BOATBOAT BASINBASIN - Atlantic Maritime Academy · BOATBOAT BASINBASIN Official Publication U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Division 24, First District SR ... decreased less than one percent

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BASINBASINBASINBASIN Official Publication

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary

Division 24, First District SR

June 2012 Vol. 1, Issue 6

SECTOR OPEN HOUSESECTOR OPEN HOUSESECTOR OPEN HOUSESECTOR OPEN HOUSE

The vessels at the waterfront attracted a crowd. — photo by Barbara Benjamin

2

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION

OF DIVISION 24

FIRST DISTRICT (SR)

2012 ELECTED OFFICERS

DCDR Kimberly Filion DVCDR Mark A. Bennett

FC 24-1 Kevin Morann VFC 24-1 Ralph Vuolo

FC 24-2 Donna Bisson VFC 24-2 Russell Palucci

FC 24-3 Michael Gabriel VFC 24-3 Nicholas Sidorick

FC 24-4 Chris Duhaime VFC 24-4 Guy Atwood

FC 24-8 John Ouellette VFC 24-8 David Aresco

FC 24-11 Charles Phippen VFC 24-11 Robert Barba

FC 24-12 Robert Bowolick VFC 24-12 Karl Sieling

EDITOR Virginia Daniels 10 College Street Clinton, CT 06413

Phone 860-552-4369

E-mail [email protected] or

[email protected]

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN

THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO THE

PROVISIONS OF THE FEDERAL PRIVACY

ACT OF 1974 AND MAY BE USED ONLY

FOR OFFICIAL BUSINESS OF THE

COAST GUARD OR COAST GUARD

AUXILIARY.

DATES TO REMEMBER

Saturday, 2 June — District Meeting Friday, 22 June & Saturday, 23 June — District SAR competition Friday, 6 July to Monday 9 July — Tall Ships/ OPSail, New London Wednesday, 11 July — Division 24 meeting; change of date is due to the first Wednesday being Independence Day Tuesday, 17 July — Plum Island Trip Saturday, 28 July & Sunday, 29 July — ASAR Saturday, 8 September — District Meeting Friday, 30 November to Sunday 2 December — District Leadership Conference OPSail, New London — Volunteers are needed for security and as drivers Plum Island Trip — 0700 to 1530 and will leave from Old Saybrook. There are strict procedures that must be followed. For more information, contact Ellen Deutsch. Town Hall Meeting — It will be held at CG Sector LIS with COMO Hal Marschall District Commodore and Vincent Pica Chief of Staff; date to be announced.

For dates of Public Education Courses and other events, see the calendar on the last page of this publication.

FLAG DAY FLY IT PROUDLY

General Washington, when the Star-Spangled Banner was first flown by the Continental Army is said

to have described its symbolism as follows: “We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, .separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.”

NEWS FLASH Bob Gesullo Immedi-

ate Past District Captain has been appointed to the position of District Directorate-Logistics.

3

HERBERT P. FARRELL, JR., IN MEMORIAM

Herb Farrell passed away on Monday, 21 May after being hospitalized for several months. He joined the Auxiliary on 30 November 1971 and was a member of FL 24-12 in Oxford. Over the years, in addition to being a past Flotilla Com-mander, Herb held many staff positions at the flotilla level. Most recently he was both Flotilla and Division Program Visits Officer. Herb was born in Waterbury, CT, and raised in Thomaston. He attended schools in Thomaston. He served honorably in the US Air Force from September 1962 until October 1966. He is survived by four brothers, two sisters and many nieces and nephews. He was buried with full military honors in Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown.

Herb Farrell, a soft-spoken, unpretentious man has crossed the bar. A member of the Auxiliary for 40 years, he was con-stantly improving his skills and advancing his training until he was hospitalized. I had the pleasure of deliver-ing an AUXOP certificate and pin to Herb a month ago. Herb spent many hours as a gate watchstander at

CG Sector Long Island Sound and consistently improved the flotilla hours by a thousand hours annually. He was an ardent supporter of the Auxiliary and was always in attendance at flotilla and division activities. Herb was well read and could talk at length on most subjects. He will missed by his mates in the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary. — submitted by Bob Bowolick FC-12

