Commander Eugen Mall was recently pleased to award our Education Officer, Jeff Canaday, his 25th Merit Mark, which comes with lifetime membership in the United States Power Squadron. Jeff is a long-time member of TSPS and has been very active in setting up and teaching TSPS boating classes.
Thanks to TSPS member Tatsuo Fujimoto the first BBQ of the year will be held at his waterfront house across the water from Seabornia Marina near Misaki, Miura Hanto, on Saturday May 17, 2014 from 12 Noon until the drinks are gone. The cost will be Yen 5 000 per person. We have enjoyed Mr. Fujimoto’s hospitality before and always have a good time. For more information and how to sign up for the barbecue, go to the event announcement.
The 2014 TSPS Change of Watch was held on February 20th at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan in Yurakucho, Tokyo. Over 40 members and friends attended. Warren Fraser, TSPS commander for the last two years, kicked off the proceedings with a summary of 2013’s activities. Secretary Gary Thomas gave a run-down of the status of our incorporation initiative, which will soon reach fruition. The high point of the proceedings was the election and swearing in of the new bridge officers for 2014, performed by District 13 Commander Doug Dworski. The members of the new bridge for 2014 are
Commander: Eugen Mall
Executive Officer: Jiro Fujiwara
Secretary: Gary Thomas
Education Officer: Jeff Canaday
Administrative Officer: David Sutton-Kirkby
Treasurer: Tony Whitman
Membership Chairman: John Marshall
Cruising Coordinator: Per Knudsen
Communications Officer: Mike Snyder
Social Activities: Warren Fraser
Public Relations: Masao Ando
Commander Doug Dworski also gave an interesting run-down of the situation with the USPS national organisation and District 13. Other attendees included the daughter and son of the late Past Commander Shun-ichiro Yamamoto, Akiko and Hiroshi, as well as Akiko san’s husband, Motohiro. PC Yamamoto was a well-liked avid week-end sailor and kept his boat “Mambo”at Hayama Harbor. Akiko san says that she welcomes TSPS memers to sail aboard Mambo when it has passed its inspections. The event ended with the annual raffle of booty emceed by new Administrative Officer David Sutton-Kirkby, and member Demir Sadigloku was the big winner of the night. The food was good, the atmosphere scintillating, the company grand. A good evening had by all!
On November 9, TSPS held its first ever practical On-The-Water Nautical Electronic Instruments class. Students and TSPS members attending were Linda Semlitz & husband Ed Gilbert plus Anne Bille, wife of TSPS Cruise Coordinator Per Knudsen, who conducted the class on board Anne and Per’s yacht Bifrost.
The participants all being experienced sailors, the class was a discussion of the latest technology and the strengths and weaknesses of each system. The class went over the instruments dockside, then sailed and practiced for a couple of hours and took a delicious lunch break underway.
Instruments covered in the program included GPS, chartplotter, AIS, radar, VHF/DCS radio, depth finder, wind meter, auto-helm, plus selected iPhone/iPad apps. The systems on Bifrost are manufactured by Raymarine and Icom and are all fully integrated except stand-alone back-up GPS and VHF systems.
For the next on-the water class we are considering emergency systems, equipment, and procedures for a potential April, 2014 class.
A big thanks to Linda, Ed, and Anne for their participation in the class.
– Per Knudsen
TSPS Cruise Coordinator
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Our Annual Hayama Marina Outing and Barbecue– Saturday, October 19
Again this year TSPS members have been invited by the Hayama Marina Yacht Club and HMYC’s International Relations Committee member Akihiko Kobayashi to enjoy a day of sailing on the waters of Sagami Bay and a barbecue in the marina boatyard. This has been an annual event for many years and is always a most enjoyable time. It starts at 10 AM with us meeting at Hayama Marina and being assigned to an HMYC-member boat. We then go out on the water for about four hours. We typically sail till 12-ish, anchor together for lunch off the Hayama coast, then return to the marina at around 3 PM to ignite the barbecues, unlock the drink coolers, and relax with friends on the hard till 5:00PM.
By the way, if you or your friends and family are unable to attend the sailing portion of the day, by all means come for the barbecue. The food and drink is good, and if this event is consistent with past ones, there will even be live music and an open mic, should you care to belt out a favorite song.
The date this year for the event is Saturday, October 19.
This is one of our more popular TSPS events, so if you would like to attend, sign up here.
We prefer you sign up online, but if necessary you can send an email providing your full name and the full names of any guest(s) to commander@tspsjapan.org
Final date for sign-up is October 15th. Slots will be filled on a first-come first-served basis, with a limit of 40 participants. Please, no cancellations after October 16.
The meeting place is next to the Marina office, the yellow building near the boat launching facility, at 10:00.
