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

American Airlines, Can't we just be friends?

With this blog I'm going a little bit out on a limb and I hope it is not a big mistake.  Has anyone not seen one of those beautiful pictures of CBI and our sailboats on the Charles River with the Boston skyline behind? Recently some sailing friends showed me a great picture of CBI from an American Airlines advertisement. It made me want to come to Boston, and I'm here every day!  It's an image which has become iconic to Boston - as it should be.  CBI is a Boston original -the first community sailing program in the nation and the largest too.  Volunteerism and community are the core values which drive our organization .We serve thousands of children with outreach to inner city neighborhoods, and hundreds of individuals with disabilities through our Universal Access Program.  At the core, CBI's programs use sailing as a vehicle to bigger and better goals as articulated in our mission statement. See our mission statement here.  http://www.community-boating.org/about-us/mission

As is often the case when we see a great image of CBI in a commercial advertisement there is a  little voice inside that says, "Hey! that's us!" And almost immediately after, "That company should support CBI some how. After all they are in fact using us to help market their business!". Regardless of how sensible that sentiment might appear to us it apparently doesn't hold a lot of  water in the corporate world.  Many corporations have used the picture of CBI  for their own marketing purposes.  And we are still waiting for them to send CBI a little something for the holidays. 

So my friends wrote a note to American Airlines suggesting that a little corporate support might be a good idea. If I were a large corporation like American Airlines I would want to associate myself with a fine organization like CBI, especially when CBI has such a highly visible and iconic image.   Well maybe not.  Since I have a pretty big soft spot in my heart for CBI I thought the tone of American Airlines response to us was mean. AA explained that they purchased  the image from a reputable third-party online vendor and claimed that using the CBI image was not an attempt to convey to viewers that AA sponsors, endorses or is affiliated with CBI.  They conclude "As such, American also declines Community Boating, Inc's request to contribute to it's organization.  This letter is sent without waiving any of American Airlines rights or remedies all of which are expressly reserved." 

Ouch! I think they missed the point.  Maybe they are just not nice? maybe they just woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning? We teach kids to sail. We charge a buck. We teach individuals with disabilities to sail. We charge a buck.  We're a pretty nice organization. They ought to support us.  They could do worse.

So here's my idea.  Forward this blog onto friends and let's all just pull at their heart strings a little and see if we can interest American Airlines in "Sailing for All' especially for children and individuals with disabilities.  I'm sure once they think on it for a moment they'll recognize a pretty good idea.  American Airlines - you can contact me directly at charlie@community-boating.org.  Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Charlie

Hurricane Earl and the 1-2-3 rule.

Hurricane Earl is looking like a nice visit to the Carolina's is in order.  And then maybe a little romp up our way.  Fortunately I have no experience sailing in, around, or about a hurricane.  I will be content to keep it that way and I believe this is a widely and wisely accepted course of action for most folks.  However, if you sail enough distance over enough time, you  will probably come in contact with situations that should be avoided, a hurricane being the most obvious and extreme example.  So have you heard of the 1-2-3 rule?  Sailors have lots of little rules, saynings, and kernals of wisdom to keep them from getting themselves into trouble. The 1-2-3 rule helps you avoid bumping into a hurricane.  Since that seems like a good idea I am sharing it with you here.

1  -  100 miles / 24 hour forecast
2  -  200 miles / 48 hour forecast
3  -  300 mile / 72 hour forecast

How to apply the rule:       1)  Look at the 24 hour forecast for the track of the hurricane.  Stay 100 miles away from the track.  2)  Look at the 48 hour forecast for the track of the hurricane. Stay 200 miles away from the track. And last but not least 3) Look at the 72 hour forecast for the track of the hurricane. Stay 300 miles away from that track.  This is a little bit simplified so check out this web site for more information.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/205500.shtml?basin

Charlie