New Beginnings

I am excited about our new club!  What do I mean by “new club”?  At the annual meeting we voted to dissolve our non-profit corporation and be a social club.  We are still Tarpon Coast Grady-White Boat Club, but we dropped the “Inc.”.  Some of you may not have even known we were incorporated as we normally didn’t have that included in our title.  By social club, we mean everyone will pay their own way for activities/events which we did most of the time anyway.   We are starting “anew” somewhat.   We won’t have the same structure as we did before.  We will not collect dues and have proposed that, to become a new member, other than filling out a membership form, you will be required to buy your club t-shirt and burgee and that is it – no yearly dues.  There is an “Operating Agreement” that we floated at the meeting, and has been sent out by e-mail.  These are just some guidelines that we propose to operate under.  We can change and tweak those as we see fit – and we don’t have to pass a resolution to do it!  Also, we no longer have officers.  That does not mean we have no leadership.  We have a lot of great leaders in our club that will continue to take the lead in doing things to keep our club running.  I’ll continue to be a contact for our sponsor Ingman Marine and Grady-White.

If you want to take the lead on pulling a trip together, please do.  Under our new structure, we would like to put an activities committee together to work on ideas and planning.  We are hoping for six members – but it is all flexible now that we don’t have to operate under by-laws.  If you want to volunteer, send your name in to the tarponcoastgradywhiteboatclub@gmail.com address.  Or if you have a better idea on how to handle planning and organizing meetings and activities – feel free to propose it and take the lead on making it happen!  We want you to be involved in running your club.

We had a fun time at the annual meeting – our theme was “Loving the Grady Life” and I used the close proximity to Valentine’s day as a way to put a little feminine touch of “pink” into our club ;-) – actually there was more red.  Red hearts everywhere because we love the Grady-Life.  The food was great too, but what makes any and all of our events so fun is YOU – the members of the club.

We have Grady-Fest coming up in March which is a great opportunity for us to mingle with some of our sister clubs.  There are a lot of vendors and sessions to learn more about your Grady and what you can do to improve your skills on the water, fishing or maintaining your boat.  Of course, you can buy cool stuff or just enjoy the food and festivities.  We have quite a few boats going from our club as well as people driving over.  I hope you have already signed up or will sign up for Grady-Fest!

With this being the season where we have a lot more people boating and driving the streets that may be new to our area, a lot of defensive driving skills are required.  Please be safe out there!  Thanks for being a Tarpon Coast Grady-White Boat Club member!

To see how many people read our newsletter – send your name in to me at the e-mail mentioned above by March. 9th and win a prize!

Safe and Fun Boating!

 

 

Fleet Captain Report  (February 2012)

To start off here is a quick summary of the upcoming boat-trip planning currently in progress:

• Grady-Fest III @ Fish Tale Marina @ Ft. Myers Beach
• March 23rd to 25th
• 8 boats have signed up, along with 5 other couples that will be driving
• Florida Keys fishing trip @ Paradise Point in Marathon
• May 12th to 26th
• 2 boats & 3 couples for week 1 (Eisenberg, Riordan, Cox)
• 1 boat & 2 couples (Eisenberg & Erb) have signed up for week 2 as of this writing
• Sometime in late May we’ll also try for another annual picnic at Don Pedro state park
• In the June timeframe we’re currently discussing a west coast trip towards the Tampa area, including Anna Maria Island & Twin Dolphins

 

Next, after spending just over a year on the job, we thought we would also recap the club’s boat outings that we’ve been privileged to help coordinate over the past 14 months:

• 2011 started with our New Year’s overnighter on 3 Sisters….as stated previously, there’s simply no better way to ring in a New Year;
• In early April (1st to 5th)….a small fleet (8 boats) cruised to 4 local marinas over 5 days….aka the “Dash, Dock & Drink” sortie;
• In mid-April we enjoyed our annual trip to the quaint and occasionally rowdy river port of Homosassa;
• In May (7th-20th) we had six couples (and 2 boats) make the trip to Summerland Key for diving and fishing – lots of productive fishing;
• Also in May (25th) a large group enjoyed a beautiful day at Don Pedro; it was also very fulfilling as we hosted a small group of wounded warriors;
• We took a long weekend in June for a 4-boat party at Laishley Marina;
• Over the July 4th weekend we had several boats and multiple guests rendezvous for a harbor raft-up and the spectacular fireworks in Charlotte harbor;
• In August (12th to 14th) Tide Pirate cruised to Sarasota to enjoy the One Night Rodeo concert at Van Wenzel with the Saunders, and a 50 mile offshore detour on the return trip produced some nice fish;
• Also in August (26th & 27th)  several from the club enjoyed another weekend of fun at Fisherman’s Village for their annual “Pirates Weekend”;
• In September (1st to 6th) the Riordan’s Tide Pirate took a cruise across the “big ditch” to Stuart and Pirate’s Cove Marina & were joined by Doug & Cat Cox over the Labor Day weekend;
• In October (29th & 30th) – while we postponed the raft-up & shark tooth dive due to lumpy seas, we still rendezvoused with several boats and “land-cruisers” at the Crow’s Nest in Venice; there we met up with the Johnson brothers and their wives;
• In November (30th) – a large group participated in the Useppa Island lunch outing…7 boats and 29 members signed up; this is also where we discovered we needed more than one Frenchie award;
• Finally, our latest journey was a long one…from February 2nd to the 10th (2012) we journeyed all the way to St. Augustine on the NE coast of Florida:

