Monthly Archives: September 2013

Sea Scouts: A Beautiful Odyssey

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Spoiler Alert! Shameless plug for donations below!

 

Melissa recently wrote an article for ThreeSheetsNW.com on the Odyssey,  (SSS Odyssey, Tacoma’s Maritime Jewel) . This ninety foot Sparkman and Stephens yawl is docked on the Foss Waterway and is always a beautiful site underway.  Melissa and I enjoy every encounter we have with her. From Princess Louisa Inlet to Budd Inlet, she makes the Salish Sea a little prettier.

All the hard work pays off on a day like this.

Keeping this jewel looking good and sailing well is no easy task. The Sea Scout Troop 190 works long hours maintaining the boat, taking her to maritime festivals and providing week long High Adventure cruises for Boy Scout Troops around the country. While such efforts are great fun and perfect training opportunities for young scouts, they also raise badly needed funds to ensure that the mission and the boat can continue.

The Sea Scout Mission

Skipper Dan Dawes quizzes a new scout. Yes, Sir, Skipper, Sir!

As a Sea Scout Ship, the adult leaders on board are tasked with educating and mentoring the young scouts in the the safe operation of this historic vessel. If anyone deserves a lifetime achievement award for dedication to our community, it would be these men and women who volunteer their time and experience. Every outing on the Odyssey requires an adult skipper, licensed by the Coast Guard to operate a  vessel of this size. So at a minimum they possess a 100 ton ticket. Many of these professionals have had long careers in the Merchant Marines, Coast Guard or the Navy. In addition to the skipper, there is always one other adult on board to manage the various other operations of the boat, KP,  watch schedules, cleanup and a myriad other functions needed for the efficient, safe operation of the ship.

Such experience on board a ship the size of the Odyssey is vital. The scouts themselves perform all the duties and make key decisions at every turn in the safe handling of the ship. Navigation, docking, anchoring, sail change; all of the the many decisions that must be made on any ship are made by these young men and women, aged 13 to 21. Melissa and I felt some pride in knowing that these young adults will be tomorrow’s capable leaders.

Scouts checking their charts at the Nav Station. Course headings are called up to the helm at least every fifteen minutes, then recorded in the log book.

All Hands On Deck!

In addition to the usual skills learned as a Sea Scout, none can be more important than the quick response to an emergency. Melissa and I got to witness a couple of drills when we were guests aboard the Odyssey on Mother’s Day this spring (see: Unlimited Weekend). During our cruise north to Tacoma,  the ship suddenly slowed to a crawl. I heard one of the senior scouts calling ‘All hands on deck! All hands on deck!’. Just short minutes later roll was called as all were gathered in the cockpit area. Skipper Dawes reported the scenario for the drill:  that we had just struck an object and were taking on water. Then, one at a time he drilled individual scouts on the actions needed to handle the situation. “Where is the damage control kit? Go and put your hands on it.”  “How do you activate the life raft? How many people can she carry? What is the proper radio transmission in this situation? Who will radio a Pan Pan?”. These and many more questions were fired at the scouts. Some of the older hands bit their tongues as the skipper grilled the newer scouts and put a bit of pressure on them. Much better to squirm a little now and learn the correct way to respond to an emergency than to panic when you are needed for the real thing.

We were proud to see our future leaders being groomed aboard the Odyssey

These drills are not just for the fun of it. They are required per Coast Guard regulations and the scouts are preparing to be tested. Soon there will be a Coast Guard representative on board watching and taking notes, scoring the scouts on their performance. Passing the test is critical as Odyssey carries passengers other than crew. During the summer months, in particular, Boy Scout troops sign up to be taken on their High Adventure cruises up to the San Juan and Gulf Islands. This is one of the major money making operations for Odyssey, which spends many thousands of dollars a year on fuel alone.

The ‘Man Overboard’ drill is another important exercise. Shortly after passing Pt. Defiance, the alarm was sounded and the ‘spotter’ claimed his place, pointing directly at the victim, a certain ‘Freddy Fender’. Odyssey slowly circled, the dinghy was lowered into the water and a scout deployed. Another went to the bow and prepared to throw the flotation device.

Nice arm!

All went smoothly until it looked like we might be in the way of the ferry to Vashon Island. Should we give way? Call off the drill?  We were all worried Mr. Fender would be run down. This was a timed drill, and just that amount of slight dithering threw everyone off the mark. I fear Mr. Fender did not live to see another day. It’s obvious the scouts have run this drill many times, but they were disappointed that this time it took just seconds too long. For the Coast Guard, that can’t happen, even if a ferry is approaching. On the long wish list for this troop is a full submersion survival suit that would allow them to practice with a live human being. Sounds like a great plan!

Victim retrieved

 How you can support the Sea Scout program

(Yes, a shameless plug.)

Some serious timber for a serious ship

These kids are the future leaders of our country and, frankly, with kids like these in command we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Many of the senior scouts have goals that include attending maritime academies as well as active duty service in the Navy or Coast Guard. It’s hard to put a price on the experience, training, and discipline that they gain from participating in this program; the kind of learning that schools simply cannot offer for any amount of money. Having this program in Tacoma benefits us all.

