Merri Mystery Dinner merrier than ever

Jimi Hendricks, a murderer ? ! ? By Joye Swisher

2007 BCYC nominations on board By Tom Hicks

After much work and consideration, the Nominating Committee makes the following nominations and recommen-dations for Flag Officers and Board of Director positions for the year 2007. The nominations were made by the Commit-tee at the September General meeting.

Commodore: Craig Smith

Vice Commodore: Linda Ray

Rear Commodore: Bob Trehy

Treasurer: Open

Secretary: Cathy Talisman

Fleet Captain: Steve Butcher

Board of Directors: Two-Year Positions: Bubba Busk, Pat Davis, Gabrielle Falk, and Danette Szakaly.

The following nominations were made by the floor at the October general meet-ing:

Continued on page 3

November 2006 Vol. I, Issue XI

Make changes NOW to 2007 directory The 2007 BCYC

Directory is being put together.

There is a copy in the clubhouse on the black-board. Please check and make changes to your entry including phone numbers; e-mails, ad-dresses; boat names, lengths, and makes.

The working copies will be available for correc-tions until November 17 (Gen. Meeting).

After that you will have incorrect info until next year.

Thanks, Craig

The Myth of Ethanol

2

Kudos to sail school helpers

3

Florida boaters & anchoring bill

4

Thanksgiving Dinner at BCYC

9

Happy Jack runs aground

9

Sea Scout training

11

Are you in compliance?

11

Inside this issue:

WindwordWindword Boca Ciega Yacht Club’s News & Views

Photo by Joye Swisher

What could Mae West (played by Linda Ray) have whispered in Doug Fuller’s ear? Could it have been, “Hey Doug, why don’t you come up and see me sometime?” From the looks of it Doug may have been at a loss for words or just full of laughter like so many others during the recent Merri Mystery Dinner Theater at BCYC. To find out more about the mystery please see page 6.

When Jean Levine and Jeff Grossman joined BCYC this year they said they wanted to become involved in the club. They have done just that. Not only have they helped out with sail school by being table captains, Jean offered to co-host the October covered dish dinner with me. What a help she has been!

The dinner was so much fun! I want to take the time to thank Jean for all her help in getting together the prizes and gathering the evidence; Jeff for creating our "murdered victim", Jerry Oilman.

Continued on page 6

Page 2

Ethanol may not be a good answer after all By Tony Angel

When even politicians who come from oil states start to push for the use of ethanol alcohol blended fuel you have to get curious! Just what does this mean to me and my car or my boat?

If you are running a gas engine in your car or boat the only “alternative fuel” available today is a blend of alcohol and gasoline in a mix of 10% or 85% known as E-10 or E-85. Many states have already mandated that the gasoline be modified to E-10 to replace “MTBE,” which is a carcinogenic chemical that has been added for a long time to reduce emis-sion of green house gasses. This is a good thing! Global warming is, after all “An Incon-venient Truth”. None of us want to melt the Ice Caps as a trade off for our style of living. There are some preparations that we must make if we have to adjust to regular use of a E-10 clean burn fuel:

1. The hoses, O-rings, and rubber parts of your old fuel system were designed to hold petroleum products. Alcohol will degrade them, -- so you have to have to check them or upgrade them. 2. Water sits in the bottom of a tank and usually is not a prob-lem, but water mixes with etha-nol and then both lie on the bottom of the tank. As more ethanol is added the layer on the bottom grows and eventually you will be pumping ethanol and water. It won’t run well. 3. Ethanol dissolves resins and easily leaches into fi-berglass. If your boat has a fiberglass fuel tank that was designed for gasoline IT MUST BE REPLACED BE-FORE IT BECOMES MUSHY. 4. Alcohol will dissolve or cut loose the crud in the bottom of a fuel tank and cause it to flow up into the filters, and carburetor or injectors of the engine.

Can we become less dependent on crude oil?