• Participating boats:  Sweet Surrender (Wahlburg); Silver Bullet (Cox); and Tide Pirate (Riordan);
• Participating crew: Dan & Cher Clark;
• Drove or flew: Fred & Judy Buchas, Ben Knisely & Cilla, Eileen Wahlburg;
• Ports of call:  Pirate’s Cove in Stuart; Telemar Bay Marina in Melbourne, St. Augustine Municipal Marina;
• We stayed 3 days in St. Augustine…excellent marina, good shopping, great restaurants, plenty of history to enjoy;
• We squeezed in 1 day of fishing, Burt had a couple of hookups, & Doug actually boated (and filleted) one very lost dolphin;
• The trip on the inside ICW offered lots of scenery with an abundance of dolphin, manatees and gators;
• Overall we locked through 10 times, covered 721 nautical miles (830 statute miles) and put approximately 53 hours on the engines; the amount of fuel burned remains classified information.

Thanks to everyone involved in the above for creating such great opportunities for camaraderie and adventure.  Let’s do some more in 2012. 

Be safe.

Rick & Michelle Riordan
Fort Myers, FL, USA
February 2012

 

 

SAFETY REPORT

 

The boating season for all the northern snow birds is just starting here in Florida, so before we head out there are a few checks that we all need to do.

 

1. Be sure all of your charts are up to date.  Check the Notice to Mariners and the Light List for changes in your boating area.  This can be done on line at the NOAA website.
2. Check the radio and antenna connections for corrosion.  This could cause a weak signal or none at all.  If your radio has DSC be sure it is connected to your chart plotter to give your location.  A free MMSI number should be programmed into the radio so the rescue personnel will have the information on your boat.  The MMSI number is available from the Boat US website for free and just takes a few minutes to obtain this via email. 
3. The price on personal EPIRP’s has gotten very reasonable.  They are between $200 and $300 and provide that extra measure of safety.  If you don’t have one on board adding this piece of valuable equipment would be a great safety addition.
4. Check the dates on flares and safety equipment, not only for safety, but it might save you a ticket if get stopped.
5. The first aid kit supplies should also be checked and any missing items be restocked.
6. Life jackets may have been stored damp and become moldy or non-serviceable.  It’s much better to figure this out ahead of time.
7. Fire extinguishers should be shaken to loosen the powder every few months and keep them fully charged.  Be sure you check the gauge to make sure it is fully charged.
8. Batteries and bilge pumps needed to be tested, especially the automatic float switch.
9. Don’t forget to file a float plan with a friend.

 

If you would like to have a Coast Guard Auxiliary member give your boat a vessel safety check call Bob Mayes 317 439-3401 before April 1st or Mike  English 231 499-3863 any time year round.  Have a safe boating season.

Bob Mayes
Safety Officer

 

From The Treasurer

 

Now that the membership has voted to dissolve the corporation and just be a "Club" there will be some final filings to finalize the unincorporation with the appropriate state and federal authorities.

We have sufficient funds to cover any final club expenses. The club can move forward and do the fun things we have always done without the formalities required by a corporation.

John Westlund

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________

From The Editor

Fred Buchas

 

 

I also now include a .pdf version of this newsletter as an attachment to the newsletter email that goes out with each new issue.  This could be helpful for offline viewing or if your browser has any problems with our web version.  These files are also available at our website under “Newsletter Archives”.

Thanks to all of our contributors for this issue. 

Now that we have changed the structure of our club to one that is strictly social the future of this newsletter is uncertain! Without club officers who regularly met their obligations for newsletter contributions it will now be incumbent on all members to consider what they can contribute.

So as always I'll continue to look for member contributions.  It could be almost anything that would be of interest to the membership.  Maybe your personal fishing or cruising stories or just information about hot fishing spots, dining or cruising destinations etc. Another suggestion has been to post club members marine items for sale. Just forward any of your submissions to my e-mail listed below.

I will continue to assemble and publish this newsletter as long as we have contributions to publish and the membership feels it is useful.

Thanks in advance for your continued support.

Fred Buchas  fbuchas1@comcast.net