Passion
I have an ingrained passion for doing things the right way that was taught to me by my grandfather. "Takes twice as long to do it the wrong way" rings in my mind as I go about my work.
I spent the weekend working in the bilge (I despise working in the bilge! Its cramped, it smells bad, and everytime I'm down there I find something else that needs attention). Our 7yo and I were correcting electrical issues brought on by years of the previous owner doing it "His way".
The first thing we did was to pull 12v grounds out of the A/C panel and get them onto the 12v buss in the engine bay. Next we made some new negative battery cables to ground all the batteries together. He took out the hydraulic crimper and found the correct dies as I cut the cable to length. I held the lug in place on the wire as he worked the pump to make the crimp. Next I let him hold the pencil torch to melt the shrink wrap onto the new cable.
Looking at the perfectly crimped and sealed copper lug, I recalled a buddy telling me his method. "I just heat up the lug with a torch and fill it with solder to hold the wire in". While solder makes a good electrical connection, it's a poor mechanical connection.
His passion for not making the effort costs him customers and money in the long run.
America's Boating Club/The United States Power Squadron has a passion for boating safety. We spend days teaching America's Boating Course, Handling, Navigation, Engine Maintenance and more.
We take days off from boating during the summer to do Vessel Safety Checks.
We nervously jump onto someone else's boat to Jump Start their knowledge in how to handle it.
While ABC is a club of volunteers we must have the passion to do what's right by the club, the members, and the future members.
I have had the opportunity to speak to the North Coast Club about their Jump Start Program. Jim M. took the lead and created a program that not only promotes boating safety but gains 4-5 new members per year.
Kerry M. with District 9 has 30 JumpStarts on the calendar already and getting inundated with inquires about them. He is docked at Cedar Point and is happy to get some help with doing them. Sidenote, D9's strong passion to serve is the driving reason they are one of the fastest growing clubs in the US.
With record sales of boats during 2020 and still going very strong in 2021 the number of new boaters is staggering! The requests for JumpStart is buzzing on social media! There is not a day in the past month, where someone hasn't asked about help in learning how to dock their new boat. This leads to others asking about the club. What they do and how to contact them. We have a rare opportunity to interact with so many new boaters right now!
NMMA Stats New Boat Sales up 13% in 2020 and up 40% September to December!
We need some of the members with a passion for this to help up at Lake Erie! We need VSC Inspectors all over the western basin. Lisa and I stay at Foxhaven on Catawba, they said we can set up a station on the gas docks and do cruise up VSC's.
All Vessel Examiners Please Read!
The following Workshop has been provided by the USCG and its review is MANDATORY by all Vessel Examiners. Failure to do so will result in your loss of VSC qualification.
Reason for this review is twofold, one, the long absence of most VEs last year and the addition of some new items that became law this year. One new item is the eVDSD Electronic Vessel Signalling Device. (see information below)
This review can be in a classroom or individual. There will not be any test, however if conducted in a classroom discussions are encouraged. When complete please fill out the attached VSC-2 Form and send it to Stf/C Chip Meany, AP-IN curmgn@gmail.com to record your completion. (Cutoff date for this review to be determined.)
We also need instructors for Jump Start up at the lake. If you can teach a new boater how to handle a bowrider to an express cruiser to a trawler, we need your help. Two other districts are already working on getting students trained but more instructors are needed.
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