Because the U. S. only has 3% of the worlds oil re-

serves and we consume in excess of 35% of the worlds crude oil each year WE WILL ALWAYS BE DEPEND-ANT ON OTHER COUNTRIES, -- and we can’t in-vade them successfully. Unfortunately ethanol is a mythical alternative fuel because it costs 20% to 25% more to fuel a vehicle with it and America just won‘t buy in to that. To quickly sum up the issue as reported by U.S. World Report, Time Magazine, Consumers Reports, and J D Powers the only economic advantage that ethanol “E-85” fuel offers is that it might sell “Fuel Flexible” large trucks and SUVs for the U.S. auto

industry.

In 2005 Consumer Re-ports tested the fuel “E-85” in a Chevrolet Tahoe. The report of their test is in the October 2006 issue. Guess what? The Tahoe that normally runs at a fuel effi-ciency of 14 mpg dropped 27% to ten miles per gallon in combined city and highway tests when it ran on E-85. In city driving mpg dropped from 9 mpg to 7mpg. Because E-85 costs only 8 cents less per gallon than gas (if you can find a station that sells it) that means that a driver would spend 25% more to burn alcohol in the new “FFV.”

So if there is no economic ad-vantage why are we pushing Flexi-

ble Fuel Vehicles that burn alternate fuels?

The Flexible Fuel Vehicle production hype is moti-vated by generous fuel-economy credits that automakers get for every FFV that they push out of the plant, even if a large, and inefficient vehicle never runs on E-85, the federal fuel efficiency guidelines falsely assume that the vehicle will run on E-85 one half of the time. The m.p.g. for that “flexible fuel Vehicle” is calculated only on the 15% gasoline that makes up E-85. The result is that the government rates a FFV as getting 1 2/3 better mileage than it really does. That helps U.S. car makers when they calculate the fleet average m.p.g.

Continued on page 10

Unfortunately

ethanol is a mythical

alternative fuel

because it costs

20% to 25% more

to fuel a vehicle with it

and America

just won‘t buy in to that.

Page 3

Commodore: Bubba Gleaton

Treasurer: Tom Hicks

Board of Directors:

Sharon Noell

At the November general meet-ing, we will conduct the election by secret ballot. On the positions where only one nomination was made, we will ask the general mem-bership to elect that portion of the slate of officers and board members by acclimation.

Remember, you must be at the November meeting to vote (no ab-sentee votes) and there is one vote per Family.

Elected last year and remaining on the board for one more year are:

Ed Heyman, Peter Kvasnicka

Larry Lynch, and Bob Phillips.

Nominations continued from page 1

FOR SALE “Mr. Lucky”

1984 31’ Irwin Auto helm, chart plotter, remote VHS in cockpit,

cockpit shower, bow and stern anchors, two electric cords, propane oven/stove, AM-FM stereo with 6 CD changer,

set up for satellite radio, electric head, dual cycle marine air, Yanmar diesel and much more!

$23,000

Call George at 403-0947

BCYC Sailing School is without a doubt one of the most worth-while activities of this wonderful sailing organization. It not only provides a service to our commu-nity by promoting an avocation that we all love, it also creates an infinite source of new club mem-bers and is a substantial source of BCYC operating income.

This does not occur without LOTS of volunteer hours, well over 1,200 volunteer hours twice a year. Every club member should find some way to participate in our Sailing School and Clinic because without these activities, our Club could not survive.

Please make sure that you find some way to participate in the spring session. It takes all of our members to create a successful Sailing School.

We would like to take this time to thank our volunteers. First, thanks to our Classroom Teach-ers: Andy Bell, Tom Hicks, Joel Heyne, Bob Trehy and Al Davis. A sincerely enthusiastic thank you to our Waterfront Directors and Instructors: Tom Hicks, Henry Stewart and Marianne Fagan (who has been the director of both sessions on Sundays for more years than we can count).