RUSSELL PALUCCI, VFC 24-2

Russell Palucci became a member of the USCG Auxiliary on 24 April 2009. He is currently Vice Flotilla Commander and Flotilla Marine Safety Officer of FL 24-2, Stratford. His qualifi-cations include Instructor, Vessel Examiner, and Marine Safety Specialist. He is currently working toward becoming Boat Crew Qualified. Russell served in the US Naval Reserve from 1988 to 1996, assigned to NMBC 12 in New Haven, CT as a Construction Electrician 2nd Class. Russell has been a volunteer firefighter with the Noroton Fire Department since 1980 and has held vari-

ous positions within the department, the last as Captain of Trucks. He is a certified Firefighter I. Russell graduated from the University of New Haven in May 2003 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is currently working towards a graduate certificate in Advanced Power Systems at Michigan Technological University. He is lead electrical engineer with CH2M Hill providing engineering services to industrial clients. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in 13 states and an Unlimited Electrical Contractor in the State of Connecticut. Russell lives in Shelton, CT with his wife Donna and their two children. His interests include golf and scuba diving.

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TO THE RESCUE

An On The Water Press Conference & Demonstration

A unique on-the-water press conference and vessel demonstration took place on the Housatonic River on Monday, 21 May. The host of the event was Bill Rock Division Public Affairs Officer and Chair of the Strat-ford Waterfront and Harbor Management Commission. “Boating Safety can be broken down into three categories: prevention, opera-tion and response. All three are represented at this event,” Rock said. Prevention has two components: education and having the proper safety equipment. Get-ting a Vessel Safety Check tells a boat owner what equipment he/she needs. A boat owner needs to practice safe boating habits such as using good judgment, knowing how to handle the boat properly and obeying the Navigation Rules. Response also has two components: emer-gency first response and Search and Rescue. The primary agency that oversees all activities on all the nation’s waterways is the US Coast Guard. There are also local agencies that have facilities to help with response. Those at the demonstration included the Stratford Police and fire marine units, the harbormaster, Bridgeport Marine Police and fire units, the Bridgeport Harbormaster, the Sikorsky Air-craft Rescue Boat, Fairfield Marine Police, Milford Police, a Coast Guard Auxiliary Patrol Boat and the Coast Guard RBM 45 footer. Present were John Harkins Mayor of Stratord, Pat Ridenhour Police Chief of Stratford, Robert McGraph Fire Chief of the Stratford Fire Department, Michael Winiarski Boatswains Mate First Class of CG Station New Haven, Donna Bisson Flotilla Com-mander of Flotilla 24-2 in Stratford and Eliza-beth O’Connor and Gordon Dayton of Chang-ing Tides Paddlecraft. Demonstrations were given in boat han-dling, towing and safe paddlecraft operation.

From top to bottom — Bill Rock, BM1 Winiarski

and Chief McGraph.

— Article submitted by Bill Rock and photos on

this page and the next page by Jamie Rock.

5

TO THE RESCUE

An On The Water Press Conference & Demonstration

Bridgeport Harbormaster Boat Bridgeport Police Boat

Milford Police Boat Sikorsky Rescue Boat

On the

right is

the CG

Auxiliary

Opera-

tional Fa-

cility

313313

from FL

24-2 in

Stratford

demon-

strating a

stern tow

with the

Coast

Guard

RBM-45

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MAY ACTIVITIES The month of May is a busy month for the boating members of the Auxiliary. There are boats to commission for the new season, Na-tional Safe Boating Week (NSBW) activities, Memorial Day activities and the normal day to day activities of the flotillas. So it is with members of F l 24-12 in Oxford. Some mem-bers of the flotilla are members of the Ameri-can Legion, veterans of wars past, members of Lake Zoar Authority as commissioners or boat drivers and hold staff positions in the flotilla. For these folks May is definitely a busy month. The Lake Zoar Authority boats were com-missioned to start safety patrols on Lake Zoar on 19 May, a date that coincides with the be-ginning of NSBW. The flotilla also conducted a boating safety class on the 19th. This was quickly followed by a proclamation presented by the Waterbury mayor’s chief of staff to the CG Auxiliary and the Power Squadron. In ad-dition, the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary paid their final respects to Herbert P. Farrell as he was laid to rest on the 24 May