Hope to see you there.
Warren Fraser
Commander, TSPS
Photos from the 2012 event are available here.
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Details:
Date: Saturday, October 19, 2013
Time: 10:00 ~17:00
Place: Hayama Marina (see directions below)
Total number of guests: 40
No. of boats: 7
Fee: ¥4,000 per person, children ¥2,000
Weather: If it rains the event will be cancelled and not rescheduled. HMYC will advise before 15:00, October 19, if the event is cancelled and TSPS will notify those who sign up.
Time schedule:
10:00 – all get together at the Marina office (the yellow building)
10:30 – leave dock
12:00 – anchor and lunch
13:30 – sail again
15:00 – back to dock BBQ
17:00 – SAYONARA
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Directions to Hayama Marina
By Car:
Take Yokohama-Yokosuka Road, get off at Zushi-Interchange, take left road to Hayama, pay ¥100 at toll gate after driving through tunnel, drive about 4 kilometers, go straight under overhead bridge for pedestrian with signal, drive through tunnel, turn left at next crossing with signal (AM-PM shop right side), go straight at next signal and Hayama Marina is 50 meters ahead of the signal, right side of the road. Parking is available, cost is ¥2,000.
By Train / Bus
Train time is around 1 hour from Tokyo to either station
If by JR to Zushi
Take bus no. 11 or 12 from bus stop no. 3
Get off at “ABUZURI HAYAMA MARINA MAE.” Travel time is about 10 minutes.
Proceed about 100 meter along the road the bus is on to Hayama Marina on right side of the street.
If by Keihin-Kyuko (to Shin-Zushi) station.
Exit the platform from the exit nearest the front of the train, Go to bus stop no. 2. Same bus no. 11 or 12 stops there.
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TSPS members Per Knudsen and Anne Bille were concluding a week-long cruise to the Izu Islands and readying their boat Bifrost to dock at their homeport of Velasis when they encountered an unusual sight:
Apparently, a young man had a bit too much to drink and had fallen asleep on his floating mattress. According to Per, the guy had drifted more than 500 meters from shore and the prevailing current was pushing him out to sea. Fortunately or unfortunately, no amount of screaming at the young man by the crew of Bifrost roused him from his slumber, so Per called Velasis Marina for help. Bifrost continued to circle him until a Velasis inflatable arrived on the scene and woke up the young man and took him back to dry land.
It’s doubtful the young lad would have reached open water as the Uraga area is quite busy with sailing and small fishing vessels. However, this episode does raise concerns, and as a boating safety organization, TSPS should weigh in with some safety tips.
#1. “Friends don’t let friends drift away.”
Take responsibility for others. At the beach, always be thinking about your safety and that of your friends and family, but if at some point you find yourself absent one friend and one floating mattress, assume the worst and call an emergency hotline.
#2. “Don’t drink and float.”
Obviously. The gentle sway of the sea, a fresh ocean breeze, and one cocktail too many will undoubtedly lull you to sleep. For the high percentage of people who ignore such advice, don’t board a mattress alone- go with a friend. Have fun, converse. Failing that, or a friend, make sure you are either tethered via very long line to a strong tree or that you are in fact in a swimming pool or lake and not on a body of water that covers some 32% of the earth’s surface.
In all seriousness, a high number of people die on the beaches of Japan every summer. Often the cause is alcohol-related or simply ignorance of the environment- unknown depths, currents, rip tides, the effect of too much sun, etc…. Safety should always be of the highest priority when at or on the sea.
On August 7, TSPS member Kirk Patterson completed a clock-wise circumnavigation of Hokkaido aboard his sailing vessel, Silk Purse. During his trip, Kirk posted progress reports regularly to Facebook, and for those who followed the story it was a tense voyage through thick and thin fog against and with strong counter currents around hazards-to-sailing such as long fishing nets, small octopus/crab pots, and concrete breakwaters into both friendly and unfriendly fishing ports, all the while encountering great generosity from many of the people he met and dealing with the long arm of bureaucracy, as the Coast Guard shadowed his every movement for the first half of his journey.
Kirk will remain in Hakodate for a week to ten days making repairs and doing maintenance work and other jobs before departing for Kyushu, a voyage of approximately 1,000 nautical mile through the Japan Sea. He plans to reach Fukuoka by mid-October.
Up in the rigging during his trip around Hokkaido, Kirk flew burgees from his sailing club in Victoria, BC.- the Bluewater Cruising Association, and from a sponsor- the Japan Hydrographic Association. For his voyage south to Kyushu, Kirk will be adding the TSPS burgee to his flag line.
We are proud to have Kirk as a member of TSPS and congratulate him for the successful completion of the second phase of his journey and wish him all the best as he makes his way south to Fukuoka. Fair winds, Kirk!
