Be Good To Our Environent -Spare the plastic bottles!

Today's guest blog is from our very own Director of Youth Programs, Amy Lyons.  Thank you Amy.

Water Water Everywhere…

I don’t know about you, but sailing and being surrounded by water always makes me thirsty.  If you share this sentiment, please read on before you dip your hands into the Charles for a sip… I’ve got a better solution. 

CBI wants to put an end to two pervasive problems among our membership – drinking Charles River water, and buying single-use plastic bottles.  For your health, and the health of our environment, we’ll be selling reusable aluminum water bottles for the low price of $6 each, as well as installing a new water fountain with a better filtration system.  Cool, refreshing, filtered water… aaaaaahhhh. 

Did you know:

• Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
• 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
• 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water
• 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
• The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
• Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water

Be the envy of all your friends with a small piece of aluminum that says “I care”. 

Best features of these bottles: there’s a spot to write your name, so no one can steal your awesome bottle (believe me, they’ll want to!), and they have a carabiner – attach it to yourself or your boat to keep that cool water coming! 

Buying one of these bottles is a no-brainer, however choosing the right color can be difficult.  Here are a few notes on what these different colors mean – choose wisely.  These bottles also make great gifts, but you’ll want to make sure that you choose the appropriate color for your friends and loved ones. 

Handy Color Guide:

• Black is a very powerful color that portrays one of class, elegance and wealth. 
• Purple portrays rich powerful kings, leaders, wizards and magicians.
• Green is the color of nature and health. It represents growth, nature, and money.
• Blue has a calming effect; it is a color of loyalty, strength, wisdom and trust.
• Red is a very strong color that evokes a powerful emotion of passion; it is a symbol of pride and strength.

You can order your water bottle TODAY by calling or emailing the Front Office (frontoffice@community-boating.org).

Stay Hydrated,

Amy

Some take aways from the National Sailing Programs Symposium

During the last week of January, CBI program managers Tom Moore, Marcin Kunicki, Amy Lyons, Andrew Alletag, and board member Adam Schepp and I spent a not unpleasant week in Clearwater Florida attending the US Sailing National Sailing Programs Symposium (NSPS).  NSPS is the annual conference hosted by US Sailing bringing together close to 300 individuals who manage, direct, and support sailing programs from every corner of the world ( mostly community based).  This year the attendee who travelled the farthest came from Hong Kong. CBI made some what of a splash this year by sending a delegation of 6 and receiving several awards for various outstanding achievements (Details to follow in my next blog).  I haven't attended an NSPS in several years.  This one made quite an impression on me.  I am truly bursting with pride to see how CBI's management team is regarded on the national stage.  Tom, Marcin, Amy, Adam and I  were all breakout presenters (Andrew, you get a pass for being the rookie this year!). US Sailing and NSPS are a lot like CBI - many. volunteers giving to others and receiving back in return.

Sometimes you take for granted what is in front of you every day. And I am guilty of this as much as anyone else.  When I see where CBI is today, and compare that to so many other programs, not just in the US but on the international stage, and recognize our  large and engaged volunteer community, I see the fruition of a beautifal idea and the core strength of CBI.  This is important  because with the construction of the new dock, I am very much impressed that the state's investment of close to $3 million, is based in part,on CBI, who we are and what we do, and more importantly what we will do in the future. The impact of CBI is in many ways much bigger than the small sailing area we enjoy today between the bridges.

While the dock gets closer to completion with each day, CBI gets closer to a new beginning.  I suspect that  great beginnings are built on great endings. CBI is 65 years old in 2011 and has had a truly great  run and a long list of accomplishments.  Now it's time for us to build the next 65 year together.    Next blog  - CBI Operations Director Tom Moore, Director of Junior Sailing Amy Lyons, and CBI receive multiple national awards!

[So we weren't gone that long and when we came back there is snow  piled high and thick everywhere.  What happened??!!  What did you all do??!!  Sigh.......My promise - it will take me 7 to 9 weeks but I will get rid of all the snow. You're welcome.]  -Charlie

Dock Progress!

Here are a couple of views of the dock today from our second story window.

