United States Power Squadrons®

Ventura Sail and Power Squadron

Volume 63 September 2019 Number 7

Cdr Vincent Gerretz, JN

Commander’s Corner

By Lt. Sheri Green, JN Helm Editor

With the absence of our Commander (we re-

tired people forget that sometimes our plans

are changed by a four-letter word: Work) I will

try to tell you as much as I know about what’s

going on.

Ventura Sail and Power Squadron was dark

July and August. There were no meetings so

there were no minutes or reports. The sched-

ule of events hasn’t been finalized. Labor Day

interferes with our Exe Com meeting, the Sep-

tember picnic at VYC hasn’t been scheduled.

Hopefully you all used this time to relax and

actually use your boats. Most of this newslet-

ter showcases our wonderful cruise to Santa

Barbara June 14-16. We had a huge turnout.

Early California Maritime History:

Captain Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed

his Spanish galleon San Salvadore into

the uncharted waters of the California

Coast in1542.

By Don Mills, VYC Club Historian

A faithful replica of the San Salvadore

sails into Channel Islands Harbor on

August 28, 2019 to begin an eleven-day

stay during which there will dockside

tours, dockside exhibits explaining the

San Salvadore’s mission and day sails

for the visiting public. The three-mast,

150 ton ship, was built by the Maritime

Museum of San Diego and 500 volun-

teer craftsmen, at a cost exceeding six

million dollars. Headquarters and hosts

for the for the visit will be Channel Is-

lands Maritime Museum located on the

west side of CI Harbor at 3900 Bluefin

Circle via Harbor Blvd.

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Lt/C Debbie Braun-Lawson

Squadron Education Officer

SHIP’S STORE

Did you know we even have a Ship’s

Store? Well, we do. We have several

items for sale with the Ventura Sail and

Power Squadron logo. First there are

Burgees for $30. Second there is a Hat

for $15. I only have one at that price. I do

not know what the price will be when we

reorder. Next there are Navy Blue Polo

shirts in women’s sizes for $24 and men’s

sizes with a pocket for $28. Available for

women is a ¾ sleeve Light Blue Polo that

goes for $33. All of this is available NOW

by giving Debbie Braun-Lawson a jingle at

805-407-4777 or by email at

debbiebraunlawson@gmail.com. Come

on and get stylin’ with your VSPS gear!

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Jay Dupuy 1-Aug

David Merrick 4-Aug

Arvid A. Rauch 5-Aug

Gregory Lynn Shank 7-Aug

Eloy Molina 11-Aug

Lisa C. Gosselin 14-Aug

Kevin J. Mallon 15-Aug

William Allan York 17-Aug

Kerry Leiman 18-Aug

Richard C. Jones 21-Aug

Owen S. Peterson 22-Aug

David Andrew Brown 23-Aug

Brooke Gardner 23-Aug

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Julie Marie Winn 2-Sep

Mark Michaels 5-Sep

Phyllis A. Stender 5-Sep

James E. Baldwin 6-Sep

Lawrence M. Brown 14-Sep

Robert S. Barker 15-Sep

Carolyn Cahn 20-Sep

Susan Buchanan 22-Sep

Socorro Cule 23-Sep

Christopher J. Torbet 24-Sep

Gary M. Bright 24-Sep

Judith A. Anderson 25-Sep

Karen Murray 25-Sep

Kenneth L. Walton 25-Sep

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DATES: MEETS TUESDAYS FROM SEPTEMBER 10 TO NOVEMBER 5

TIME: 7-9 p.m.

LOCATION: VENTURA YACHT CLUB (UPSTAIRS)

1755 SPINNAKER DRIVE, VENTURA

COST OF MATERIALS: $55.00

Topics include: Safety Equipment, Navigation Rules, Navigation aids, Light

and Sound Signals, Current Regulations (Local, State, Federal), Water

Sports Safety, Trailering, Anchoring, Seamanship Information, Safe Boat-

ing Practices and Much More. Each topic will be presented by instructors

with experience on boats and in local waters.

This class is for the beginning boater, first mates, and anyone who helps crew

on a boat. It is also a good refresher course for boaters reentering the boating

world. This is an interactive class, so be ready to ask questions and meet other

boaters from this local area.

