The Deep River Park and Recreation Commission is offering a one-day combined course for the state safe boating certificate every Saturday through November.

State law requires the operator of any registered boat or personal watercraft to carry a safe boating certificate. The course is approved by the state Department of Environment Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The eight-hour, one-day class will be taught at the Deep River Library from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday from April through November. The cost of the one day class is $100 for Deep River residents, $110 for non-residents, which includes all materials. The combined certification card is good for life and recognized by every state in the U.S. To register, Kathleen McCleary, 860-767-1558.
www.courant.com/news

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, Florida has the unhappy distinction of again leading the nation in boating deaths.  Over last year accidental boating deaths in Florida increased by 10% in  in 2007.  Florida has now lead the nation in boating related fatalities 16 out of the last 20 years.  Nationally there are over 8,000 boating accidents each year with around 800 deaths per year nationally caused by boating accidents.  

There are many things that can be done to make boating safer.  First and foremost of course is limit the alcohol consumption.  Additionally a boater safety course should be taken by every boat operator.  Just because you do not need a boating license to operate a boat does not mean you should not get proper instruction in the rules of the waterways and is safe boating.  A good source of information on boating safety can be found at MYFWC.com, which has a section devoted to boating safety in Florida.

www.orlando.inhuryboard.com

In “An Undeserving Charity Case” (April 27), Chris Harvie writes, “From the outside the building looked like a Welsh Yacht Club”.

As Wales has quite a number of yacht clubs, could he be more specific, or is he just generalising and saying that all Welsh yacht clubs look the same and, if so, how?

Speaking from my experience I can say that they don’t look all the same, so I must conclude he is having a “dig” at the Welsh in a pathetic attempt to be controversial and liven up his somewhat boring article.

If he were to make similar generalisations with the black South African population he could be looking for another job, as recent events have shown. — J Jenkins, Cullinan

This job has baggageThe public and media need to maintain pressure on Acsa against the unacceptable “service” rendered at our airports. The British television series Back to the Floor was an eye-opener on how service can be greatly enhanced in poorly performing companies.

Chief executives had to spend a few weeks at floor level interacting with their clientele.

When they returned to their offices, invariably massive improvements were put in place after experiencing what customers were subjected to.

Perhaps Acsa CEO Monhla Hlahla should be required to spend six months as a baggage handler and do a stint at a customer service desk interacting with irate travellers.

We might just then see a glimmer of improvement going forward. — James Dartnell, Dowerglen

www.thetimes.com

By Jennifer Jackson 

PORT TOWNSEND — How do you declare that boating season is officially open?

You invite everyone in town who has access to a boat to join you on the water.

On Saturday, the Port Townsend Yacht Club invited the public not only to watch the opening day parade along the downtown waterfront, but also to participate in it.

Co-sponsored by the Northwest Maritime Center, the event drew everything from big yachts and sailboats to small rowboats.

“We wanted all boating enthusiasts to feel comfortable joining in this informal celebration of the boating season,” said Fred Bell, who, as the club’s fleet commander, organized the parade.

“We made a definite effort to expand this into a community event.”

Founded in 1947, the Port Townsend Yacht Club annually celebrates the opening day of boating season a week after the Seattle Yacht Club’s observance, Bell said.

The parade has been a tradition since the mid-1950s, but several years ago, members decided to widen participation.

This year, they invited the Coast Guard to participate.

The cutter Osprey, with 15 guests aboard, led the parade, which got off to a slightly late start because the ferry was delayed.

But once the ferry left the dock and was on its way, boats started lining up near the entry to the Port Townsend Boat Haven and followed the cutter along the waterfront.

Reaching the Northwest Martime Center dock, each boat or group of boats passed in review in front of Port Townsend Yacht Club Commodore Dave Weeding, exchanging a salute, a wave or other acknowledgment.

‘Hip hip hooray’
“Commodore, commodore, hip, hip, hooray!” shouted the crew aboard the Shoshanna, a powerboat owned by Sue and Carl Sidle, as they passed the dock.

The Coast Guard cutter was followed by members of the Rat Island Rowing and Sculling Club and the Tough as Nails women’s crew, which performed a “wave” by lying back in their seats.

The Sea Scouts and the Quimper Tars rowed longboats, while members of the Port Townsend High School Sailing Team were out in 15-foot Vanguards.

Larger sailboats included the Pleiades and Mycia, a 73-foot gaff-rigged schooner built in Port Townsend by the Maher family.

The Port Hadlock Yacht Club, the Point Wilson Power and Sail Squadron and the local Coast Guard Auxiliary also participated in the parade.

“This is truly ‘beautiful boating,’” said Stan Cummings, executive director of the Northwest Maritime Center, referring to the opening day theme.

Rob Sanderson, the Northwest Maritime Center’s waterfront programs manager, served as master of ceremonies from the center’s dock.

