2002 MEETINGS

Where    The Royal Canadian Legion, Kingsway Branch No 175
                10425-Kingsway Ave, Rendezvous' Room (2^nd flr.)
                Contact Person - Florence Werner 425-8654.

NOTE: The theme of this year's meetings will focus on racing and navigation as many sailors are now entering Wednesday night racing and using their GPS receiver to find the next mark.  Of course a GPS receiver can also be used for fast cruising, just in case you have to duck for shelter in the nearest hurricane hole. Unfortunately many sailors are not quite familiar enough with the technology to receive the most benefit from it.  
 

RIGGING, SPLICING & KNOTS - Ken MacDonald has taken several rigging and splicing courses and worked in Outside Plant with Ed Tel for many years, so he is a local expert you can draw information from. Come listen to him discuss some interesting facts about different types of line and learn to splice. Maybe he can give you a few tricks or dispel some the mysteries for you.

This meeting culminated in a "learn to splice" session at Boat Craft for a few individuals.   TOP

SAILING AROUND THE WORLD - You may have heard about Ravi's dry humour describing his escapades while cruising from India to Bali. Well, as promised, he retrieved his slides and video from India so come and be entertained while he talks about the rest of his trip.   TOP

ASA - Keith Driver, the newly elected President for the ASA will give a brief update ASA with future plans and events for this summer.

WEST COAST CRUISE & LEARN - An introductory cruise and learn charter to Lasqueti Island on the west coast of BC with Larry MacDonald at the helm. This lecture is also featured in Pacific Yachting, March 2002.
NOTE: For those of you interested in chartering on the Sea of Cortez; a destination that's very easy for us to reach (west coast of Mexico inside the Baja Peninsula) Larry will be available at the end of the evening to answer your questions.   TOP

SUMMER SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS - Dan Kulak from the Edmonton weather office.
A VIDEO on HEAVY WEATHER STORM TACTICS/SAILING - Jack and Pat Armitage.   TOP
 

Summer break for sailing and stuff.

Financial Report - Duncan Cook. 
Annual Elections - Elections for AOSA officers. 
Updated CCG Boating Safety Manuals - Some controversial issues around fire extinguishers, boarding ladders, throwing devices, etc. have been solidified and are now included in the updated manual. Free. 
Sail Inspection & Repair - Janet Oickle, was on hand to discuss her sail inspection services, to demonstrate her technique for finding hidden defects in your sail that the average person wouldn't normally see. Janet also left a hand full of business cards that could double as a gift certificate for a sail inspection. Stocking stuffer anyone? 
GPS Receiver - Roy Fisher to discuss using a GPS receiver as a navigational aid.  Bring your receiver AND the manual.  

• Wabamun Chart Project. 
• Types of Navigation and degree of accuracy (Landmark, Dead Reckoning, Hyperbolic (LORAN, GPS). 
• GPS overview (brief theory). 
• Contributors to GPS errors. 
• GPS error correction (WAAS, LAAS, Averaging, DGPS). 
• Making a waypoint and plotting a course is part of the lesson plan. Variances will be covered under the topic of error sources. This is necessary to understand how the technology works, when accuracy is at its best, when and why it suffers, and so forth. There is no practical difference in the accuracy provided by consumer grade GPS units regardless of manufacturer. However, there is a difference in identifying some of the Datums that the unit can be set to because of truncated datum names or naming conventions. 

NOTE: This material will be posted on this web site at a later date. I received many comments about the quality and content of this session and we are seriously considering repeating it in a place that has visibility to the GPS satellites.   TOP

FIRST AID - Ralph Fuchs was a charter member of the St. Albert division of the St. John  Brigade and before taking a break from it to pursue other activities, he moved up in the organization to become the Deputy Provincial Commissioner. Ralph is currently an Officer in the Order of St. John and will give a presentation on first aid considerations while under sail. 

TUNING A KEEL - Intrepid, an Express 30, is one of two boats on Wabamun Lake  with double spreader rigging and probably had the deepest keel. With the current low lake level Deryl Kartz has chosen to cut the bottom third of Intrepid's keel off and is in the final stages of adding a bulb to restore the righting moment. Come listen to Deryl's thoughts on the conversion and the expected changes in performance, if any.  Click here for a link to Mars Metal Company. the provider of the bulb. In fact they provide approximately 80% of the bulbs in North America. Shown here are two pictures of the conversion. Above after the bulb was attached and below with the fairing completed, painted and waxed. 

WABAMUN LAKE LEVEL - Hugh King is now an AOSA member and living at Fallis. He is also on the executive of Lake Wabamun Watch, The intent of Wabamun Watch is to present the public with information on the activities of Trans-Alta Utilities on and around Lake Wabamun and how the activities may affect the lake and you as a stakeholder. His presence was very timely given Deryl's presentation and the fact he attended the public forum held in Stony Plain last Nov 20  that many of us couldn't attend. Hugh spoke about the various lake level issues: water quality, heavy metal content, fish kills, evaporation and that one of the Wabamun plant generators has been shut down. I've added a link to Lake Wabamun Watch on our lake level page.  TOP