A special thanks to those who accepted leadership positions: Elise Ruppert and Steve Butcher. Others to thank for their numer-ous hours of commitment, often in multiple positions on multiple occassions: again Joel Heyne as well as Craig and Sue Smith, Mac MacVean, Sharon Noell, Ken Stone, Najla Kassis, Carolyn Dockus, Eric Fisher, Bob O’Neil, Tim Pierce, Ursula Raia, Patty Butcher, Dave Malone, Jeff Reck-son, Dave and Dottie Tarbox, Henry Kemp, Bill Morse, Jeff and Jean Grossman, Don & Jennifer Rogers, Bob Winslow,

Continued on page 9

Kudos to sailing school volunteers By Larry Fiorenza and Shirley MacVean

Page 4

Every Florida sailor owes a HUGE debt of gratitude to both the Seven Seas Cruising Association, (SSCA) and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). They are almost solely responsible for the eventual adoption of House bill 7175 which was signed into law July 1 2006. HB 7175 revises statute S.327.60 (Florida boaters rights and anchoring bill) to take control of anchoring regulations state wide. Fur-thermore SSCA has graciously allowed a reprint of the new anchoring law, as interpreted in simple English by SSCA board member, Richard Blackford.

This is very important reading folks. We ALL need to be informed. We All need to help NMMA identify where local anchorage regulations are still wrongly in effect.

In May 2005, the City of Miami Beach joined a number of other Florida municipalities in passing ordi-nances to regulate anchoring within their city lim-its. Miami Beach’s ordinance set off a firestorm of protest because it’s one of the primary locations where cruising vessels stop in route the Bahamas and be-yond. SSCA encouraged its members to write letters of protest to the city commissioners and marine trade associations, such as the National Marine Manufactur-ers Association and the Marine Industry Association of South Florida. NMMA represents the $37 Billion marine industry; its customers members count many of us as very good customers.

If governments wouldn’t listen to us, perhaps they would listen to big business. There is no telling how many letters NMMA received, but Chairman George Bullwoar told me he was installing a full-time lobbyist to work exclusively on state water access issues. As the result of the combined efforts of SSCA members, NMMA, and MIASF, Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed House Bill 7175, amending several state stat-utes pertaining to vessel safety. The bill took effect July 1st, 2006.

There are three elements of the bill that are of par-ticular interest to cruising sailors. Statute 327.60 (2) is now amended to read:

“Nothing contained in the provisions of this section shall be construed to prohibit local governmental au-thorities form the enactment or enforcement of regula-tions which prohibit or restrict the mooring or anchor-ing of floating structures of lovebird vessels within their jurisdictions or of any vessels within the marked boundaries of mooring fields permitted as provided in s. 327.40. However, local governmental authorities are prohibited from regulating the anchoring outside of such mooring fields of non-live aboard vessels in navigation.

In plain English this means that, except in desig-nated mooring fields, municipalities have no authority to regulate where a typical cruising vessel anchors, unless they can prove the vessel is not used for any-thing other than a residence or place of business.

Bear in mind that Florida law defines the term “live-aboard vessel” quite differently than does the average cruiser. Here’s how Statute 327.02 paragraph (17) of the Florida Statutes defines “live-aboard vessel”: (a) Any vessel used solely as a residence; OR (b) Any vessel represented as a place of business, a professional or other commercial enterprise of a legal residence. A commercial fishing boat is expressly excluded from the term “ live-aboard vessel”.

By co-opting the term “live-aboard vessel”, the state is forcing boaters to alter their language. Maritime attor-ney Ted Guy advises cruising sailors who live aboard their boats to adopt the term “fulltime cruisers” when referring to their lifestyle, thus shifting the responsibil-ity to municipalities to prove the vessel is a residence under current Florida law. There are other formal

Florida lawmakers take control of anchoring restrictions Submitted by Tony Angel

(Editor’s note: Florida boaters rights and anchoring bill (S. 327.60) as written by Richard Blackford of Seven Seas Cruis-ing Association. It eliminates all of the 72 Hr laws and much more.)

