www.nh-ps.org

• DECEMBER 2015 •

CALENDAR

• WINTER 2016 •

10 December 1800 (second Thursday) NHPS Membership Meeting  & Holiday Social Lt/C Peter DePascale’ home 839 Donna Dr., Orange, CT12 December 1800 (second Saturday) D1 Christmas Party Campagna Restaurant, 151 Marlborough St., Portland, $35 per person. Details in Sounds of One.

14 January 1900 (second Thursday) NHPS Membership Meeting Pequonnock Yacht Club26 January 1900 (fourth Tuesday) Bridge Committee Meeting Pequonnock Yacht Club7 February 1200 (first Sunday) Change of Watch Amarante’s Sea Cliff, 62 Cove St., New Haven10 March 1900 (second Thursday) NHPS Membership Meeting Pequonnock Yacht Club

For more information about Squadron Events, visit the NHPS website: www.nh-ps.org. For District 1 Events, see The Sounds of One or D1’s website: d1events.blogspot.com

Fellow boaters,It is with regret that another New England boating season has come and gone. This year, we closed it

out with the New Haven Power Squadron’s Wine Tasting extrava-ganza with over 100 people at Amarante’s Sea Cliff enjoying fine food, music and wine. The superb dining choices, the delightful music by Trio de Parri, and the flavorful wines offered by Amity Wine and Spirits mixed well with the Halloween spirit demonstrated by those who showed up in costume made for a memorable evening. Never fear though, we do intend to make this an annual event. Through the gener-osity of the donors and the ticket sales, we managed to raise over $4,500 after expenses. Special thanks go to Donna for spearhead-ing the wine tasting and to Peter D for selling the most tickets. An honorable mention should also go out to all the volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this happen.

For those of us who are not fortunate enough to continue boating in the warm southern climates, we look forward to the upcoming holiday season. A special thanks to Lt/C Peter DePascale for volunteering to host our annual Holiday Party at his house at 839 Donna Drive in Orange, CT on Thurs-day, December 10. Please bring an unwrapped toy to benefit the Smilow Cancer Hospital.

For those of you interested in a larger bash, don’t forget the upcoming District Holiday Party on December 12 at Campagna Restaurant in Portland, CT complete with an Ugly Sweater Contest. I still have tickets

Message from Cdr. James Yeske, P

$4,500 Raised at the NHPS Wine Tasting

continued next page

Banana Girl, Squadron Secretary Patricia Kaiser, checks in guests at the Wine Tasting fund raiser.

2 ✪ DECEMBER2015 NEWHAVENPOWERSQUADRON

Message from the Commander continued

Cdr. Jim Yeske, Linda Leonardi, Samantha Marone, Patricia Kaiser and Rich Hackley

Squadron SEO and D1 Commander Art Andrea posing with Linda Leonardi as Jackie O.

Masked ladies P/C Donna Ferrucci and Margo Nimiroski

Wine Tasting Extravaganza

When doing a web search for that question, a response came up stat-ing that names are arbitrary labels. “What’s in a name? If you know her by Elizabeth or Lizzie, she’s still the same person.”

A name is one of the first things we receive when we enter the world. Some people choose to change theirs. Famous examples are Norma Jean Mortenson, who became Marilyn Monroe, or bad boy Carlos Irwin Estevez, we know as Charlie Sheen. Some names make no sense at all, such as Henry McCarty, aka, Billy The Kid. How about that hot little sports car in mid-70’s, the Datsun 280Z. Can’t buy those babies anymore, because Datsun is long gone. The company spent a reported $30 million dollars over 3 years to make the name change to

Nissan. Useless trivia moment, the company was always called Nissan in Japan. It was only their exports that carried the Datsun name.

From time to time the NHPS Bridge has kicked around the idea of changing our name to include the word sail, as that more ac-curately reflects who we are. The thought was shelved a few years back as we wanted to complete our 100 year anniversary with the name that we all know, New Haven Power Squadron. Now with that major milestone behind us, it may be time to move forward with a newer, more modern name.

At our October Bridge meeting, the motion was made and a vote cast in favor of changing the unit’s name to the New Haven Sail and Power Squadron. This is a common

theme that has been embraced by other squadrons around the coun-try. The Bridge, therefore, proposes to amend Article 1, Section 1.1, to state “The name of this organiza-tion shall be the New Haven Sail and Power Squadron, Inc., con-stituting a squadron and unit of United States Power Squadrons.”

The proposed amendment will be stated in full and discussed at our next Membership Meeting, 10-De-cember. During the business portion of the Change of Watch ceremony on 7-February, a vote will be put to the members present to adopt the change, provided a quorum is pres-ent. If two thirds or more are in favor of the revision, then the amended bylaws will be sent to the USPS Committee of Rules for approval.

What’s in a name? If you know us as NHPS or NHSPS, we’re still the same organization. Although, it looks like we may be ordering new stationary.

available at $35.00 each for the District Bash, contact me if interested.

Because of a wonderful venue for our Wine Tasting, we will hold our annual Change of Watch luncheon at Amaran-te’s on Sunday February 7. More details will be forthcoming.

While the next boating season is months away, there is one final “Save the Date” activity.. New Haven Sail and Power Squadron has the honor of host-ing the District 1 Spring Conference Meeting on March 19, 2016 at the Bran-ford Yacht Club. Volunteers are needed… please contact one of your Bridge Mem-bers if interested. In the meantime, till the warmer weathers come, fair winds and following seas.