As residents of Japan we are all too aware of the dangers of typhoons and tsunamis, and as boaters and boat owners we’ve experienced that , er, sinking feeling as severe weather phenomena approach our boating waters. Well, our friends at the Hawaii Sail & Power Squadron have sent along a digital copy of a fifty-two page manual spelling out how we as boaters can protect our lives and property when a hurricane or other severe storm threatens. The manual also contains a section on tsunamis and other serious threats to boaters and the marine community.
While a lot of the information presented in the document is Hawaii-specific, much of it can be applied to our situation here in Japan, and is in the end simply sound safety advice for boaters and boat owners. It presents “a summary of the actions boaters and other members of (a) marine community can take before, during, and after a hurricane or tsunami, (and) is intended to assist in preparing for and mitigating the effects of these hazards. It includes information on these events and their dangers, (and) provides guidelines to develop a personal preparedness plan…”
You can view then download the ‘Boater’s Hurricane and Tsunami Safety Manual’ here.
From doradehistory.com:
Dorade became the most famous ocean racing yacht in the world. As the first major blue water design to be built to the drawings of her 21-year-old designer, Dorade’s keel was laid just weeks after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and her launching in the spring of 1930 coincided with the slide of the nation into the Great Depression. Despite such inauspicious timing, this yacht, her young designer and youthful, attractive crew became a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic and on both coasts of America. Dorade introduced and validated the early yacht design concepts of Olin Stephens and influenced, in one way or another, nearly all developments in yacht design for the next three decades. Her rigging and deck fixtures, developed in large part by Olin’s younger brother, Roderick Stephens Jr., still make the name Dorade commonplace today. Her combination of speed, sea-keeping ability, stunning beauty and small size, coupled with her startling racing success, kept the eye of the public on her and on those aboard her.
From Wikipedia:
Dorade was a yacht designed in 1929 by Olin Stephens of Sparkman & Stephens and built 1929–1930 by the Minneford Yacht Yard in City Island, New York.
Dorade went on to place 2nd in the Bermuda Race later that year. The crew for its first race received the All-Amateur Crew Prize. However, it would be the Transatlantic Race that would bring the boat its name. Placing first, she completed the race in 17 days – a race that takes an estimated 3–4 weeks to complete. A parade was held in celebration of the crew and ship’s return with the mayor holding a reception in honor of Olin Stephens’ victory.
Olin Stephens, the designer, was skipper through 1932 when he handed the boat to his brother, Rod Stephens.[1] Led by Rod, Dorade sailed to victory in the 1932 Bermuda Race.[2] From Bermuda, Dorade sailed back to Norway, down to Cowes, England, and finally back to America after winning the Fastnet Race. The victory of the 1932 Fastnet Race was of substantial significance given the unusually severe weather, several ships feared missing as well as one recorded drowning among the events that unfolded.
TSPS Bridge Officer Tom Proctor has put his sailboat on the market. Below is information provided by Tom. All enquiries regarding Tombo must be addressed to Tom directly.
My Germán Frers-designed Hallberg Rassy 310, is for up for sale or available for 1/6th fractional ownership at ¥2,500,000/share.
Tombo was launched in June 2010 and is fully equipped for local and long-distance sailing. Her homeport is Shimoda at the bottom of Izu peninsula, which is the gateway to the best sailing grounds for those living in the Kanto and Tokai regions of Japan and only a few hours cruise from the Izu island chain to the south and east. Under a fractional ownership plan, Tombo will be moved to a port of the ownership group’s choosing.
A partial list of equipment includes:
• offshore sails
• gennaker with sock
• autopilot
• GPS
• AIS with Wifi to iPad/PC
• dodger
• bimini
• hot/cold pressure water to galley and shower
• central heating
• propane stove with electronic solenoid at tank
• water-cooled refrigeration
• LED lighting
• solar panel and charger
• electric anchor winch and bow anchor with all chain rode
• stern anchor with davit
• mooring lines and fenders
• 110 volt a/c charger and hot water heater
Additional options to get you to Australia, South-east Asia, or where-ever else in the world you’d like to go include:
• six-person life raft (2012)
• charts
• galley equipment
• loads of spares
• back-up GPS
• autopilot
• two Rocna anchors with rodes
• vhf radios
• lee cloths
• jacklines
• tethers
• preventer
• &etc
Hallberg Rassy boats are widely considered among the best-built passage makers for long-distance cruising. They’ve enjoyed a reputation for sea-going stability, safety, speed, and ease of operation for over forty years. That’s why I bought one.
If you’re interested in purchasing Tombo outright or participating in a fractional ownership arrangement, send me an e-mail at thomashproctor@yahoo.com.
Tom Proctor