Continued on next page

Page 5

requirements for establishing a legal residence in Flor-ida, but this statute is clear: if you represent your boat as your residence, a locality may regulate where you anchor.

Florida’s Attorney General expressed his opinion 85-45 as follows: If you use your boat for transportation of any number of recreational purposes, regardless of how long you stay aboard, it’s not a live-aboard vessel, unless you represent it as such. In his conclusion he writes: “Thus, it would appear that the plain statutory language of S. 327.60 (2) and the common-law inclusion of rights of anchorage as an element of the exercise of rights of navigation compel the con-clusion that a municipality is prohib-ited from regulating the anchorage of non-live aboard vessels when such an-chorage is incidental to the exercise of rights of navigation”

Cities who want to regulate anchor-ing may do so by establishing marked mooring fields in accordance with state law. There are few state approved mooring fields at this time. Hopefully this new legislation will pave the way for improved access and availability for both visiting and local boats. Those boaters unwilling to pay for moorings will still be allowed to anchor outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields.

The statue does not allow a locality to regulate an-choring by redefining a vessel as a “live-aboard vessel” after an arbitrary time limit, as Miami Beach does. A locality may not establish anchoring set-back require-ments from docks, seawalls, or homes, as Marco Is-land does. Any area restricting anchoring must be permitted, and marked by approved signage or buoys, as required by Statutes 327.40 and 327.41. Restricted areas may only be established after approval by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard to ensure that restrictions comply with state and federal regulations. Localities are pro-hibited from placing any regulatory markers in, on, or over the waters of the state or its shores without a per-

mit from the state.

Marina Evacuations: Amendments to Statute 327.59 deal with new provi-sions designed to protect marina operators. While marinas may not adopt, maintain, or enforce policies which require vessels to be removed by owners follow-ing the issuance of a hurricane watch or warning; they may take reasonable action to further secure any vessel within the marina to protect the boa, marina, environ-ment, or personal property, and charge the owner a

reasonable fee for doing so. In addi-tion, marina operators nay now in-clude specific wording in lease con-tracts that allow marina personnel to take measures to remove or secure vessels themselves if the owners fail to do so promptly, and to charge a reasonable fee for the service. The statute also grants marina operators limited liability from damage, pro-vided the damage is not caused by intentional acts or negligence when removing or securing vessels.

Abandoned and Derelict Vessels : Several changes will help law en-forcement officers cope with the growing number of abandoned and derelict vessels. From increased re-porting requirements when vessels are sold, to allocation of more (State)

funds for removing derelicts. These new provisions will make removal easier, and inflict greater penalties on unscrupulous owners who abandon their vessels on public or private property.

David Dickerson is the National Marine Manufactur-ers Association’s new director of state government rela-tions. If you have been forced to “move it along” while in navigation or gunk holing in Florida, please let Dickerson know where and when it happened. He can be reached at the web address -- ddick-erson@nmma.org or at ph # 202-737-9761. He will direct the NMMA legal council to send a letter to of-fending municipalities advising them of the current Florida state law regarding the rights of boaters.

In plain English this means that,

except in designated mooring fields,

municipalities have no authority to regulate where a typical cruising

vessel anchors, unless they can prove

the vessel is not used for anything other than a

residence or place of business.

Anchoring bill continued from previous page

Page 6

Merri Mystery Dinner continued from page 1

Bob Newsome for creating the study where the victim was murdered; Paul Acosta for helping with the decorations; Rick “Ricco” French for helping with the music; Doug Fuller for dubbing the music for us; Joel Heyne for finally getting the PA system to work. Patty Butcher and Janet Terrell brought in wonderful decorations. So many peo-ple brought in fantastic food to share and everyone who came in character & costumes. Boy does this club know how to get in the spirit of things and party!