Interested in taking this class? Just come the first night and bring a check

made out to VSPS or cash for the materials. To reserve a place in the class or

if you have any questions... Call Debbie Braun-Lawson at 805-407-4777

IF YOU NEED YOUR

CALIFORNIA BOATERS CARD

THIS CLASS WILL GET IT FOR YOU.

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PPPRRREEESSSEEENNNTTTSSS

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DATES: MONDAYS FROM SEPTEMBER 9 TO NOVEMBER 4

TIME: 7-9 p.m.

LOCATION: VENTURA YACHT CLUB (UPSTAIRS)

1755 SPINNAKER DRIVE, VENTURA

COST OF MATERIALS: $55.00 MEMBERS OR $75.00 NONMEMBERS

This class includes: How to make weather observations and predictions for

more enjoyable boating. Topics include awareness of weather phenomena,

how to read the weather map and sky, how to understand and anticipate

weather developments, structure and characteristics of the atmosphere, fac-

tors considered in weather forecasting, source and use of weather reports

and forecasts, weather instruments, and visual observations the skipper can

make.

To reserve a place in the class or if you have any questions...

Call Debbie Braun-Lawson at 805-407-4777

Lt/C Dan Coverdale

Executive Officer

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about

the electrified Chris Craft Sportsman. The

boat is mostly finished and in the water, in

Ventura Harbor where you may see it

from time to time. After we’ve enjoyed us-

ing it during the sweltering Ventura

Summer, back in the yard it will go for

some additional restoration and a few

modifications.

One of those modifications will be a new

rudder. The old rudder is small, for safe

handling at planing speed. At harbor op-

erating speeds, you really have to think

ahead. Also, those lake-appropriate cleats

are going to get replaced with cleats large

enough for a decent line – fortunately,

Perko still makes hardware in that style.

The little boat isn’t thrilling, but it is very

cool. Let me know if you would like to go

on a harbor cruise sometime.

Rose Marie

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Lecture on Santa Barbara Cruise

Lt/C Chris Stine

Secretary

Ventura Sail and Power Squadron

Executive Committee Meeting

Ventura, CA

06 May 2019

Preliminary Minutes

Called to order at 1907 (7:07 pm).

Attendees:

1. Executive Officer Lt/C Dan

Coverdale

2. Admin Officer Lt/C _____ (posi-

tion vacant)

3. Secretary Lt/C Chris Stine, S

4. SEO Lt/C Debbie Braun-Lawson

5. Treasurer Lt/C Dan Cahn

6. Darryl O’Connell, Member-at-

Large

7. Fred Delameter, Member-at-

Large

8. Bob Stine, Parliamentarian

9. P/C Robyn Miller

10. Judy Coverdale, Member-guest

Pledge of Allegiance was led by SEO

L/C Debbie Braun-Lawson.

A quorum was present as deter-

mined by Lt/C Dan Coverdale.

Approval of the minutes from the

preceding meeting

There being no corrections to the

minutes for the 01 April 2019, the

minutes were moved, seconded and

approved.

Reports of Officers:

SEO Lt/C Debbie Braun-Lawson

The Seamanship class has started

and four people are in the class.

Radar class starts tomorrow and

ten people are signed up for the

class.

Lt/C Braun-Lawson has two invoices

to submit to the Treasurer.

Admin Officer Lt/C____ (Position va-

cant -- Cdr Vince Gerretz (acting))

No report.

Treasurer Lt/C Dan Cahn

This is a one month report, as VSPS

has just started a new fiscal year.

Lt/C Cahn’s access to the DB800 Na-

tional database system has been on

and off (difficult). Cdr Vince Gerretz

had requested a budget for this

year, and Lt/C Cahn plans to get to-

gether with Gary Wolfe for planning

strategies for the development of a

2019 budget. Our bank balance has

been stable for the last couple of

months: Last month there was a

loss of funds, but income will be

coming in soon for the Radar class

and the refund for some unused

textbooks that were sent back to

National.

Secretary Lt/C Chris Stine

No specific report, except to request

a vote on the minutes for 01 April

2019 minutes, which were approved.

Executive Officer Lt/C Dan Cover-

dale

The Boating Expo is next weekend

(Saturday) and opens at 8 am. Dave

Desbaillets will provide a truck to

transport the VSPS booth equip-

ment to the Expo site. We have

enough volunteers for the booth.

