Click here to sign up to receive the eLine newsletter. BoatUS Membership eLine - From the Crew that Works for You! February 2008 BoatUS Membership eLine is produced by the BoatUS Membership Department and is an update on seasonal issues, helpful suggestions, and friendly reminders. This has been sent to you because you are an active Member of BoatUS - The Association. In this issue: President's Corner - From BoatUS President, Nancy Michelman Hurricane Prep Symposium! DIY Spring Fitting-Out Issue is Here! New Wyndham Hotel Openings! BoatUS Financing: Loan Rates Drop! Register for My.BoatUS .com to Win a $200 West Marine Gift Card Ladder Lessons Learned - A Video Preview! Seaworthy Tip of the Month - Birds and the Bees and Flapper Valves BoatUS Classifieds Members - Get a Free Web Ad! Update Your Charts and Get a Member Discount! The New BoatUS Digital Magazine! - Check Out What's Coming Up Next! Survey of Boaters on Adult Lifejacket Wear President's Corner I've just returned from our annual BoatUS Towing Services Conference where BoatUS staff had the opportunity to share ideas and issues with Captains from our TowBoatUS and Vessel Assist Towers. One of the highlights of the conference each year is the Awards Banquet where we honor the Companies who have done an exceptional job serving Members in so many ways through out the year. This year we established a new award - the Chairman's Award for Community Service. Our inaugural Community Service award was presented to Capt. Randi Olsen of TowBoatUS Jacksonville, FL, for his contributions to the Safe Harbor Boys Home. For the last three years, Randi and his wife, Clarice, have funneled all of their towing company's profits as well as their salaries to a home that teaches work ethics and develops positive character traits to boys, age 14-18, who have lost one or both parents, or may have experienced behavior problems and need a place to stay. They live aboard boats at the marina, and receive mentoring, counseling, and life skills training as part of the program. Randi and Clarice were recently featured in an NBC Nightly news story about Safe Harbor. Please view it online at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#22843719. Capt. Olsen is just one of many exemplary towers within our fleet. I'll tell you about some others in upcoming E-Lines. Until the next eLine, make sure you have enough towing service to meet your boating lifestyle - and seek out your local towers and thank them for what they do for you both on and off the water! Nancy S. Michelman President@BoatUS.com Return to Top Hurricane Prep Symposium! How well prepared is your yacht club or marina for a hurricane? One thing that has become increasingly evident after each passing storm is that yacht clubs and marinas with well thought-out hurricane plans have a much higher survival rate than their less-prepared counterparts. With that in mind, BoatUS Marine Insurance is sponsoring a “Marina and Yacht Club Hurricane Preparation Symposium” in conjunction with the Association of Marina Industries, the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, and the Marine Industries Association of Florida. The two-day Symposium will introduce marina owners and yacht club managers from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the tools they need to weather the next hurricane, minimize damage and successfully recover. Some of the Symposium goals include: • How to develop a hurricane plan that gives your facility the best chance possible to survive a storm. • Preparation techniques that have worked well at other facilities. • Take a look at what “storm-hardened” waterfront facilities will look like in the future. • Discuss techniques that will get maximum effort from staff and boat owners. • Get questions answered and discuss ideas. • See exhibits of the latest in state-of-the-art hurricane preparation and damage mitigation products. The Symposium will be held March 4 - 5 at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. If you think your marina owner or yacht club manager is interested in learning the latest hurricane preparation techniques, direct him or her to BoatUS.com/hurricanes/symposium. Or, have them call Kristin Loyd at 703-461-2878, x 3561. Return to Top DIY Spring Fitting-Out Issue is Here! The spring ’08 issue of DIY Boat Owner, The Marine Maintenance Magazine, will be out later this month and features: Selecting Bottom Paint, Product and Application; Diesels - Fuel Injection Inspection; Lubricating Stern Drives; Navigation Software Showdown; Bilge Pump Switches; Non-Skid Deck Repair; Powerboat Steering Service; plus much more. To subscribe now, go to BoatUS.com/DIY or call 888-658-BOAT (2628). BoatUS Members can subscribe for a reduced rate of $21! Or, order 3 years of DIY at a special Member rate and it’s like getting one issue free. (Regular rate is $25 per year; Member 3-year special is $50.) Also available, the newly updated CD of all 52 issues of DIY from 1995 to 2007 has arrived. To order the DIY Hands On Boater CD click here! Return to Top New Wyndham Hotel Openings! Grand Opening Special! The NEW Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort in Oceanside, California! Just steps away from California’s longest active recreational pier, Oceanside’s Harbor and Marina. Stay at Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort and enjoy hotel rooms from only $109 per night! 1-bedroom condos complete with kitchen also available. Offer good through May 15, 2008. Book Now! BoatUS Members now save on condos at over 70 participating resorts around and throughout the United States (including Hawaii), U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Check out all locations at www.extraholidays.com and call 1-800-797-8511 to book your stay. Mention code 20650 to receive 10% off the best available rate. Return to Top BoatUS Financing: Loan Rates Drop! Boat Loan Rates Drop Now is the time to buy or refinance. Rates are lower than in previous years. We offer down payments as low as 10% and up to 20 year terms. Trust BoatUS Boat Finance to give you the real deal. Apply online at www.BoatUS.com/boatloans. Some restrictions may apply. Settlement Service: Early Season Savings Buying or selling a boat? Leave the work to us. BoatUS Settlement Service will coordinate transactions between buyer & seller including lien searches, loan payoffs, ownership transfer and hold deposits (if requested). This service is especially helpful for non-brokered transactions. For additional information visit us here. USCG Documentation Spring Savings Documentation is a federal registration for boats that provides ownership and lien