If you didn't have the chance to join us, you missed a fun Merri Mystery Dinner. So many joined us including: Linda Ray who joined in as Mae West, "Why don't you come see me sometime?" Larry Fiorenza went all out with his trick cane and mustache as Charlie Chaplin. Tony Angel had True Grit as The Duke, John Wayne. The

three of them won the prizes for best costume/best char-acter.

Joy and Hal Feininger were there as Marlene Dietrich and Bing Crosby. Marlene even carried her cigarette holder and Bing with his straw hat -- looking very dap-per. Speaking of looking dapper, Janet and Todd Terrell joined us as Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Ginger was talking about her dairy farm. We weren't in Kansas any-more, but Joyce Brady made the cutest Judy Garland as Dorothy left OZ to join us.

Elvis was in the house with Patsy Cline (Craig and Sue Smith). They stayed in character all night and Patsy went "Crazy" while the Elvis "Loved her Tender."

Speaking of the ladies, Najla Kassis was all dressed up as Audrey Hepburn, Geri Angel (loved the red hair) was Rita Haywood, Cathy Talisman was the beautiful French

Continued on next page

Is that Dorothy from the land of Oz, or Judy Garland? No, that’s our own Joyce Brady looking cuter than ever. Bob Marley and Jimi Hendricks, played by Rick French and Steve Honour, hangin’ loose; while Marilyn Monroe, played by Jean Levine dazzles The Duke with her beauty and glamour.

Photos By

Joye Swisher

Creative tendencies abound at BCYC

Page 7

temptress, Edith Piaf. Jean Levine stepped up and be-came Marilyn Monroe after the original person couldn't make it. What a great job of ad-libbing, Jean. much for

Thanks so much for all you added to our night.

Say the magic word to Groucho Marx, Jack Briet, and perhaps you could have had a shot of Janis Joplin's South-ern Comfort. Lisa created a fun Janis Joplin. Perfect cast-ing was Jeff Grossman as Bruce Lee. Didn't even have to go out to buy a uniform...

Not only did Bob Newsome help with our "crime scene", he joined in the fun as George Burns. Of course, Ricco came with his dreadlocks as Bob Marley and played Reggae. Some didn't recognize the early Bob Marley sound as the CD playing was music from early Bob Mar-ley recorded in the 60's.

Diane Gleaton purred her way in as Selina, Jerry's black cat and Joye flapped around ,as Bartholo-

mew Jerry's bat serving Margarita's that David made. Even the Flying Nun, Ronda Fuller, enjoyed one.

Lawyer Ludmilla Lucas, played by Candy Sabella, look-ing very professional in her tie, read us Jerry's last will and testament. Shirley MacVean was Detective Pam Persim-mons who pointed out the evidence and Doug Fuller taped off the crime scene as Forensics Virgil Vinessi and read us his medical report.

Much to our surprise, we learned that Jimi Hendricks hit Jerry Oilman over the head with his strong, heavy elec-tric guitar because Jerry didn't want his son Lorne to join Jimi in a band. I have to say my hat's off to Steve Honour with his inventiveness of the hair he came up with for Jimi Hendricks. What a creative person Steve can be! Several people guessed who did it and won t-shirts.

I hope every one had a great time. I did!

Looking very dapper were Charlie Chaplin and Bing Cosby, played by Larry Fiorenza and Hal Feininger. Nice pose fellas! The Merri Mystery Dinner Theater guests were honored with the presence of the all time favorite, Elvis, played by our one and only Vice Commodore Craig Smith. Gathered around we find Janis Joplin, played by Lisa Glaser, Ginger Rogers, played by Janet Terrell, and John “the Duke” Wayne, played by Tony Angel.

to bring the 60s back to life again

Page 8

There you go again! You keep on making me look good and I appreciate it. Work day started off with another terrific breakfast. Elise Rupert cooked her wonder-ful egg casserole. She, along with Keith “do anything” Ray, put on a grand spread. Along with the eggs, there were fruit, biscuits, and cheesy potatoes. The soft drinks and water were iced and it looked like everyone was happy. Nice work.