Father John Topel of St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Catholic Church offered a blessing of the boats and boaters, calling for safe voyages and reverence for the earth and sea.

Then Weeding officially announced that boating season was open, signaling to Vice-Commodore Harry Dudley, who shot off the cannon mounted on the bow of the boat that he and Zoe Ann Dudley, past commodore, own.

Before the parade began, Stan and Sigrid Cummings grilled hot dogs on the dock for spectators.

Earlier, about 100 yacht club members and guests attended an opening-day breakfast at the clubhouse in the Boat Haven.

Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Sterling, from Naval Magazine Indian Island, was one of the guests at the yacht club breakfast.

The ceremony opened with a flag ceremony conducted by members of the Sea Scout Ship Falcon.

At the breakfast, Weeding introduced guests, including Tim Caldwell, director of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce, and past commodores.

The yacht club also printed its first opening day poster, “Beautiful Boating,” which features a photograph by Mitchell Osborne.

Limited-edition prints of the poster are available from Osborne, with part of the $85 price going to the Port Townsend Yacht Club’s scholarship fund. For more information, go to www.mitchellosborne.com.

Posters are available for $5 from the Port Townsend Yacht Club. The money also benefits the fund, which has awarded $27,000 in scholarships since it was founded in 1991.

The yacht club also promotes boating by supporting the Sea Scouts, the Northwest Maritime Center, and two schooners used for youth sailing, Martha, and Adventuress.

www.peninsuladailynews.com

By  Ken Medlin

Logan Aldridge is a high school junior. He’s also a lacrosse player, an entrepreneur, a competitive wakeboarder and snowboarder, a motivational speaker and a budding author.

That alone makes this one very unique 16-year-old.

But, what really separates Logan Aldridge from the rest of the pack is that he has accomplished all of these things only three years after losing his left arm in a boating accident. Aldridge was 13 years old and at a lake with his family when his arm got caught while he was coiling a rope.

Since then, Aldridge has found that sharing his story serves as an inspiration to others.

Tonight on WRAL’s 6pm news we’ll share that story — the tale of a resilient teenager who not only has conquered the odds, but is now thriving after a life-changing accident.

www.wral.com

By Patricia Hurtado

Yachting’s America’s Cup should proceed between Larry Ellison’s BMW-Oracle and defending champion Alinghi within 10 months, a New York state judge said.

The regatta should begin by March 12 off the coast of Valencia, Spain, or at another location chosen by Alinghi, so long as the challenger receives six months’ notice of the venue, said New York Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn in Manhattan.

Holding the competition in Valencia in March would violate competition rules, which state that the races can’t be staged in the northern hemisphere before May because of safety and weather concerns, said Lucien Masmejan, an attorney for Alinghi. There will therefore probably be another appeal, he said.

BMW-Oracle wanted to hold the competition in October, which Alinghi said wouldn’t give sufficient time to prepare.

The case began last year when BMW-Oracle claimed Alinghi didn’t have the sole right as the regatta’s 32nd winner to set competition terms.

Alinghi, which in July beat Team New Zealand to retain the trophy first awarded in 1851, is owned by billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and sails under the Societe Nautique de Geneve yacht club. Ellison is the billionaire chief executive of Redwood City, California-based Oracle Corp., the world’s third-biggest software maker.

Not Frivolous:

In his decision, Cahn said the litigation “interrupted” the 10-month notice period set out in the rules.

“Because I do not deem this litigation, nor any of the motions, to have been frivolous, the appropriate date for the commencement of the 10-month period should be no earlier than the disposition of the last motion made,” Cahn said.

The judge also said that Alinghi and BMW-Oracle, based at the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco, can “make any arrangement satisfactory to both as to the dates, courses, number of trials, rules and sailing regulations.”

BMW-Oracle’s claim of breach of fiduciary duty against Alinghi should be dismissed, Cahn also said.

“We’re pleased that the court has advanced the process and required the defender to confirm the venue,” Golden Gate Yacht Club spokesman Tom Ehman said in a statement. “We will now be considering the order to determine our next steps.”

Further Appeal:

Alinghi is likely to extend the scope of a previous appeal — because of the conflict between the judge’s order and race rules — to argue that the regatta should be held after May 1, Masmejan said.

“It’s unlikely that it is the intention of Justice Cahn to force us to race in the southern hemisphere,” Masmejan said in a telephone interview. “I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to resolve that, in the sense that we’ll have our full, open choice” of venue.

Cahn sided with Ellison’s team in November, naming it the challenger over Club Nautico Espanol de Vela of Spain. Alinghi’s appeal of that decision is pending before a state appeals court in Manhattan.

