Mile road in Farmington Hills

Check in at 6:30 to fill out forms. Lottery starts at 7:00 for those who completed forms.

Requirements:

• Level 4 Sail Pass paid by Feb 15, 2012
• Complete forms at the lottery
• Signed off Lottery Procedure Document.
• Charge card for $1,000 Timeshare fee
• Charge Card for $1,000 Damage Deposit
• Other forms at the lottery

ASI 2012 Geocache - - John Tiley

From Wikipedia: Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

What starts at N 42°28.811’ and W 083°14.449’ and ends in serenade and free booty, with good mates, eats and laughs, over what you just accomplished?

What does Super Man’s Girl friend, a Drunken Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Man have to do with Bonnie who lays over the ocean? And how would you get there anyway ?!

Well, if you said Brims Bountiful Booty and Sea Chantey Geocache, held this last Sunday afternoon, you’d be right. And with the help of your team mates, you’d know how to get to Bonnie over the sea, using GPS units just like those on our ASI boats. Our team had an unfair advantage since we actually had Bonnie with us.

It was more like a FUN college road rally than a GPS class and with lots of hands on experience and shared learning. Each new location included creative fun clues, riddles, nautical terms, goodies to scavenge, and just enough friendly competition to shake off the winter blues. The sun was out, the cool winds nor-noreast, the sea flat as… well a road, the 5 teams were small on purpose. There were lots of GPS units, so that we all got that hands on button-pushing (and getting lost experience) and you really need to get the menus down. Better now, safe in harbor and off season, than after hitting or worse yet, after totally missing the north buoy on the water this summer, right?

Old mates greeted one another, new faces welcomed, the teams were formed, and instructions given. Then the suggestions (and guessing) were flowing as we tried to follow the directions and GPS to the next location to collect another clue and coordinate, enter another waypoint or distance to travel. Yes--did you know you can enter a distance to the next point? Do you know how to do that? It’s a cool trick and something new I learned. Have you ever wondered how to turn on the backlight to see the GPS face at night? Learned that too! Pretty exciting stuff really, especially if you’ve ever had to put the GPS away at dusk on the water, before.

If you missed today you missed some good fun and learning. And if you missed it and are interested in doing another BBBSCG rally before the season starts, Please let Bob Brim or myself know. We would also like to offer a GPS Meet-up Day to review the Garmin 72’s button use and secrets before the next rally. And remember, this extra practice day might move you to the head of the line to get bragging honors and free treats on the next Geocache. So please be excited about this and let us know you’d consider coming.

Many hours and creative thinking (Gina) went into this year’s ASI Geocache event and it was great fun and a fine success. We all agreed we’d like more off season events, meet-ups and seminars. So thank you Bob and Gina for organizing this event and to all that allowed us to borrow your personal GPS to make for a wonderful mid-winter learning experience, with fellow ASI sailors (and wives). Special thanks to Dave Clark, Norm Schmidt, and everyone else who shared their Garmins with us, and Bill Lane, Cathy Chrzanowski, Richard Jaeger, John Tiley, and Shari Gregory, who volunteered to lead teams.

Remember to email us about your support for another meet-up and Geocache this year. Arrrgh Mateys….John Tiley ASI Mentor

2012 Spring Sailing Sewing workshops - - Kathy Chrzanowski

Sailing Sewing workshops will be Saturdays, March 24 and 31 at my home from 9am - 4 pm.  You do not need any skills to do this.  We will teach you. Service hours may be obtained for all the hours you work.  The sails are sorted and labeled as to the repair needs, so hopefully this will go along easily, and we will be ready to put the boats with repaired sail back in the water soon afterwards.  Any questions email matwins1@comcast.net or phone 248- 877-6539, but please do not expect a reply if you email or call between March 8 - 19.  I will be in India on a mission trip to distribute eye glasses.  If any of you have old eye glasses sitting around, please bring them to me, so the next eye glass trip will have enough for them to use.

DRYA 2012 Winter Wednesday Seminar Series Overviews - - Mickey Bennett

Seminars start at 7PM.  Go to www.drya.org for more information, updates, and potential winter weather changes. Unless otherwise noted, these seminars are free of charge to ASI sailors!

No Seminar Wednesday Feb 22, 2012   Winter Break!

Seminars (8-12) resume Wednesday February 29, 2012.

Seminar #8 Feb 29 LOCAL WEATHER FOR LIBERAL ARTS MAJORS

Pat Healy will build on his presentation last year, “Weather for Poets” a non-technical explanation of why there is weather and why weather patterns look the way they do, with another non-technical explanation of why local weather does what it does. This year’s focus will discuss thunderstorms, lightning, lake breezes and review some of the best local weather sources.