Jennifer Trombley is back for a little while. She and Beverly New-comb attacked the refrigera-tor. After it was empty, it got a very thorough scrub-bing. Maria Pou joined in to straighten things back up. They did a time con-suming job. Three cheers for a job well done.

Billie Williams wanted some-thing to do. I gave him the job of going through our magazines and throwing out old ones or ripped ones, etc.; four bags later he was done. Thanks, Billie! Doug Fuller and Bob Calvillo put the tarp and poles away for us. Then they went around the building and made sure that the raft up stakes were in their place. We wouldn’t want them thrown out by accident! Meanwhile up on the roof we had Peter Kvasnicka and Steve Hon-our. They removed the debris that clogs the gutters when it rains. Then we had Bob Seamon lopping off branches that contribute to the gutter problem. On the ground hauling them away were Mariah Seamon and Bubba Gleaton. It’s

looking better and better all the time.

Mike McGrail and Dawn Letel-lier made us a wonderful sign for the side of our boats. Go look at the first pram and see what I mean. I’d like to do that to the entire fleet pending Board approval. Check out our front door! It has hard-ware and the street num-bers. Thank you goes to Phil Raia for making it look more like the front. LaDawn Bell is listed as

doing “office stuff”, so thanks LaDawn whatever you did. Bob Newcomb picked up the beer and pro-ceeded to the beach. The work room got reorganized by the team of Pim Miranda and David Gibson. It’s a work room, so please

don’t store things there. That’s what the new shed is for. Barb and Jim Meyer tackled the overwhelm-ing job of cleaning up curb side. This is important as it makes a first impression. Please help if you can on our last work day of the year. They can’t do it all alone.

Beach clean up was magnificently done by Bill Seawall, Bob New-comb, Elaine Miranda, and Larry Fiorenza. We have to do this every month to prevent the beach from looking like the city dump. Jim Freeman was out and about taking pictures.

Linda Maloy had a group work-ing on our landscaping. They

weeded, planted, and mulched all morning. Besides Linda, there was Louise Dobos, Ursula Raia, Peter Kvasnicka, Bob Calvillo, Hal Frank, and Don Freshler. You are all doing a fantastic job.

THE GAZEBO! It’s finally started. Paul Al-bert Acosta came up with a plan and the work began. The floor is done and leveled, but there is a lot more to do. See Paul if you would like to be a part of this

project. Out there working hard were Paul Acosta, Larry Fiorenza, Bob Calvillo, Rick French, Bob O’Neill, Mark Block, Steve Butcher, and Andy Bell. It would be wonderful to have this done before I leave this office. Thank you for your hard work! Remind me to give you all a hug.

There was a special meeting con-cerning water front issues that co-incided with our work day. This was an important meeting. Thank you Tom Hicks, Cindy and Al Davis, Tony Angel, and Andy Bell for taking the time to participate. It’s a shame that more of us could-

n’t be there. We are happy to have had some representation there and maybe the next time we will have a bigger turn out.

Give yourselves all a big pat on the back. You have

been so supportive of the club all year and I am looking forward to what will happen on the next work day.

Members and club continue to shine By Linda Ray

Page 9

Running aground brings a smile for our good friend Jack By Sir George Freund

Your cruise director, Jeff Reckson, is a party animal on or off the boat. So you would not be surprised if I told you that he flipped off a chair at a recent gathering nor would you be surprised if I added—he, how-ever, did not spill a drop.

As you all know Linda Ray is our answer to Captain Queeg and his white glove inspection with her endless clean-up details around the club. But this time she carried it a bit too far. In one of her recent clean-up and throw-out rampages she discarded two extremely large poles-only to find out they were the markers for the raft-up and cost $75.00 to replace. Good show, Linda!

So Larry Florenza ran aground (ho hum!) again-however, this time he tore his rudder off during his attempt to get floating. And this time he was south of Boca Grande so his tow entailed three different tows-one for the Ft Myers area, one for the Sarasota area and one for our own Pinellas area. Thus, the flag for this faux pas is the “Long Toe” award.