The Sea Scouts will be escorting at-

tendees of the Boating Expo across

the street this year from the park-

ing lot to the Expo. VSPS provided a

hand held stop sign for them to use.

P/C Steve Johnston will do the PDF

“Fashion Show” and possibly Cdr

Vince Gerretz will too. Lt/C Braun-

Lawson will prepare a notebook for

people who might want more VSPS

info or to sign up for VSPS classes in

the Fall.

Commander Vince Gerretz

Absent – no report.

Ongoing Business/Activities/Classes

None

Completed Busness/Activities/

Classes

None

Future Business/Activities/Classes

Lt/C Coverdale brought up the topic

of the Commander’s Cup Picnic,

which is in two weeks on May 18.

Bill York is coordinating the event.

There are two action items for this

event:

ACTION: Lt/C Chris Stine will send

out two more publicity email blasts

before the event.

ACTION: Lt/C Dan Coverdale will

check with Bill York about:

Event coordination for the pic-

nic

Determining how the Com-

mander’s Cup decision occurs

Collection of the funds (who

does that?)

Coordinating games like the

Bean Bag event (check with

Lorna Londborg)

Lt/C Cahn discussed the Santa Bar-

bara cruise which is being coordi-

nated by Ev Ashworth and himself.

Ev needs to ask Jan Lawson to help

contact the Coast Guard. Also, it

may be possible that Mariposa will

be able to come on the Santa Bar-

bara cruise again this year. Dan

needs the Blue Cards to be returned

to him as soon as possible. He will

email the updated FLYER to Chris

Stine for email distribution. Plan-

ning continues for this event and fi-

nal detail should fall into place soon.

Lt/C Coverdale brought up the topic

of a PFD training class in a swim-

ming pool. This idea came from an

article in one of National’s maga-

zines and seems like a good idea for

“hands-on” training this would be

one way to facilitate a piece of “on

the water” training.

It was moved/seconded/approved to

adjourn the meeting.

Adjourned at 1946 (7:46 pm).

Ventura Sail and Power Squadron

Executive Committee Meeting

Ventura, CA

03 June 2019

Preliminary Minutes

Called to order at 1904 (7:04 pm).

Attendees:

1. Executive Officer Lt/C Dan Cov-

erdale

2. Adm Officer Lt/C (vacant)

3. Secretary Lt/C Chris Stine, S

4. SEO Lt/C Debbie Braun-Lawson

5. Treasurer Lt/C Dan Cahn

6. Darryl O’Connell, Member-at-

Large

7. Howard Wang, Member guest

8. Judy Wang, Member guest

9. Bob Stine, Parliamentarian

Pledge of Allegiance was led by SEO

L/C Debbie Braun-Lawson.

A quorum was present as deter-

mined by Lt/C Dan Coverdale.

Approval of the minutes from the

preceding meeting

Not accomplished as explained by

the Secretary. See Secretary’s Re-

port.

Reports of Officers:

SEO Lt/C Debbie Braun-Lawson

The spring classes are currently be-

ing taught: Seamanship class is on

Monday nights; Advanced Piloting

class is Tuesday nights. A class that

hasn’t been taught for quite some

time - Radar for Boaters - is also in

progress with 10 or 11 people en-

rolled.

The fall line-up of classes is being

planned. So far a Weather class will

start on Monday, Sept. 9 and the

ABC class is scheduled to start on

Tuesday, Sept. 10.

Admin Officer Lt/C____(Position va-

cant -- Cdr Vince Gerretz (act-

ing))________

Lt/C Dan Cahn provided Information

about the upcoming Santa Barbara

cruise on June 14-16:

29 or 30 people are signed up

to attend

Ten boats are signed up

There will be a speaker from

the Marine Sanctuary

There will be a tour of the

USCG Blackfin at 9:30

There will not be a breakfast

scheduled for Sunday morning.

Final details/decisions will be

fine-tuned after June 10 when

Ev Ashworth is available.

Treasurer Lt/C Dan Cahn

The expenses for the Commander’s

Picnic in May show that VSPS took in

$285.00 from attendees; picnic re-

lated supplies cost $85.00; and Pen-

insula Park reservation fee was

$300.00, resulting in a net loss of

$100.00. The park reservation fee

amount is believed to be related to

renting the docks for the boats.