Every week, CBI Operations Director Tom Moore, Director of Fleet and Facilities Greg Tobey, and I join the weekly construction meeting held by the DCR with Bourne Engineering, and CRC Company.  At these meetings every detail of the ongoing construction project is reviewed, audited, and approved.  It has been a great experience for me to see how the whole process comes together.  I have been singularly impressed with the professionalism, competancy, and efficiency of all parties involved.  In so far as folks will agree, I would like to  bring attention to the individuals who are building these wonderful dock day in and day out.  Today I'd like to introduce Rozeta Nikolova.  Rozeta is the Resident Engineer for the DCR on this project.  When work is happening on the dock Rozeta is here at CBI.  She inspects and reviews every pile, timber, and fastener, insuring that the dock is assembled precisely as designed. She spends a lot of time with a hard hat on inspecting the work, rain, snow or sunshine.  Rozeta is one reason I know this dock will be just simply brilliant.  Thank you Rozeta.

Some More Project Pictures

We've installed new cabinets in the Volunteer Room.

After demolishing the women's room counter and mirrors, we are ready to install new counter tops.

Some Winter Projects (Besides the dock!)

While the docks are moving along, we've been busy with other projects as well.  Here you see the new paint job on the Sisu safety launch.  Thanks to the wider garage doors installed  a couple of years ago we can now bring larger projects inside.

The back store room (formerly known as the sail loft) is receiveing new shelving to replace the old metal cabinets.

With change in the wind, CBI stays focused on what's important

For the past several months I have been distracted nearly everyday by looking out my office window and watching the construction of the new docks progress. I've learned a lot about how pilings are driven into the earth and what happens when they hit a layer of Boston Blue Clay (not a pretty sight!), tropical hardwoods, management of government funded public works and how to move a large barge through 12" thick ice (it helps to have a big crane).  The most exciting part of the new dock is the opportunity it will provide us to improve and expand our programming. I am personally looking forward to not spending so much of my time and energy talking about how the dock is falling apart and needs to be replaced.   I am so happy to be working on other projects!  So it looks to me like 2011 is going to be a pretty good year.   In 2010 our board of directors approved a 5 year strategic plan and our board  approved an ambitious budget for 2011 including a new safety launch, new engines,new windsurfers, (to name a few) and expanded programming in both our junior and accessible sailing programs. As we ramp up to opening for the sailing season it occurs to me that while CBI is experiencing a lot of change this year, we are also firmly holding on to those things, which over many decades, have not changed much - our community, volunteerism, and sailing for all by minimizing barriers to the sport of sailing.  We remain focused and committed to those things, which after all, are what is really important.

-Charlie

Blog #24 10/21/10 Wildlife and barges in the river

So this blog has taken a little hiatus since my last posting on Sept. 4 about American Airlines.  Sadly my effort to elevate AA's social conscience has fallen a bit short.  Sigh....so it goes....  But now I have many better things to write about including strange creatures and a large object in the Charles River.  You may have heard that late in the summer a 4 foot alligator was captured up river.  This is ominous for someone who occasionally swims in the river, either through capsize or the Charles River One Mile Swim (http://www.charlesriverswimmingclub.org/).  I am comforted that it was only 4 feet long.  However what about it's mother or father?  That's what really concerns me. 
Another visitor to the Charles River was spotted numerous times over the past week - a harbor seal.  We've seen him/her several times as have many other folks at MIT and the Duck Tours.  I spoke with the NE Aquarium (as have others) and yes the seal probably belongs on the other side of the locks.  This isn't the first seal to wander up river from the locks and hopefully it will find it's way back out to the harbor soon on it's own. In the meantime the NE Aquarium is aware of the seal and is monitoring the situation to see if they will attempt to capture and remove it to where it more properly belongs.

Now onto barges.  The demolition/construction barge/crane has arrived and is parked alongside CBI's docks. The  barge arrived today only a couple of hours after the official "ground breaking" for the dock project, where Secretary Ian Bowles, having received extensive training by your truly, fired CBI's world famous signalling canon to initiate the demolition of the dock.   The canon's mighty bang was awesome and thunderous, a show of explosive force, truly terrible and magnificent all at the same time. After the smoke had cleared, and the smell of gun powder lingered briefly, the windsurfing shed met it's demise at the hands of a large tractor.  As you may realize by now, all this is to say, in as long winded a way as possible, that the dock demolition has begun in earnest.  We've shifted the web cam (http://www.blogger.com/cbi-weather) to face down the dock so you can watch the progress of the project online.
Here's a picture of the barge and crane today. 

Tomorrow I'll review the status of the project and the  financial support from both the state and private partners which are making the new docks a reality.

Charlie