As most of you know (or at least those of you who are on their “A” list), Jack and Lisa Briet live on Big Bayou and have done so for many years. Point being--Jack has

navigated to his dock hundreds of times. So why, would you ask, would he run aground in his own, so to speak, back yard? Well, he gave several excuses but it wasn’t until Lisa came forward to give us the real skinny. It seems Jack was coming back from an after-noon sail with an all-girl crew (five to be ex-act) when one of those beauties bent over to retrieve a line and the rest is history—one grounding flag for Jack.

Linda Ray will once again host

Thanksgiving Dinner at the club this year.

Thursday, November 23rd. Snacks served at Noon

Sit down dinner at 3:00 p.m.

A sign up sheet will be posted

Please sign up for the dish you will bring

And also how many in your party

So Linda will know how big of a turkey to cook.

The deadline to sign up is

November 20th!

Kudos continued from page 3

Rick French, Kathy Talisman, Dan Yeazell, Eric Fisher, Roy Young, Tony and Gerri Angel, Tom Carlin, Matt Maloy, Hal Feininger, Hal Frank, Rick Navin, Bob Ad-ams, Nigel Haywood, Dave Bran-gaccio, Tony Milenthorp, Bertil Agell, Mike Collins, Larry Sanders, Wayne Hoover, Lou Daugherty, Doug Fuller, Todd Terrell, Paul Zorovich, Mike O’Brien, Bobby & Kathy Reynolds, Scott Whitworth, Mixer O’Keefe, Bob Phillips, Peter Kvasnicka, Karen & Kent Trowbridge, Jean Levine, Jeff Grossman, and Bob and Judy Trehy. A special thanks goes out to Mark Rother who works to keep our club boats operational.

If you helped with the school and we forgot to mention your name, we do apologize. If your name is not on this list, please step up to the plate for the spring session. It will really help lighten the load for those who have been called upon time and time again.

Page 10

The Union of Concerned Scien-tists estimate that in 2005 FFV cred-its saved Detroit automakers more than $1.6 million dollars in CAFÉ fines and allowed them to continue to pump out profitable SUV gas guzzlers without serious concern for CAFÉ fuel economy standards

For those consumers who purchase a FFV to do their part while still driving a big SUV there is another problem. The oil companies know that we can’t make enough ethanol efficiently to fill the tanks at the gas station. If you can find a station that sells E-85 outside the state of Minnesota you will make your car or boat burn a little cleaner, but you will need 27% more fuel and the

acceleration of the engine will be a little less quick. Finding the prod-uct is a big problem. Minnesota has more than 200 stations with E-85 but only Iowa, South Dakota, Mis-souri, and Illinois have 45 to 100 stations in each state that pump the stuff. In the rest of the country less than 2% of the fuel stations carry E-85. To be specific there are approxi-mately 800 stations selling E-85 out of 176,000 gas stations nationwide and an increase in production will ripple to cost all of us more than just lost mpg.

According to the National Corn Growers Association 13.6% of our corn crop was used to produce etha-nol in 2005. They estimate that

that drove the price of feed corn by 5 to 10 cents a bushel depending on the month. That added cost went strait into your grocery bill.

Bottom line, E-85 will be eco-nomically feasible only if the ethanol is produced from sugar as it is in Brazil. That won’t happen in the U.S. with price supports that stabi-lize U.S. sugar at prices that run 40% above the world market. Big Florida Sugar holds big clout in Washington D. C. and they are not going to allow cheap foreign (and Cuban) sugar to invade the mar-ket. Then we would be “sugar de-pendant.”

Oh Well ---- IT SOUNDED LIKE A GOOD THING!!!!

Ethanol continued from page 2

I cannot tell you how disappointed I am right now. In fact, I am writing this when I am a little fired up about what is going on around here. It started for me earlier in the year when the club’s toaster and toaster oven grew legs and left for a better place.

