| | Last updated Sunday, March 12, 2006 
"All the news that's fit to float" Squadron News Port Captains are an extensive listing of USPS members available to assist you in unfamiliar waters and cities and is one of the value-added benefits to membership in USPS and our squadrons. The Port Captains Roster is available to USPS members by supplying their cert # and zip code. No other password is needed. The listing is very extensive and is listed by location, i.e.: New York Harbor, Hudson River, Barnegat Bay, ICW, etc. The information is up to date so USPS hopes you will be able to find it helpful. You can access the Port Captain's listing at the following USPS webpage: http://www.usps.org/national/PortC/ Sea Wind's Cruise to Maine Four of our intrepid members sailed from NJ to Maine. Please click the link to open the word document or Acrobat document to read it. Sea Wind's Cruise to Main.pdf
Power Squadron News See Totem page
Industry & Local News | Marina explosion causes millions in damage | | | DANVERS, Mass. – Millions of dollars of damage greeted business and boat owners this week as they got their first look at the 240-vessel Liberty Marina which is located next to a factory that was destroyed last month by a massive chemical explosion, the Boston Globe reported in a story on its Web site today.
Many of those who surveyed the destruction were shocked at what they saw: shattered windows on the boats and hunks of wood, pieces of Plexiglass, nails, shingles, and other debris scattered on the ground, particularly near the heavily damaged main building. Insurance specialists, and the marina owner believe that the explosion caused at least $2 million in damage to boats and possibly $2 million more to the marina buildings, the Globe reported.
"I don't think people realize the extent of boat damage," Stephen P. Charette, a marine surveyor assessing the vessels for insurance companies told the newspaper. "It's devastating to a lot of people. The damage has been catastrophic."
Among the dozens of boats surveyed so far, about 40 vessels are damaged. The insurance specialists are discovering very few signs of fire damage and are not seeing punctures to the hulls from flying debris. Instead, the recreational vessels, which had values ranging from $20,000 to $500,000 before the explosion, were damaged from within.
"The insides of the boat are literally sucked outward," Jonathan K. Klopman, a marine surveyor from Marblehead told the newspaper. "Every locker is blown open. Windows are sucked out. Boat hatches are blown out. It's really unusual stuff."
Fire Chief James Tutko of Danvers said the boats are casualties of an air blast that flew through the Danversport neighborhood about 3 a.m. on Nov. 22 after the initial detonation of the building that housed makers of ink and industrial paint. He said firefighters were able to quickly bring the fire under control, and the geography of the boatyard, lying slightly lower than the foundation of the destroyed building, helped shield the boats from debris and heat damage, the Globe reported. Top
|
| Coast Guard broaches state boat licenses | | | State governments would issue licenses to America’s 77 million recreational boaters if the nation’s top maritime law enforcer gets his way.
U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said the potential for a terrorist attack launched from small boats means that states and the Coast Guard must cooperate better to watch who is on America’s waterways. Though he doesn’t yet have details or formal recommendations for how a national permit system would work, he said he’d like to see boating licenses be similar to motor vehicle driver’s licenses.
Forty-four states now require some kind of mandatory education before boaters can get on the water, but just one – Alabama – oversees boaters with the same rigor it applies to motorists, according to the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) of Lexington, Ky.
Allen told a meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures on Dec. 6 he expects resistance to his idea from state lawmakers who don’t want to deal with the cost and details of licensing, and from the multi-billion-dollar boat-building and tourism industries, which don’t want to risk a drop in revenues. (Click here to listen to an excerpt of Allen’s remarks.)
Still, Allen said the debate on licensing has to start somewhere. "I’m trying to stick my toe in the water and see if I get bit by a piranha," he joked.
It hasn’t yet come to that, but the nation’s largest boating advocacy group is wary of the permitting idea.
"Mandatory education is one thing. We’re not opposed to having people take a course. But we wouldn’t want to see it turn into a license that could be restricted or taken away," said Chris Edmonston, director of boating safety for the Boat Owners Association of The United States, commonly known as Boat U.S, based in Alexandria, Va. The driver’s license analogy was not a good start, he said.
"Driving a car is considered a privilege conferred by the state, but boating is considered a right. It gets back to that 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' sort of thing," Edmonston said.
Because there are no formal details and Allen just "wants to create a dialogue," neither the Coast Guard nor boating groups would guess how much it could cost for every state to issue more stringent boat permits. What is certain is Allen’s purpose in calling for licenses: America’s under-supervised waterways are vulnerable to attacks, he said.
The United States already has endured terrorism using small civilian craft, albeit overseas: In 2000, suicide bombers in the port of Aden, Yemen, used an inflatable boat to blow themselves up next to the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding 39 others.
Terrorism experts point to other ways small boats potentially could assist in attacks – for example, a speedboat could deposit saboteurs at the outlet pipes of a nuclear power plant, or hijackers aboard a cruise ship. In a nightmare scenario, suicide bombers in a crowded harbor could use small watercraft to detonate a tanker carrying ultra-volatile liquefied natural gas, causing a powerful explosion that could kill thousands.
"As good as we get at surveillance, as good as we get at patrolling and creating deterrence out there, sooner or later we’re going to have to come to grips with the fact that we need to know to a greater certainty who are operating boats out there, what boats are out there," Allen said.
At present, state maritime rules and tracking vary widely, said Gail Kulp, educational director of NASBLA. These rules can vary even between states along the same coastline: Maryland, for example, has no age restrictions on who can pilot a recreational boat, but in Virginia, which shares the Chesapeake Bay, operators must be at least 14.
