First 2010 Delegate Meeting — Held 2/21/10

Bodkin Yacht Club, Pasadena, Maryland

SIYC Delegate Don Thieme joined over 70 boaters attending the first 2010 Delegate meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Clubs Association.

CBYCA:  The meeting was led by 2010 Commodore Pam Butler {Baltimore, MD} and 2010 Vice Commodore Kay Brawley {Northeast, MD}.  [Commodores Butler’s home yacht club is Neptune Yacht Club, Baltimore, MD.]

Celia Battaglini, CBYCA, Legislation Director, spearheaded a collective overview of various legislative issues.  Celia spent extra time educating the audience about the parameters regarding Senate Bill 513 that deals with waste discharge from one’s watercraft. 

She indicated the bill had one reading in the Maryland legislature as of this date, with a hearing scheduled for March 16th. 

Celia has several concerns about this proposed legislation.  They include, but are not limited to: this legislation focuses on Coast Guard mandates that are already in place for effluent discharge from one’s watercraft.  Secondly, there are not a sufficient amount of working pump outs in marinas, both winter and summer to handle the 400,000+ registered boaters in Maryland.  And finally, Celia posed that the EPA would not want a state to impose rulings that the state could not service by lack of facilities.

Celia said in closing, “All of us who use the Chesapeake Bay want a CLEAN BAY.  That is why we follow the {current} recommendations regarding discharge.”

Click here to open a PDF file of the proposed legislation.

Keynote Speaker — Colonel George Johnson

Colonel George F. Johnson IV, Superintendent, Maryland Natural Resources Police, provided an overview of his police agency.  Colonel Johnson explained how funding cuts have reduced his agency from 435 officers to approximately 247 men and women.  In addition to the 17,000 miles of waterway for which his agency has responsibility, the officers now have the additional responsibility of Maryland’s state parks.

This conservation responsibility has put huge demands on his officers.  His officers are dealing with everything from poaching and other illegal activities to being the search managers for missing persons.

Colonel Johnson took extra time to provide details about his agency’s new MLINE program that will be tracking all vessel movement in the Chesapeake Bay waterways.  There will be four cameras in strategic locations with each of the cameras having a nine-mile range in the daytime and five miles at night.  The Colonel provided one anonymous anecdote of the illegal oyster collection that occurred recently at 2:30 am.  The illegal persons had gathered 31 bushels of oysters, instead of the legal 12 bushel limit.

The Colonel encouraged anyone spotting suspicious activity to call: 410.260.8888. 

Colonel Johnson gave an overview on one legislative issue namely the “Noise Bill.”  The legislation basically lowers the noise standard to 88 decibels from the current 90 decibels.  He indicated the greatest impact of this legislation — if passed — would be on racing and cigarette boats, also those boats with loud exhausts and cutouts.  The Colonel has concern about the current legislation language and hopes to influence an amendment when the Senate version comes to the House.  The Colonel wants his officers to have the flexibility to provide a warning, if conditions warrant such an approach with the boater.

[The following was posted on 2/11/10]  Top

Marine Issue — Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs) for Youth

CBYCA Initiative versus SIYC Position

At the November 2009 SIYC Board of Governors meeting the following points and counterpoints were raised regarding a possible new law that would require young people under the age of 14 to wear a PFD on boats.

CBYCA:  Susan Rork, SIYC 2009 Delegate to the CBYCA, announced that the Department of Natural Resources is considering a new law requiring young people under the age of 14 to wear a PFD on boats and looking for SIYC support for this.  She made her request into a motion; seconded by Jane Crawford to write a letter of support for this impending bill.  After discussion, the vote was taken and the motion was not passed.

SIYC New Business — Counter Position

Roger Stobbart made a motion to send a letter to the Department of Natural Resources opposing the bill requiring youth under age 14 to wear personal flotation devices (PFDs) when on boats.  Larry Reich seconded the motion.  The motion was passed.

SIYC Letter to Maryland Natural Resources Police

(The following is an excerpt from the SIYC letter sent December 12, 2009 to the Maryland Natural Resources Police Superintendent.}

“Our Governors feel strongly that the proposal is an unnecessary requirement by the government and the parents are the ones best able to judge for their children over the age of 7 for the need to wear a life jacket.”

SIYC Letter to DNR Regarding PDF Legislation

 

[posted 1/11/10]   Top

On January 9, 2010 at the SIYC Change of Watch Board of Governors meeting, Don Thieme was appointed by Commodore Marty Nash to assume the role as SIYC Delegate to the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Clubs Association for 2010.

Delegate Thieme {mailto:don@thiemecreativemedia.com} will represent SIYC at the first CBYCA Board/Delegates meeting on February 20, 2010.  The meeting will start at 1:00 pm at the Bodkin Yacht Club in Pasadena, Maryland. 

Thieme plans to have a CBYCA [2/20/10] report on this SIYC web page by March 15, 2010.

CBYCA History and Purpose

An inspiration by a patriarch of Maryland yachtsman, the Honorable William B. Matthews, Jr. to form an organization of Yacht Clubs in the Chesapeake Bay area led to the founding of the CBYCA on September 25, 1957.

The CBYCA was founded with three basic objectives:

1. To protect the interests of better boating in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries through legislation.
2. To define and set up standards of recognition for yacht clubs in the Chesapeake Bay area so as to distinguish between those yacht clubs completely controlled by the members thereof and those wholly or partly controlled by commercial ventures.
3. To act as a liaison and coordinator between yacht clubs as to coming events, such as opening days and commodore’s balls, as far as possible to prevent overlap of these types of events.

SIYC Will Complement CBYCA Initiatives

CBYCA’s legislative initiatives will be supplemented by SIYC’s own development of SIYC nautical and marine priorities for southern Maryland.

To this end, Thieme is polling individual SIYC members in the interest of creating a suggested list of marine and nautical priorities that will be submitted to the SIYC BOG for adoption.

Thieme can be reached in Solomons, Maryland at 410.394.0326.