The flotilla and Lake Zoar Authority held a joint public affairs event at the Southbury boat ramp on 26 May commemorating the end of NSBW. Members of the Authority discussed the problem with zebra mussels and methods to contain them while members of the flotilla distributed safe boating literature and per-formed 30 vessel safety checks, failing only two boats. We observed boaters that are genu-inely interested in boating safety. Approxi-mately 50 boats used the lake while we were there, many were previously inspected and only four declined the VSC The flotilla participated in the Oxford Me-morial Day parade with a boat dressed as a fa-cility complete with Auxiliary members wear-ing Type III Auxiliary life jackets. Closely associated with the American Legion, sponsor of the parade, the “facility” was directly behind the American Legion at the front of the parade. And so ends another busy May. — Bob Bowolick FC 24-12

BOATING SAFETY

Total boating fatalities last year rose to 758, the highest number on record since 1998 according to the Coast Guard’s official 2011 Recreational Boating Statistics released in May. From 2010 to 2011, total reported accidents decreased less than one percent from 4604 to 4588, deaths increase 12.8 percent from 672 to 758 and injuries decreased 23 percent from 3153 to 3081. Property damage totaled ap-proximately &52 million. The fatality rate measured 6.2 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels. Operator inattention, improper lookout, operator inexperience, excessive speed and machinery failure ranked as the top five pri-mary contributing factors in accidents. Alco-hol use was the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was listed as the leading factor in 16 percent of the deaths. Seventy percent of all fatal boating accident victims drowned, and of those, 84 percent were not reported as wearing a life jacket. Only 11 percent of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had received boating safety instruction. — Kelly Townsend, DIR-V

Operator fault or what?

7

FLOTILLA NEWS FLOTILLA 24-1

The last flotilla meeting was 21 April. For the first time since the move the tradition of having a meal at the meeting was revived. Human Resources — One AP member has been upgraded to BQ. There is one more AP member. Two potential members have been contacted. Marine Safety — The talk on Aquatic Nuisance Species was canceled Member Training — One member completed NTC (Good Mate Exam), APC, FLC, and PA quizzes ( 12 quiz modules) Program Visits — 4 visits Vessel Examinations — Members have been invited to Indian Neck Yacht Club of 9 June to do Vessel Safety Checks.

FLOTILLA 24-2

The last meeting was held on 18 April. Kim Filion DCDR attended to present awards received at D-Train. Human Resources — One member is in AP status Operations — Patrols have started Program Visits — 18 visits Publications — The next issue of the “Point No Point” will be published in June. Vessel Exams — A VE Day is scheduled at East End Yacht Club on 26 May. Other — The flotilla has been invited to Opening Day at Miamogue Yacht Club on 28 May.

FLOTILLA 24-4

The last meeting was held on 11 April. The training session reviewed the changes in the 2012 CT State Specific Course Supplement Human Resources — Two AP members have been upgraded to BQ. All leads have been contacted and one local inquiry was followed up. Marine Safety — One Regulated Facility Annual Inspection and one Port State Control Boarding. Program Visits — 8 visits

FLOTILLA 24-8

The last meeting was held on 11 April. Kim Filion DCDR was present to present awards from D-Train. Human Resources — Two prospective members attended the April meeting. Communications Services — One member is learning the job to take over as FSO. Member Training — TCT Refresher and the Operations Workshop were given to 9 members on 25 April Program Visits — 22 visits; there is a new Flotilla Staff Officer, Jim Terenzio

FLOTILLA 24-12 Human Resources — Two members in AP status have been upgraded, one to IQ and the other to BQ. There is one prospective member from the April PE Course, Member Training — The Sexual Harassment Prevention Seminar was conducted during the April training meeting. May training topics are the VE seminar and description and use of AUXDATA and AUXINFO. Vessel Examinations — 12 VSCs were conducted at the Southbury boat ramp on 14 April. The DEP requires permission at least two weeks in advance to do VSCs at any state boating ramp.