VSPS received a few new member-

ships this month. Also, National

hasn’t invoiced VSPS this May for

the Radar class.

The balance in the VSPS account is

$17,155.00.

Secretary Lt/C Chris Stine

The Secretary regretfully reported

that she was unable to complete the

preparation of the May minutes for

Executive Board review prior to the

June meeting, but will work diligently

to complete it as soon as possible

for review and approval.

Discussion followed about develop-

ing a process that showed respect

for the review/approval process of

the Executive Board minutes, but

that could shorten up the process to

a 30 day cycle.

One idea suggested was to

convene an “monthly electron-

ic meeting” of the board mem-

bers solely for the purpose of

receiving/reviewing/providing

corrections of the meeting

back to the secretary. After

the corrections were updated,

the revised minutes would be

sent to the Executive Board a

second time for re-

view/approval/disapproval.

This cycle would be accom-

plished within a 30 day period

vs the present 60 day cycle. It

was agreed to table this topic

for active consideration until

the next board meeting.

Exe Officer Lt/C Dan Coverdale

Lt/C Coverdale brought up the topic

of our social events and our current

method of planning and executing

the events. We realize that putting

together events such as this require

teamwork and help is needed from

both the Executive Board and the

general membership. Lt/C Coverdale

complimented Bill York and those

that helped him for their excellent

job of arranging to the many details

related to planning a picnic such as

ours.

Commander Vince Gerretz

Absent – no report.

Ongoing Business/Activities/Classes

None

Completed Busi-

ness/Activities/Classes

None

Future Business/Activities/Classes

Howard Wang made the observa-

tion about the small size of the cur-

rent ABC class and wondered how

we can get the membership to help

us spread the word about the Ven-

tura Sail and Power Squadron and

our mission to educate the boating

community.

Discussion ensued about how the

VSPS publicizes upcoming classes

and the various venues our Educa-

tion Officer uses to get the word

out.

There was discussion about how we

can better utilize National’s data-

base to extract information with re-

gard to our membership status.

While all agreed that P/C Ev Ash-

worth (Membership) does a terrific

job making contact and providing

necessary paperwork to prospective

new members, it was suggested

that additional analysis of the

month-to-month changes to our

membership would be useful, and a

monthly report provided to the Ex-

ecutive Board. The additional infor-

mation would enable the Executive

Board to understand and make

needed changes to enhance the

VSPS experience.

Accordingly, an action item evolved

from the discussion:

ACTION (Cdr Vince Gerretz,

Lt/C Dan Cahn and Lt/C Dan

Coverdale): Learn how we

(VSPS) query the National

membership database for

membership information.

Adjourned at 1958 (7:58 pm).

2019 Bridge

Commander

Cdr Vincent Gerretz, JN

(917)716-3128

Commander.venturausps@gmail.com

Executive Officer

Lt/C Daniel Coverdale

(323) 810-8887

Coverdale47@msn.com

Administrative Officer

Vacant

SEO

Lt/C Deborah Braun-Lawson, AP

(805) 407-4777

debbiebraunlawson@gmail.com

Treasurer

Lt/C Dan Cahn, JN

(805) 482-9420

dccahn@roadrunner.com

Secretary

Lt/C Christine Stine, S

(805) 498-4018

chrisstine@verizon.net

The Helm Editor

Lt. Sheridan Green, JN

(661) 414-6915

sheridan713@gmail.com

Contacts for Local Mariners

24-Hour Emergency Telephone Numbers

US Coast Guard Search & Rescue(805)985-9822

Channel Islands Harbor Patrol (805)382-3000

Ventura Harbor Patrol. (805)642-8618

Port Hueneme…………………… (805)982-4571

Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol (805)564-5530

Harbormasters – Administrative

Channel Islands (805)382-6864

Channel Islands Harbor Patrol (805)382-3007

Ventura Port District (805)642-8538

Port Hueneme Public Affairs (805)982-4493

Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol (805)564-5520

National Weather Service

Oxnard .............................. (805)988-6610

Web site: http://www.nwsla.noaa.gov

Ventura Sail & Power Squadron

Lt. Sheridan Green, JN, Editor

1755 Spinnaker Drive

Ventura, CA 93001

Address Correction Requested

September 2019