What’s In A Name?P/C Richard Hackley, AP

✪ 3NEWHAVENPOWERSQUADRON DECEMBER2015

NHPS Loses Two 50-Year MembersPast Commander and Life Mem-ber Martin Wolinsky, P, died in July 2014. He joined NHPS on January 29, 1957, and served as commander in 1994. He earned 26 merit marks. He was presented with his 50-year plaque by then Cdr Ferrucci at the January 2014

Change of Watch (see photo). There was no obituary and no calling hours.

Past Member Mackey Bar-ron, P, died on October 27, 2015, at age 95. He joined NHPS on January 23, 1958, and was a member until recently. The fol-lowing is his obituary, which was published in the New Haven Register on October 30:

BARRON, MACKEY of West-brook, CT. Entered into rest October 27th, 2015 at 95 years. Beloved husband of Erica Hope Yaffee. Devoted father of Howard & his wife Joanne Barron, Dana & his wife Joanie Barron, and daughter, Jill Barron. Cherished grandfather of Danny Barron, Laurie Fromer, Rebecca Brown and Heather Barron. Expressions of sympathy in his memory may be donated to either the Interna-tional Communications Industries Foundation (ICIF), ICIF Mackey Barron Memorial, 11242 Waples Mill Road, Suite 200, Fairfax, VA 22030, infocomm.org/icif or to the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, 405 Allen Avenue, Meriden, CT 06451.

Taking the Search Out of Search and RescueRecently, my family and I watched a movie from

2006 called The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and

Ashton Kutcher. As the hit 80’s movie Top Gun was

made with the assistance of the Air Force to help pro-

mote the service and boost enrollment, The Guardian

seemed to follow suit. It gave a detailed view into the

U.S. Coast Guard’s “A” School, where rescue swim-

mers are made and broken. Full of action scenes and

a Hollywood love story, I give it a thumbs up.

Appropriately, the story takes place in Kodiak,

Alaska, which is 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, the western most edge of our

national waters. For those who came out to our October Membership Meeting, we were

fortunate to hear from Retired Coast Guard Captain Craig Gilbert, who served at Base

Kodiak for many years. All were entertained with stories of drunken fishermen and an

occasional encounter with the Russians, but the more serious message clearly had to do

with rescues. His focus was on encouraging the recreational boater to take steps that will

help “take the search out of search and rescue.”

Besides the tools available to us on the vessel itself, such as Digital Selective Calling,

VHF radios, or ERIRBs, the Coast Guard offers an App for smartphones that contain a

wealth of information.

In addition to being a resource for things like boating laws and regulations, request-

ing vessel safety checks, and accessing weather information from the closest NOAA

buoy, this can also serve to file a “float plan” that can be sent to others before your

departure.

In the event your trip does not go according to plan and you become overdue, the

information provided by you in your plan may have a huge impact in any search and

rescue (SAR), attempt. Last year we had a different USCG speaker share the story of a

successful rescue of a fisherman who went missing in the night during his shift. Based

on his shift duties, his partner gave a window of time and location where the man went

overboard. That information was enough to put spotters in the right area and on the

last pass of an aircraft that was being recalled, he was spotted and saved. Having an

idea of time and position is crucial, and that detail is what a float plan should provide,

when we take the time to create one.

In The Guardian, a question the young cadet asked of the chief instructor was “How

do you decide who lives and who dies,” referring to the fact that sometimes you don’t

have the time to save everyone. Let’s commit that we will never put anyone in the posi-

tion of making that choice when it comes to us or our guests. Let’s do the right things,

communicate our intentions, and help take the “search” out of search and rescue.

NEW HAVEN POWER SQUADRON

P/C Richard Hackley, AP 15 Hickory Hill Lane Branford, CT 06405

Editor:

Layout:

Cdr. Richard Hackley, AP 15 Hickory Hill Lane Branford, CT 06405

P/C Cameron Taylor, JN

Squadron Notes• The tentative line up of topics for the winter/spring membership meetings include:

1. January 14 – Connecticut Marine Trade, “State of the industry”

2. February – Change of Watch in lieu of Member-ship Meeting

3. March 10 – Broker from Brewers, “How to buy/sell your next boat”

4. April 14 – West Marine Store, Branford5. May 12 – Sea Tow6. June – Blessing of the Fleet/Raft Up, in lieu of

meeting

• Inflatable PFD Recall: Last month Mustang Survival has announced it is vol-untarily recalling two selected models of inflatable per-sonal flotation devices (PFDs) manufactured in Canada between September 2014 and September 2015. The recall is being issued for the reinforcement of a portion of the bladder assembly that may tear when the bladder

lobes are flexed apart while fully inflated.

While a solution has been developed that corrects any affected products and prevents occurrence of this issue, the repair can only be performed at a Mustang Survival factory. Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) is urging boaters to check their life jacket inventory and see the easy identification guide at www.mustangsurvival.com/advisories to quickly determine if the life jacket is subject to the recall.

This recall notification is only for certain models as identified with model numbers that begin with either MD315 (sold in Canada) or MD318 (sold in the US). “No other Mustang Survival products are affected as they utilize different bladder assemblies or have been originally produced with the required reinforcement,” said Mustang in a statement.

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