Waterfront Winter Ops - Cold Water

M/N Pat Showell led a great discussion and presentation today covering cold water survival. After the lecture it was time to test how well the survival suits aboard every ship protect you in cold water. We have all worn them in a pool, but what about in the 29 degree water of Hague Basin? Turns out surprisingly well. After five minutes in the water we were perfectly warm and dry!

Pictures and video here!

Helicopter Thursday

Two Alumni stories today-

First a video from Todd Vorenkamp '96 flying a rescue mission from USCG Air Station Humbolt Bay. As Todd says- "I'm the one mumbling on the intercom."

Next- Scott Volkert '95 was featured this week in a great documentary detailing the background and operations of the Marine One helicopter squardron responsible for flying the President.

Peete Must '05 at Miami Olympic Class Regatta

Peete Must explaining the finer points of helmsmanship to Admiral Stewart aboard Hercules

Peeter Must and Carl Horrocks have started their quest to earn a spot in on the 2012 Olympic Sailing Team. This week they are sailing in the 49'er class at the Miami Olympic Class Regatta. After the first day of sailing they are in 12th Place, 3rd among American Teams. Good luck Peete and lets take KP Sailing to the Olympics!

What Do We Name Our New Boat Part 2

The votes are in and the new name for Moneypenny is....drumroll anyone.....Vanquish. Keeping with the donor's request to keep the James Bond theme, Vanquish is the model of Aston Martin Bond Drives in "Die Another Day." We hope the the boat will be as fast and full of trick as the car it is named for.

Winter Sunset

Nice Winter Day for a Boat Ride

The first warm day in what seems like weeks, and a tug and barge grounding at Execution Rocks seemed a perfect excuse for a boat ride. Chris, Rich, and Rob bounced through some ice to get out of the Basin but it was a nice ride after that.

The Meredith Reinauer lightering off Execution Rocks.

Waterfront Winter Ops Part 2

M/N Brad Webster led a great class in Engineering Operation, Safety and Troubleshooting Wednesday afternoon at the Yocum Sailing Center. With focus on troubleshooting, and hands on demonstrations on an engine recently removed from Loon participants were able to learn the proper way to bleed air from a diesel fuel system, and how to identify different types of shipboard electrical circuits. Thanks to Brad for great job. Next week- cold water survival by M/N Pat Showell.

20,000 Visitors!

Sometime over the weekend we hosted our 20,000 visitor to this site. I don't know what I expected, but that seems pretty good for the first year. I hope to continue more this spring, with more updates by coaches from regattas, more updates from sailing alumni, and more coverage of all the things we do. Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements or things I'm missing, and I hope you have enjoyed a window into what we do.


USMMA Waterfront

Kings Pointers at Key West Race Week

It has been an excited start of racing at this years Key West Race Week. Smaller than normal, but still with the high end competition, Kings Pointers are faring quite well-

Bill Hardesty '98- Flash Gordon- Farr 40- 8th
Ryan McRee '02- Man'O'War- J-35- 3rd place
Ralf Steitz (Sailing Foundation)- Cool Breeze- Mills 40- 1st

Good luck for the rest of the week!

Link

Waterfront Winter Ops Kicks Off

M/N Kyle Stearns, the Regimental Waterfront Officer set a high standard in the first Waterfront Winter Operations class held Wednesday afternoon. Kyle did an incredible job of preperation for his Marlinespike Seamanship lecture / demo, and it showed. Thanks to all who attended- and to those who did not, you missed a great opporitunity. Thanks to CDR Fell for coming down to show his support for Waterfront training, and learning a few things along the way.

CDR Fell Learning the ropes!
M/N Stearns has the Conn


And don't forget to VOTE on our new boat name!!

--------------->

What do we name our new boat?

Kings Point Sailing has recieved a new boat thanks to Mr. Jim Swartz' recent donation of the STP 65 Moneypenny. The vessel is currently in West Palm Beach, FL, and will be racing her way to Kings Point this spring with a midshipman crew. Mr. Swartz requests that we change the name, and would like us to keep the James Bond theme. There are some suggestions in a poll on the right-----> or please make suggestions as a comment to this post and let me know your ideas.

Winter Maintenance in the Boat Bay

A cold and windy January day- great for inside projects. Overhauling the Grand Banks 46 Maximon and replacing the 40 year old engine in one of our 26' Hinkley launches.

Dinghy Coach Matt Allen Wins Vanguard 15 Mid-Winter Regatta

Sailing Videos on Sailgroove

Kings Point's Intercollegiate Sailing Coach Matt Allen decisively won this years Vanguard 15 Mids-Winter Regatta held in Miami, Fl, topping second place by 30 points.
Congrats to Matt!