ABBREVIATIONS APC — Administrative Procedures Course

AP — Approval Pending BQ — Basically Qualified

DCDR — Division Commander DEP — Department of Environmental

Protection FLC — Flotilla Leadership Course

FSO — Flotilla Staff Officer IQ — Initially Qualified

SO — Division Staff Officer TCT—Team Coordination Training VCDR — Division Vice Commander

VE — Vessel Examinations VSCs — Vessel Safety Checks

8

MAY DIVISION MEETING

The meeting was held on 2 May at CG Sta-tion New Haven with Kim Filion Division Commander presiding. In attendance were Mark Bennett VCDR, Ralph Vuolo VFC 24-1, Donna Bisson FC 24-2 & SRO, Mike Gabriel FC 24-3, Chris Duhaime FC 24-4 & FNO, John Ouellette FC 24-8, Bob Bowolick FC 24-12, Ginny Daniels PBO, Joe Mercer NSO, Bill Rock PAO, and Anne Duhaime. The Division Commander reminded every-one of the CG Academy Awards Day and Graduation, the district SAR competition, CG Sector LIS Open House, and the MDA work-shop . She announced that there will be a Town Hall meeting at CG Sector LIS in the near future at which members will be able to ask questions of the District Commodore and Chief of Staff, date to be announced. Each flo-tilla should go over the Emergency Response Plan to make sure members who are on it want to be and members who aren’t on it want to be. Division and Flotilla Staff Officers may be appointed for the Diversity Program after the development and clarification of their roles.

COMMUNICATIONS — No flotilla reports submitted. COMMUNICATION SERVICES — The division’s Safe Boating page was updated. Results of the approval process for convert ing to the WOW format have not been received. Meanwhile, the old site remains live and is being maintained. INFORMATIONS SYSTEMS — A number of past officer position are not showing up in AUXDATA for the Branford Flotilla. The matter has been referred to DSO-IS. MATERIALS — Flotillas were able to acquire all requested materials for April except for fingerprint kits and cards. The Division Commander is addressing the issue. VESSEL EXAMS — A total of 14 exams were reported for April.

GOOD AND WELFARE

Bill Rock gave a few comments regarding dredging of the Housatonic River — $750000 has been bonded to conduct the dredging.

AWARDS & PRESENTATIONS

MEMBERSHIP SERVICE for 20 Yrs

Richard Jepson Sr. and Richard Jep-son, Jr., Flotilla 24-1 Marvin Kasowitz and Russell Kniel, Flotilla 24-11

MEMBERSHIP SERVICE — 15 Yrs Carolyn Wilson, Flotilla 24-12

ANNUAL SERVICE PERFORM-

ANCE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

Russell Palucci, Flotilla 24-2

AUXILIARY SUSTAINED

SERVICE — 5th AWARD FOR

4019 Hours

Ellen Deutsch, Flotilla 24-4

9

DOMAIN AWARENESS OPERATIONS

There are a total of 143 official facilities and 16 unofficial facilities for a total of 159.

FLOTILLA SUMMARY

Branford — 21 facilities; all current Last patrol — 26 February Stratford — 37 facilities; 22 current Last patrol — 15 April Milford — 10 facilities; none current Last patrol — 5 March 2011 Guilford — 21 facilities; all current Last patrol — 26 February Clinton — 24 facilities; all current Last patrol — 28 March West Haven — 15 facilities; all current Last patrol — 6 April Oxford — 15 facilities; none current Last patrol — 10 September 2011

Jim Terenzio FL 24-8 is at Riverside Marina in

Clinton on the last MOM patrol, 28 March — photo by Dave Aressco

Patrols are underway. The 313313 in Strat-ford had several last month and will have more in May.

OPSAIL

A meeting was held at the home of George White District Captain with Nick Sidorick SO-OP, Kim Filion DCDR, Mark Bennett VCDR, Bill Rohland and Rob Barba. Rob discussed the use of West Haven’s Communications trailer which will be used for the event. There will not be any fireworks on Friday, 6 July. The event will have two class A ships including the CG Eagle, shown above, 10 B-Cs and two Coast Guard Cutters, with others a possibility. Auxiliary patrol boats include four from Division 24, four from Division 7 and six from Division 25.

