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Hurricane Isabel Update
Rick Sorrenti is the Vice Commodore for the
Occoquan Yacht Club just outside Washington DC.
He wrote an article for his yacht club newsletter about the 27
hours he and the marina staff spent battling Isabel at his marina,
Occoquan Harbor. You can
read his article by clicking here.
The club also received this request related to
Hurricane Isabel. “Please
allow me to introduce myself as the executive editor of MiniCo
Publishing in Phoenix, Arizona. I am looking for a photo of hurricane
Isabel to run with an article we are placing in one of our international
trade publications. Any assistance that you can offer would be most
appreciated. We would, of course, give you photo credit in the article.
Thank you very much for your help.
Poppy Behrens, Executive Editor MiniCo Publishing.”
I’ve asked Poppy to let me know which photo is run and when it
is run so I can get a copy of the magazine for the photographer.
Corrections
I managed to incorrectly identify a photographer
for Hurricane Isabel in last month’s newsletter and, in the mis-identification,
managed to misspell her name. The
person who was the actual photographer was Paul Mayer, rather than his
wife Maxine. That’s Mayer
with an A, rather than an E. Please
accept my apology for my error.
Carver Owners Club Tech Guy
Jim Shilling, husband of AnswerLady, now has his
own email address with the club. He
is techguy@carverownersclub.com.
Both Jim and Sue will continue to research and attempt to find
answers for Boat Talk. Each
member is also encouraged to use Boat Talk, not just to post questions,
but to answer them, too.
Interesting Idea
One of our new members made an interesting
suggestion. She suggested
that each Carver Owners Club member develop a drink specific to his or
her boat. For example, her
boat’s drink would be a Sea Angel.
Patsy is telling me that I’ll have to change Cygnet’s name to
Pinot Grigio. I don’t
drink alcohol much, but our new member quickly informed me that the
drink did not have to be alcoholic.
So, maybe my boat’s new name will be Diet Coke.
Our suggester said that one should get the color right first,
then work on the taste. She
also suggests that we have a taste-off. Hmmm. Yacht
owners drinking. I don’t
know if we would want to do that or not.
If you would like to participate in such an event, let me know at
webdude@carverownersclub.com.
Honors
The
Department of Homeland Security recently recognized US Coast Guard
Auxiliary members for their service to the United States in homeland
defense. Since World War
II, US Coast Guard Auxiliary members have served as lookouts along the
coasts and waterways of the US, freeing up other service people for
other, more dangerous work. In
peacetime, both the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Power Squadrons work
to improve boating safety through their training classes and vessel
inspection. The Carver Owners Club thanks Coast Guard Auxiliary and Power
Squadron members for your voluntary service in the national interest.
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Featured Boat
This month’s featured boat is Hello Dolly and owned
by Paul Slazas and Lori of upstate New York (Albany area).
Many of you know Paul and Lori from their attendance at the
Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous. Paul
will go anywhere for a party.
New Project
The Club frequently receives requests for manuals
related to the Carver boats. For
whatever reason, the manuals are not generally available anywhere.
I have an idea of building a library of Carver boat manuals.
I will never have room to store them on-line, but should be able
to store them electronically (on CD’s).
There are two things I will need to have to make this idea work.
The first is permission to store and/or reproduce the manuals
from Carver Boat Corporation. The
second is to have current owners who have these manuals make copies of
them (probably photostatic copies – I can’t say Xerox copies) and
send them to me. If you
have a manual for your boat (not the engines, toilets, generators, etc.)
and you might be willing to make copies of them for the club, please let
me know. If you would like
to receive compensation, please let me know that, too.
I had not planned to charge for the manuals, other than
reproduction and/or distribution costs, but I’m willing to consider
charging.
Volunteers
I recently received several offers to help with the
club, so you may be meeting some additional volunteers. My thanks to each of you for your help in making the club a
success. I have also
received several comments about not having an activity in a member’s
local area. Here’s the
deal, if we have a volunteer in an area, we can schedule an event in
that area. If we do not have a volunteer, we cannot have an event.
Local volunteers (called Regional Vice Presidents) select the
location of the Rendezvous and make initial contacts with the proposed
locations and local dealers. In
return, they get to attend the Rendezvous at no charge so they can do
additional work getting ready for the guests.
They also receive a Carver Owners Club polo shirt.
New Links
We are fortunate to receive a number of invitations to
exchange links or connections between our web site and other web sites.
Some we accept and others, well, they are just a little too
strange, even for me. For
example, I recently received the following request from a nudist club.