As the challenger, BMW-Oracle can choose the type of boat the teams will use. It has said it will opt for large-scale, double-hulled yachts, which may hurt Alinghi’s ability to defend the title in March.

“It’s still a month-and-a-half too early,” Masmejan said.”It’s certainly easier to race in March than race in October.”

www.bloomerang.com

The ice is gone and the warm weather has arrived, which means summer is coming. And to get ready for the boating season there are a few preparations Marine Patrol is making to do just that.

“We do a bunch of different things,” said Sgt. Crystal McLain, at the Marine Patrol facility in Glendale.

The preparations begin with training the new recruits. This year there are 20 new officers coming into the Marine Patrol ranks, all of who are currently conducting on-the-water training.

The training entails everything from learning to dock a boat and other procedures to water rescues and boat stops. The idea is to prepare these recruits for anything and everything that can happen on the water.

McLain said by the time they are done with their training, all will be ready to hit the open water from Lake Winnipesaukee to the Seacoast.

The big push the department is undertaking across the state is the testing and inspection of commercial boats and those that operate them. Commercial boats cover a wide range of marine activities, which include marine construction, boat and fishing guides, and of course the commercial fishing.

McLain explained that this year the checks have taken on a slightly new approach. Because of the number of vessels across the state that need to undergo inspection and testing, the Marine Patrol is having operators bring their vessels to testing locations set up around the state instead of sending an officer out to them.

Here on Winnipesaukee the number of commercial operators is more than one might think.

“You never think about it until the numbers start coming in,” said McLain.

The other major preparation that differs from last year is the enactmentl of a boat speed limit this summer. McLain said the department is taking steps in order to be prepared.

While Motorcycle Week may act as the official start of the boating season, McLain said “there are quite a few boats out there.” The numbers of boats, whether they are fishermen, islanders, or construction companies, are pretty typical year to year though require a few patrols out on the Big Lake.

And for those recreational boaters venturing onto the recently thawed waters, safety on the big lake is key.

“Where there are not a lot of boats on the water, planning is essential,” said McLain.

First and foremost life jackets are a must, particularly with such a chilling water temperature, McLain explained. Other things, like checking the weather forecast, mapping out the trip, having an anchor, and bringing along a radio or cell phone are safety precautions recommended by Marine Patrol.

Marine Patrol officers will continue to prepare making sure markers are in the right places and everything is set of the season ahead.

www.citizen.com

The launch in January this year of the World Yacht Racing Forum has received an extraordinarily positive reaction from almost every sector of the Yacht Racing industry world-wide in a clear demonstration that Yacht Racing deserves its own forum to debate the issues affecting the business of the sport.

The Forum is modelled closely on the successful Motorsports Business Forum (www.motorsportbusinessforum.com), now in its fourth year, and the two events will co-locate and share the Grimaldi Forum facilities in Monaco in December.

The World Yacht Racing Forum is organised by the Informa Yacht Group,a part of Informa Plc (www.informa.com) who also own the Monaco Yacht Show.

www.marinebusiness.com

A young girl has been badly injured after the rubber ring she was riding in collided with a yacht.

She was being towed at high speed behind a motorboat in the Orwell Estuary in Suffolk when the accident happened, and suffered a broken leg, a fractured skull and brain injuries.

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: “It’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle about what happened. “We had a report that the yacht was struck and the vessel with the ring went on further down river.”

Police are asking for anyone who might have seen the incident to come forward.

www.yachtingmonthly.com

A SCHOOLGIRL is fighting for her life following a horrific river accident.

The 14-year-old, from Langdon Hills, suffered severe injuries after she collided with a yacht while being towed on a rubber ring behind a speedboat during a family day out in Suffolk.

The girl, whose name has not been released, suffered a fractured skull, severe head injuries and a broken leg in the smash, on the River Orwell, near Levington Marina.

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At the time, the area was packed with day-trippers and families enjoying the sunny weather.

She was taken to Ipswich Hospital and later transferred to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, where she remains in a critical condition.

At present, details of the incident remain sketchy. Anne-Marie Breach, spokeswoman for Suffolk Police, said: “We are still trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

“We would like to hear from anyone who may have seen the incident, at about 3.30pm on Sunday, to get in touch.”

It is believed the teenager had been on a day trip to the harbour with her parents, who are now said to be keeping a vigil at her hospital bedside.

Jonathan Dyke, managing director of Suffolk Yacht Harbour, the firm which runs Levington Marina, said: “The girl was brought here by boat and the air ambulance landed here, though in the end the transfer was done by land.”

Witness Damian Woodings, 60, from Lincoln, said: “The paramedics had to cut the wet suit off her, as far as I could see. It was very busy out on the water. There was no room to manoeuvre.”

John Day, 65, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, added: “I saw the helicopter land and the girl being carried on a stretcher. It looked like she was with her family.”

www.echo-news.com