Waterfront Winter Operations Classes

This winter we are working to keep our sailors on or near the water during these cold and quiet months. In addition to lectures on rules and tactics for the Sailing Teams and USCG 100 Ton Masters License Prep for our Senior Engineers, the Waterfront Officers have developed a new program called Waterfront Winter Ops with some interesting topics designed to supplement the seamanship training done "in-season."

Waterfront Winter Ops Schedule

Times and Places
Classes will meet on Wednesday Afternoons at 1600 in the Yocum classroom

Labs/TM’s will be during the weekend as announced

Schedule

Date Instructor Lesson Plan
Jan 14, 2009 Stearns Advanced Seamanship/Line Splicing
Jan 21, 2009 Webster Basic small Vessel engineering Troubleshooting
Jan 28, 2009 Showell Cold water survival
Feb 4, 2009 Webb Ice Breaking Techniques
Feb 11, 2009 Branning Racing Sailboat Navigation
Feb 18, 2009 Gaudiano Fast Rescue Boat* (still in the works)

Have You Noticed Our New Support Button?

The Kings Point Sailing Foundation has started working with the service Click & Pledge to allow for direct tax deductible contributions to help support our programs from this site. It's a safe and easy way to support the programs. Coming soon will also be online ordering for KP Sailing Gear- Stay tuned.

Report from Allison Davis '08 Third Mate Aboard M/V National Geographic Endeavor

We haven't done an Alumni update in a while- But it is great to hear that RWO / Dinghy Team Alum Allison Davis is having a great time in a not so ordinary job- even by Kings Point standards-  Great Job Ally!

"I am doing well and learning so much! It's very exciting down here in Antarctica. I really love it! The Captain is great and gives me the con around ice all the time. I was supposed to get off in the beginning of December, but I asked to stay on until the end of January so I can get more time on this ship. She is going to be reflagged to work in the Galapagos, so the officers have to be Ecuadorian and all of us on board have to work on other ships. It looks like I will be able to work on Lindblad's newest ship, National Geographic Explorer, in May. I'll get on in Egypt and work the European runs as well as the Arctic.

One of the most exciting things about this ship are the marine mammal encounters. There is so much life down in Antarctica that I had no idea about. When we were in South Georgia, the beaches were really loud with elephant seals mating and fighting, penguins squawking and feeding their young, and glaciers calving. As you can imagine, I tried to get ashore whenever I wasn't on watch.

We have an open bridge policy and so I often find myself bumping into guests while I'm trying to plot positions, but it makes for a fun time too. I was on watch the other day when some guests came up to the bridge claiming they had seen a whale. The AB confirmed it through binoculars so I called the Captain. The whole thing seemed kind of fishy because the guests were saying that it was just floating at the surface. The Captain came up to the bridge after a few minutes and since he knew exactly where we were he didn't even have to look out the window to confirm what type of whale it was. Well, let's just say this type of whale is as hard as a rock! The guests were very embarrassed and so was I for calling the Captain to come up to the bridge to see a rock in the distance. The Captain just laughed it off though because this has happened many times before.

About an hour later we came across two Humpbacks. They were feeding so we saw some really cool behavior such as flapping their fins and lots of bubbles! Humpbacks guide Krill up to the surface with bubble walls and rings. It's rare to see the bubble rings, but at times we saw very large rings of bubbles and both humpbacks come up through the rings with their mouths wide open! It was a really cool experience!

Occasionally, a big glob of red stuff would be seen when the whales came up the surface. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but the Captain got really excited when he saw it and was yelling "look it's poop! POOOOPPPPP!!!!! POOP, POOP!" One of the naturalists was making an announcement explaining why the whales are making the bubbles, and he turned the intercom mike towards the Captain so his shouting could be heard all over the ship! I'm sure the few guests sitting in the lounge were shocked!

We could also see the Krill on the depthfinder which was really cool and there was a lot of it! I tried to watch the humpbacks as much as I could, but I was plotting the ships position every few minutes to make sure we were staying just far enough away from some shallow spots. The bridge was crowded, so I was almost leaning over guests as I plotted the positions.

I had never been on a passenger ship before this, so I wasn't sure what to expect. We get a lot of old people, which makes things difficult when helping them in and out of zodiacs or when we are in the open ocean.

This has been the most amazing contract for me and I am so glad I am working on this ship.  I hope things are going well for you and please say hello to everyone at Yocum for me. "