Pat has served as head dinghy team coach at the Naval Academy. He was the Canadian National Sailing Coach leading the Canadians to five Olympic medals and twenty-two Pan American medals. In 1995 he ran the Louis Vuitton Cup for the America’s Cup competition. He has been the marketing director for the Commanders’ Weather Corporation, a private weather forecasting company supporting boats worldwide. Pat graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in Meteorology. Join us on February 29, 2012, 7:00 PM at the Great Lakes Yacht Club. 23900 Jefferson, St. Clair Shores

Seminar #9 Mar 7 A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO REWIRING YOUR SAILBOAT

Com. Skip Gmeiner and sons Ron and Stephen will build on last year's popular presentation on wiring in a sailboat. This presentation will quickly review last year's topics (new battery-saving LED navigation lights; changes in ABYC wiring requirements; and new ways to charge auxiliary batteries). From there they will provide practical information for the do-it-yourselfer; how to effectively re-wire with modern innovations; dealing with 110 VAC and 12 VDC systems, and grounding. The Gmeiners are well versed in this topic area as their commercial venture, SPEMCO, is a large distributor of nautical switches, indicator lights, circuit breakers and many other electromechanical items. Join us March 7th at 7 PM at North Star Sail Club, 32041 South River Road, Harrison Twp.

Seminar #10 Mar 14 SAIL MAKING FROM START TO FINISH

Sailmaking from start to finish will be an exciting and informative evening as Al Declercq and his team of sailmakers at Doyle, Detroit, will host us at their Harrison Township loft and take the group through the entire process from designing the sail to cutting it and then through every assembly step.

Gluing the panels

Laminating the seams

Applying the corner reinforcements

Applying the load path fibers

Applying the Dacron corner reinforcements

Applying the edge tapes

Installing corner rings and finishing details

Measuring the completed sail.

They will have 10 sails partially completed so that they can be working on actual sails at each stage of production. Please join us from 7-9 p.m.at Doyle, Detroit, 24227 Sorrentino Court , Clinton Twp, MI 48035-3237 (586) 790-7500

Seminar #11 Mar 21 UNDERSTANDING AND IMPROVING YACHT RESISTANCE … AND WINNING MORE RACES

The focus of this presentation is to describe how hydrodynamic drag influences sailing-yacht performance. The hydrodynamic drag is conventionally broken into several components including wave, frictional, and induced drag. During the talk an overview of each of the components of resistance will be given with an emphasis on the relative importance of each component in different sailing conditions. This presentation will be by members of the University of Michigan's Naval Architecture Department including Professors Steven Ceccio, Robert Beck, Kevin Maki, and Armin Troesch. Among the faculty are several who are also seasoned sailboat racers as well as designers. Please join us March 21st at 7 PM at Ford Y. C., 29500 Southpointe Road, Grosse Ile.

Seminar #12 Mar 28 MODERN SAFETY AND SEARCH AND RESCUE TECHNIQUES AND RELATED ELECTRONICS

Coast Guard Lieutenant Justin Westmiller will speak on modern safety and search and rescue techniques including a review of how AIS impacts our safety on the water. He will address what to do when the helicopter is overhead and how to get the helicopter to come including transmitting calls for help using EPIRB and DSC.

Tim Metcalf will discuss Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and the familiar red “Distress” button. In order to take full advantage of this technology, boaters must ensure that their identity and location are available in the event of an emergency.

The discussion will led by Tim Metcalf, a USCG ¬licensed captain, experienced offshore sailor and racer, and the owner of a small business that sells, integrates and installs marine navigation electronics. Tim Metcalf is the Rear Commodore of the Double Handed Sailing Association. He has accumulated almost 13,000 offshore sailing miles.

Please join us March 28th at Port Huron Y. C., 212 Quay St., Port Huron

New L1 skippers: get into racing next season - - Michael Golden

Racing is a fun way for new or experienced skippers to refine their sailing skills. One learns sailing by doing it; having another boat sailing nearby at your performance level is a great teacher. You don’t have to get competitive about racing to gain confidence in your ability on the helm.

New racers must attend the basic seminar in April and a practice, to skipper in the early races, when you are ready. There is no racing fee for newly rated Level 1 members from this last season. To sign up, reply with your name, rating, and years of sailing/racing experience to Michael Golden 248-549-3030.

A few more things...       

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

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Please send your Burgee input to asidon@comcast.net for inclusion in the next  Burgee, whenever that might be. But send pictures as attachments, please!