An appeal was put out and the toaster apparently felt loyal enough to return. Pots and pans started to make a run for it, never to be seen again. Not even a post card!

We have had brooms, silverware, dishes and even toilet paper decide that they would be better off some place else. Tools, such as swaging tools, screwdrivers, bolt cutters, ham-mers, and 500’ of extension cord, etc. leave the building. As recently as last week, a brand new shower head

in the box went elsewhere to live without even getting to know us.

These things and others are all replaced when brought to the Rear Commodore’s attention. They are replaced from the budget that I was entrusted to use to improve our house and replace BROKEN items with.

I have lovingly spoken to each re-placement that I buy, but apparently to no avail, as they are still leaving at will. Now I must come to the mem-bers of our club. Is it possible that the disappearance of these items has nothing to do with some magical potion that is enabling inanimate objects their own mobility?

I would feel terrible to think that members would have anything at all

to do with this situation. If you or anyone else knows the whereabouts of the above fugitives, please give them a hand to get back here where they belong. Helping one item es-cape this property is aiding and abet-ting. We’ve even had Bill Casey bring his boat in at the beginning of the month to find that electricity can leave also. He did not have a boat in his slip, and yet electricity has the power to supply ghost ships on the T dock. It has to be ghost ships, as no one asked to plug in to Bill and I saw with my very own eyes that he was asked kindly by Florida Power to pay for the missing electric! So seriously folks, I have to ask again,” Can you REALLY sleep at night?”

Bless you, Bob Trehy, as the re-sponsibility is coming to you.

Can you really sleep at night?

By Linda Ray

Page 11

Greetings to all from your Fleet Captain

By Paul Pittman

As mentioned previously we have lots of members renting BCYC wet/dry slips that have not provided the club with updated copies of their current insurance and registration.

BCYC waterfront policies require members occupying our slips to provide that information to the Fleet Captain. Cur-rently 46 out of 56 wet slip renters, and 30 out of 50 dry slip renters do not have current information on file for insurance and registration.

Please take a moment and update your registration and in-surance information with the Fleet Captain in order to pre-clude receiving a non-compliance letter and subsequent ap-pearance before the Board of Directors.

For your convenience you can drop off or mail the informa-tion to the club; Attention: Fleet Captain, or e-mail the infor-mation to Paul Pittman at pittster2@verizon.net, or fax to 727-521-2494 (please call me first).

Next five members on the 35 foot slip waiting list:

Jane Burkhead, Guy O’Connor, Jeff Reckson, Steve Honour, Rollins Turner.

Next five members on the 30 foot slip waiting list:

Bubba Gleaton, Keith Ray, Larry Lynch, Natalie Mock, Bob Phillips.

Next five members on the 25 foot slip waiting list:

Marty Needleman, Robert Calvillo, Ed Liebler, Raul and Linda Pou, Randy Cornett.

Next four members on the dry slip waiting list:

Peter Kvasnicka, Carolyn Dockus, Paul Pittman, Ed Heyman.

There is currently no waiting list for the dingy racks.

Thank you for your continuing help and cooperation.

Sea Scout Leader Training

The Regional and District

Sea Scout Leaders will provide Introduction Leadership Training

7:00 –9:00 p.m. November 14 at the club.

Anyone interested in becoming a part of the Sea Scout program

is invited to attend.

The success of the program depends on support from our BCYC members.

All are encouraged to attend.

For information please call

Bob Phillips 727-531-6993 or 727-686-4519

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Boca Ciega Yacht Club Clubhouse & Anchorage 4600 Tifton Drive South

Gulfport, FL 33711 727-321-7295

We’re on the Web! www.sailbcyc.org

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

SAINT PETERSBURG,

FL

PERMIT NO. 323

November 2006

Gen. Meeting 8 p.m.

Board Meeting 7:30 p.m.

Work Day / Pot Luck

Race Day Deadline to

sign up for dinner

Dinner at 3:00 p.m.