A program of this size and complexity runs on the tireless efforts of the scouts, their adult leaders (God Bless ’em) and contributions from many generous sponsors. If you ever go aboard the ship for a visit, you will see the donation box below, ready to accept a donation. But why wait? Thanks to the magic of the Interweb, you can click on the image below and make a contribution to the Odyssey right now. The Tacoma Youth Marine Foundation supports programs like the Sea Scouts and serves as the Odyssey’s home port. As a 501c3 organization, all contributions are tax deductible.

 

Thank you for your donation!

Thanks For Your Donation!

An Apologia for Boat Brokers And Some Pretty Good Sailing

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I am fighting the urge to wax philosophical about the lot in life that belongs to the beleaguered boat broker. Whereas in the past I might have misunderstood their pain and suffering at the hands of the average boat shopper, I am now in a position where I want to wrap them all up in my arms, pat them gently on their bowed backs, dry their little eyes and say, “I’m sorry for you! Would you like to talk about the possibility of finding an entirely different profession?”. I understand their pain. I feel their pain. We are living their pain because we are trying to sell our own boat. Why are boat brokers in pain? It’s because of people, that’s why. People who don’t know what they want.  And we know this because we have been those people and we have caused pain. And now we are getting our payback.

Watercolor of Moonrise

Watercolor of Moonrise by Alex Kimball

How could this possibly happen, you might be wondering. Isn’t it true that the price of a boat is listed, along with photographs of the boat and at least basic information about the make, model, and year? Doesn’t this guarantee that potential buyers will have some idea of what they are looking at?

If you answered yes, a big  SMACK DOWN for you because that would be logical, and people are anything but logical. Just stop right now with your logical thinking! You are actually more likely to have to show the boat to people who are really looking for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT KIND OF BOAT. That’s right.

 

Here are some examples:

  • The person who has $40,000 to spend, but is hoping your $20,000 boat will be just as nice. Because, seriously, people always UNDERvalue their boats. 
  • The person who wants the style of a 1980’s boat at a 1970’s boat price. Again, photos.
  • The person who really wants an outboard engine but comes to look at a boat with an inboard engine. It’s pretty hard to change that.
  • The person who wants to spend $20,000 on a boat, but wants everything on it to be new. (Cue hysterical laughter here.)

A lot of rain in the mountains created tidal striations in the waters of Commencement Bay on a very sunny Labor Day weekend.

It’s becoming clear to us that brokers work much harder for the sale than anyone gives them credit for. It’s a lot of work to sell a boat. We’re sorry to any brokers whose time they feel we wasted. We like meeting people, and we really don’t mind doing boater education. We understand the need to look at a lot of boats since we, too, enjoy that, although we hesitate to waste a broker’s time anymore just to see a boat if we are fairly certain we won’t be making an offer. We’ve learned our lesson there. We don’t even mind showing our boat to people who are just curious because they know we have a blog. I mean, what boat owner doesn’t want to stand around and chew the fat about his boat? Ask us about our batteries! We’ll tell you…We might even take you for a sail.

But this is where our ‘boat broker’ experience ends. Brokers are looking to create relationships with people, knowing they will spend a lot of time up front and might be able to sell a boat later. Brokers have a lot of boats to sell. We, on the other hand, have only one boat to sell. Just one good, solid sailboat with a reliable engine and good sails that is ready to go with no required work on the part of the buyer that we know of.  What’s the problem with that? We wish we knew. We’re looking for one honest to goodness buyer who has done their homework about the kind of boat they want and who will offer a reasonable price for our boat and follow through with the sale. That’s all. Just one. Know anybody?

Cute little gaff rigged sailboat.

Meanwhile as we ponder the more philosophical side of this whole boat selling business, we ask ourselves if it’s worth all the hassle, all the emotional roller coaster riding we’ve had to do lately. We are getting a little bone weary of this whole thing and the idea of just taking this Cal 34 on the first part of our voyage begins to look more and more attractive. It would certainly be cheaper. It’s likely to be pretty uncomfortable sometimes, but, as they say, the ocean passages are only a small part of the whole experience. And it would just be so much easier.

In other news, Mike was commenting yesterday that this has been one of the best years for sailing that he can remember. We’ve had more sunny days, AND more wind than usual. We had two back to back excellent days of sailing on Commencement Bay and when I say ‘sailing’, I mean 6.8 knots on a close reach, all the way to Vashon Island. Woo Hoo!!  On days like that it’s hard to be upset that we still have our boat. It could be worse. We could own a boat that is so heavy it can’t sail out of its own way (in the words of a certain broker we know). Or we could have a project boat that just won’t quit. Oh, the thoughts we are thinking right now. They do go round in circles.

All kinds of interesting boats out on the water this weekend!

If you are looking for the companion blog post to the article on ThreeSheetsNW about the SSS Odyssey, here’s the link for that. We hope you read it because the Sea Scouts is a seriously cool organization.