information to be recorded with the USCG. BoatUS is offering an e-Line special of 20% savings through April 15, 2008. Apply on http://www.BoatUS.com/Documentation or call 706-869-8241 with any questions. RV Loan Rates Drop Now is the time to buy or refinance. We offer RV financing for Class A and C. Maximum model age is 1999. Terms up to 15-20 years and down payments as low as 15%. Visit us at www.RVUS.com or call 866-908-7887. Return to Top Register to Win a $200 West Marine Gift Card! The Members-Only website, My.BoatUS.com, was created just for you! If you haven't registered yet, click here to begin. Once you register, you are automatically entered to win the contest like our January's winner, Frank Hager from St. Helena Island, SC! Then you can start to personalize up to 4 pages of information with features like: * How-to-tips from BoatUS * Keep up-to-date with the latest Fishing Factoids * Put together Jigsaw Puzzles in your spare time * Read a new “Quote of the Day” Remember to login once a day and click on "Enter Contest" (left side of screen under "Manage Your Content") to increase your chances of winning. Registration is simple and easy - just fill in your Member number (# %%$MEMBER_NBR%%), email address and zip code, create a password and you're all set! Return to Top Ladder Lessons Learned - A Video Preview! Foundation Findings #44 - A Video Preview on Boarding Ladders Have you ever wondered how you’d get back aboard your boat if you fell overboard and were all alone? If so, check out this video preview of the upcoming Foundation Findings report on boarding ladders for self-rescue in small boats – it could save your life! Foundation staff and other volunteers tested several different ladder styles on a variety of boats under 18 ft to find out how boaters can best prepare for a situation where they’d need to re-board without assistance. In this video you’ll learn that not only is the ladder-type important, but it must be well-suited for the boat. And more importantly, you need to test your ladder in advance to find out what height, ladder position and technique work best. Watch your mailbox for the March issue of BoatUS Magazine for the full report on boarding ladders in Foundation Findings #44. Here, you’ll find tips on how to choose the right ladder for your boat as well as what to look for when installing and testing it out. Also, more videos, photos and testing details are coming soon to the Foundation’s website. Click here to see a preview of Foundation Findings #44 now! Return to Top Seaworthy Tip of the Month - Birds and the Bees and Flapper Valves By Bob Adriance, Editor, Seaworthy Damage Avoidance Newsletter It won’t be long before spring arrives and boatyards are again filled with the happy sounds of electric sanders, boatyard hoists and chirping birds. Boat owners make boatyard sounds to get their boats ready for launching. Birds make chirping sounds to attract other birds, which eventually means - wink, wink - baby birds. All of this would only be of passing interest, were it not for the fact that expectant birds tend to build nests. Just what goes on in their tiny brains when they look for places to build nests isn’t clear, but last year two BoatUS insured members at the same marina on the Eastern Shore of Maryland discovered birds had built nests way up in their boat’s exhaust tailpipes. Unfortunately for both the members and the birds, the nests weren’t discovered until the exhausts had mysteriously overheated and burned the exhaust system’s insulation and hose. A surveyor who examined one of the boats said the blocked system, left undiscovered, could easily have started a fire. Click here to read the rest of the tip. Seaworthy Damage Avoidance Newsletter is a publication of the BoatUS Marine Insurance program and is sent to all policyholders quarterly. For a quick and free insurance quote for your boat, click here. Return to Top BoatUS Classifieds - Members Get a Free Web Ad! Get a jump on selling your boat as the season winds up with a little help from BoatUS Classifieds: place a free-to-members web ad – including a photo of your boat! Better yet, place an ad in the May issue of BoatUS Magazine along with your free web ad with photo, and we’ll feature your photo ad in an upcoming edition of the Classifieds Ads newsletter. This means your ad can be seen by over 650,000 BoatUS Members in the May 2008 issue, scores of daily browsers on the BoatUS Classified Ads website, plus 15,000 potential buyers through the BoatUS Classified Ads photo emailed newsletter. May’s issue is one of the biggest classifieds issues of the year – be sure and get your ad in by the March 17, 2008 deadline. Get started by clicking here to place your ad, or here to sign up for the newsletters! Return to Top Update Your Charts and Get a Member Discount! BoatUS Members can now get $10 off the most up-to-date, NOAA approved paper charts available through OceanGrafix. This special offer is only good through June 30. OceanGrafix provides “Print on Demand” NOAA charts — in other words, they’re updated with all the latest NOAA and U.S. Coast Guard corrections when your order is filled. Charts can be ordered online or by calling 877-562-4278 with the Discount Code BUS416N. The regular OceanGrafix price is $25 per chart; the BoatUS Member Price is $15 through June 30. Even if you have electronic charts and a GPS, you should still have paper charts on board as a backup or handy reference, and these are the best available. Click here to order now! Return to Top The New BoatUS Digital Magazine! Keep an eye out for the March 2008 digital edition of BoatUS Magazine. It will be winging its way directly to you a few days before the end of this month. Feature articles include “Duffers, Doglegs and Docks,” about the 100 golf courses within easy reach of Myrtle Beach, SC and “Cruising Aloft to Catalina,” about boating or flying into this jewel of an island right off the Pacific coast. With stories like these, is there any reason to doubt our survey research which shows that 88% of our readers say they find information in BoatUS Magazine that just cannot be found elsewhere! Click here to read highlights from our January issue! Return to Top Survey of Boaters on Adult Lifejacket Wear Several years ago, the U.S. Coast Guard proposed mandatory lifejacket wear for adult boaters. While most U.S. states have a lifejacket requirement for children and for personal watercraft (jet-ski) operators, there are few areas requiring adult lifejacket wear. We'd like to know your thoughts on the topic of adults being required by law to wear lifejackets while underway. Click here to enter this short survey.