All the FSOs-PA got information about National Safe Boating Week (NSBW) and Public Education classes publicized. Branford’s Facebook and Twitter pages were updated with ABS class information. Stratford’s on-water press conference and demonstration was very successful, announc-ing NSBW. Members of Clinton Flotilla assisted Division 25 with a boating safety booth at the Pilot Point Marina In the Water

Boat Show on 28 April. Actual activities assigned to each member were coordinated by Division 25. Bill Rock SO-PA was once again MC at the CG Sector Long Island Sound Open House on 19 May. It marked his 15th year as MC. The division also had a Boating Safety Booth and Sea Partners Booth at the open house with member of division at the booths to answer questions from the boating public.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

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HUMAN RESOURCES

National and district membership leads have been forwarded to each flotilla. The following was sent out by CWO2 Emanuel Zambrana, Operations and Training Officer of District 01S: Spring is here with summer soon to be here. Auxiliarists will be seen in public more, doing Vessel Safety Checks, at Boating Safety Booths, on patrol, and as always, at Public Education Courses. It is imperative that we present ourselves to the public in the most professional manner. Make sure that uniforms worn are appropriate for the occasion/event. And for all occasions/events, all Auxiliarists should be in the same uniform. Uniforms that are no longer serviceable should be replaced. Serviceable means faded colors, stains, rips, etc. See Chapter 10.C.1 of the Auxiliary Manual M16790.1G for a full description. Chapter 10 should also be read for information about all uniform details. Boat crews should continue to look as sharp as always. The Hot Weather uniform (shorts) is no longer authorized in CG Sector Long Island Sound as per the Sector Com-mander.

NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

Eighteen division Aids Verifiers attended the training session on Harbormaster which was held on 21 April at CG Sector Long Island Sound. . There was a training workshop for qualify-ing Aids Verifiers at CG Station Fire Island on 28 April. This was the only initial AV course to be held this year. There was a notice of an on-line version of the qualifying workshop held on 1 May requesting that FSOs-NS distribute it to their AVs. The NS group in District 01N is experi-menting with the WebEX on-line meeting software as a means of pushing out training and other program information.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

Flotilla 24-2 — 19 students in 14 April ABS Flotilla 24-3— 30 students in 7 April ABS Flotilla 24-8 — 17 students in 28 April ABS

MEMBER TRAINING Division level Boat Crew classes have been moved to on-water tasks. The Division MT Officer attended a QE workshop on Saturday, 5 May at CG Sector LIS. A new Webinar course for AUXWEA started in May. One member of FL 24-3 took the AUXPAT Webinar.

CG AUXILIARY VIRTUAL CLASS

ROOM The member training website known as the Virtual Classroom has moved to a new location and is now called the CG Auxiliary Online Classroom. The new link to this website is

http://classroom.cgaux.org All courses previously available in the Vir-tual Classroom should immediately be available at the new Online Classroom. Old user accounts and course completion history has been retired, as the new site automatically provides members with new and permanent accounts based upon the same Member Zone Credentials used for the AuxDirectory, NTC, Webforms, etc. Support is available via the National Help Desk at

http://help.cgaux.org Note that the Mandated Training Program courses will not be available on this platform. — posted on National Website by Bruce Miller CIO

11

JUNE/JULY

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 24-3 Kayak District 24-8 GPS & Meeting Radar on 6/2 24-12 Boating Fun 3 4 5 FL 24-3 6 DIV 24 7 24-2 Marine 8 9 FL 24-1 24-12 VE Safety Display World Ocean 24-2 ABS Day 24-4 ABS at Beardsley Day on 6/9 24-3 ABS Zoo on 6/9 24-12 Boating Fun

10 11 12 13 FL 24-4 14 FL 24-11 15 16 24-2 Charts 24-11 ABS 24-2 ABS FL 24-8 FL 24-12 FLAG DAY 24-12 ABS & Nav (1st half) (1st half) 24-2 ABS on 6/14 24-3 WX 24-11 ABS (2nd half) (1st half) (2nd half) 24-3 WX (2nd half)

17 18 19 FL 24-3 20 FL 24-2 21 22 23 Fathers Day 24-4 ABS 24-12 Branford in Madison Boating Fun 24-12 Family Day VE Day

24 25 26 27 28 FL 24-11 29 30 24-12 Boating Fun 24-8 ABS

1 July 2 3 FL 24-3 4 5 6 7

Independence Tall Ships / OP Sail in New Day London

8 9 10 11 Div 24 12 FL 24-11 13 14 FL 24-1 Tall Ship / OPSail in New 24-4 ABS FL 24-12 24-2 ABS London (1st half) 24-3 ABS 24-12 24-4 ABS 24-11 ABS VE Day (2nd half)

15 16 17 FL 24-3 18 FL 24-2 19 20 21 24-2 ABS FL 24-8 24-12 ABS (1st half) 24-2 ABS Plum Island (2nd half) Trip