“Our friends who have boats can't take us out as often as we'd
like. We're looking for someone with a fairly large boat who would enjoy
taking us for a Saturday or Sunday of sailing, sunning and skinny
dipping. We treat your property with respect and help out when asked.
We're fun, but we don't allow illegal drugs, excessive drinking or
sexual behavior, and we expect the same of you. If you're interested
. . .” No wonder their friends who have boats can’t take them out as
often as they like. I
didn’t know if I should be offended by the sailing or the ban on
excessive drinking and sexual behavior.
I declined.
I did put up two new links that, frankly, don’t have
much to do with our boats. The
first new link is an auction web site called the Exeter Canal Yacht
Brokerage - Online Auction (www.ecyb.ukbrokers.com).
This site sells large marine and unusual equipment in the UK.
Their web site says that they will be receiving a MiG fighter jet
in November. The second
link is for jet ski wax. The
company is Boat Wax Plus (www.boatwaxplus.com).
Club Web Site
You may have noticed that the web site looks a little
different. Technically, the
web site is extensively revised and, hopefully, will work better.
We need boats for our featured boat section of the
newsletter. If you would
like to feature your boat, send me an email and I’ll tell you what I
need to have for a featured boat. Your
boat will be featured in the newsletter and available on the website for
a year at no charge.
Boating Accessory Marketplace
The
Boats for Sale section has been well received.
Later this month, we should have a new Boating Accessory
Marketplace set up to sell, trade, or give away those unwanted items
hanging around the boat that you no longer want.
My wife is itching to have me listed as soon as possible.
Payment for products sold on the Marketplace can be made through
the Carver Owners Club credit card processing if you choose, or you can
have the purchaser pay you directly.
We can also help list your products on eBay.
More on this next month.
Rendezvous and Events Update
As some of you know, we’ve postponed our Florida
West Coast Rendezvous until February 2004.
We are also moving the Rendezvous to another, as yet
undetermined, West Coast location.
Our reasons for making the change are to reduce the overall cost
of the Rendezvous and to give us more time to plan.
Ray Starsman is working on getting this set up.
Finding a location in Florida during the season is sometimes a
real challenge.
We are also planning a Rendezvous for the Houston
area. Right now, we are
planning for the third weekend in June.
We’ve received several inquiries about our New York City and
Chicago Rendezvous. Again,
we’ll keep you posted as we plan additional events.
The Club is planning a Rendezvous in Canada, on Lake
Ontario. Ted Cooper is
helping us set that up. We
are looking at a location called 50 Point Marina.
Right now, we are planning for a late July or early August event. We also hope that boats from upstate New York can join us, as
well as the Ontario boats.
We are also trying to get the Mid-South Rendezvous
rescheduled. We hope to get
boats from Knoxville to Memphis to Atlanta and Birmingham at this
Rendezvous. More on this later.
I emphasize that the Club is strictly a volunteer
organization – no one is paid to work for or with the club.
We need volunteers to help us as we plan Rendezvous in different
areas across the US. Carver
emphasizes dealer events, while we believe that opening the events to
all Carver Owners makes more sense.
It’s hard to describe how much fun a Rendezvous can be until
you’ve been through one. Consider
giving some of your time to help us host an event in your area.
Shameless Commerce Announcement
Ever wonder why the Carver Owners Club offers any
products for sale through the Club Store?
There are three reasons. First,
the club offers products that help members identify with the Carver
Owners Club. Second, the
products should save the owners some money.
Third, we use the profits from the product sales for Rendezvous
and to reduce the cost of membership.
About saving some money.
One of our best deals is with Raritan.
The club offers ALL Raritan products at significant savings over
other retailers. For
example, CP and KO, head cleaning and holding tank treatment chemicals,
cost about $11 per bottle from the club while West Marine charges $17
plus sales tax. We do add
on the actual shipping costs on the marine chemicals so shipping a
single bottle is probably not very cost effective.
We also can obtain icemakers, heads, holding tanks, anything in
Raritan’s line at good discounts, even with shipping.
Recently, a member obtained two rebuilt toilets, saving about $60
per toilet. I was surprised
at how inexpensive shipping was – about $10 per toilet
We are always looking for new products to offer.
If you have suggestions, please let me know.
This year, we are offering Holiday Cards with a
nautical theme. You can see
these cards at http://www.virtual-assoc.com/Chesapeake/welcome.asp.
As a Club member, you can buy anything at the mall for a 10%
discount.
Safe
Boating.
Dave
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