Penalties also vary widely, Kulp said. If people in Florida and Indiana are found to be operating boats under the influence of drugs or alcohol, their motor vehicle driver’s licenses can be suspended. But 39 states do not penalize driver’s licenses for violations on the water. Devising uniform rules and enabling better tracking of boaters will be a priority for the Coast Guard in the coming years, Allen said, along with an appropriate respect for civil rights.
"I can understand as we move towards trying to understand what’s going on out the water, to improve safety and security, there’s a point to which the rights of our citizens need to be prime." he said.Top Top
|
NY show attendance on par with last year | | | NEW YORK – While they don’t like it, New York National Boat Show exhibitors have “gotten used to” a change in booking policy at the Jacob K. Javits Center over the past five years that has resulted in less than ideal show dates during the holiday season, according to Michael Duffy, show manager.
But they haven’t given up, he added in a phone interview this morning. Organizers are holding a New York State Legislative Reception at the show tomorrow in hopes of meeting many of the new legislators, introducing them to the industry and gaining their support for a change in policy.
Sales hard to gauge so far
Meanwhile, overall attendance at the show, which runs Dec. 30 to Jan. 7, seems about the same as last year, though attendance on Saturday and Sunday was up about 6 percent.
Duffy reported that organizers moved the Discover Boating Center into the lobby of the Javits Center and decreased special event space, which resulted in more exhibitors than last year and the expansion of a few existing exhibitors’ booth space.
It’s difficult to gauge boat show sales only three days into the show because the bulk typically are generated during the last weekend of the show, he explained. But this year’s numbers may be more accurate than in the past.
Organizers have started a two-pronged program in an effort to better gather these sales numbers – one in which boat buyers at the show receive a $50 gift certificate and entry into a $5000 drawing for bringing their bill of sale to the show office and one in which dealers get one entry for each reported boat sold into a daily drawing for $200 in cash. Top
|
| 2006 Tax | | | ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Thanks to action taken by Congress in December, tax filers who made a large purchase in 2006, such as a boat, may deduct state and local sales taxes paid if the tax rate applied to the boat was the same as the state's general sales tax, the Boat Owners Association of The United States, reported yesterday.
"Some taxpayers may be confused because the usual extension of these provisions were not approved by Congress until after the IRS had already printed its forms in November for the 2006 tax year," said Elaine Dickinson, assistant vice president of BoatU.S. Government Affairs, in the release. "We've been hearing from our members that even their own accountants are unaware of the extension since it did not appear on the printed 2006 Schedule A (Form 1040).”
A notice on the IRS Web site, www.irs.gov, outlines the so-called "extender provisions." It also lets taxpayers know that returns with these deductions will not be processed until Feb. 3 to give the agency time to incorporate the latest legislation into its processing systems for '06 returns. To get the deduction, filers must itemize their deductions.
"Taxpayers may deduct either sales taxes or state income taxes, but not both," said Dickinson. The deduction for state and local general sales taxes may be claimed on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 5, "State and local income taxes." Enter "ST" on the dotted line to the left of line 5 to indicate you are claiming the general sales tax deduction instead of the deduction for state and local income tax, according to the IRS.
For more on state tax deductions, download IRS Publication 600, which includes state-by-state tax tables, by going to the above link or by calling 1-800-829-1040, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays.Top
|
| Captain of Boat That Capsized in Lake George, Killing 20 People, Indicted | | | QUEENSBURY, N.Y. — A grand jury on Monday handed up criminal charges against the owner of a cruise line and the captain of a boat that capsized in October 2005 in upstate New York, killing 20 elderly tourists. Shoreline Cruises and Capt. Richard Paris are both charged with failing to have enough crew members aboard the Ethan Allen tour boat when it flipped over in Lake George on Oct. 2, 2005, sending a boatload of leaf peepers into the chilly water. Paris was the only crew member aboard; state navigation law required at least two for the 47 passengers on board that day. The charges are misdemeanors under the state's navigation law. At a 10 a.m. news conference, Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan said the grand jury also made several legislative recommendations, the specifics of which won't be released until a county court judge accepts the report, she said. "They were greatly moved by this case," Hogan said of the grand jury. She read a statement from the panel: Related Stories NTSB: Ethan Allen Was Overloaded "This accident was a great tragedy," the statement said. "Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and friends."
Anna May Hawley, of Trenton, Mich., was on the boat with her husband, Earl, who died in the capsizing.
"I think I still am a bit angry," Hawley said on Monday. "It's been a long time, but it's never going to go away. ... Whatever they do is not going to bring back the people who died."
Hawley declined to discuss whether she was involved in lawsuits against the boat operator, tour organizers or others, but said she believed more than the captain and cruise line owner were responsible.
"Somebody had to know that something was wrong."
Attempts to reach Shoreline, Paris and the lawyers representing them were not immediately successful.
The day was clear and sunny, but investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board believe the 40-foot boat was rocked by a wake from a passing boat, or multiple boats.
The federal board last summer concluded that the boat was dangerously unstable and should have carried only a quarter of the passengers onboard.
The Ethan Allen was certified to carry 48 passengers plus two crew, according to weight limits that have since been modified. There were 48 people on the boat — including Paris — when it capsized, but federal investigators said the boat should not have been certified to carry that many people.
Passenger capacity for the boat was calculated when it was manufactured in 1966, but modifications over the years made it less stable and capacity should have been slashed to 14 people, the NTSB reported.
Nine lawsuits have been filed in federal court by survivors and victims' families against the boat operator, tour organizers and others. Top
|
|
|
