BOAT HANDLING COURSE
American’s Boating Club of Saginaw Bay (formally called the Saginaw Bay Sail & Power
Squadron) will offer a Boat Handling course October 2023. The course meets for two hours (7-
9 PM), once a week for six weeks at the Bay Landscaping, 1630 SE Boutell Rd. Essexville.
Classes are Wednesdays 10/11/23 – 11/15/22 at 7 PM. Cost: $70/person or $85/ couple
sharing a textbook. The classroom setting encourages extensive dialog in which the instructor
can transfer much of his or her boating experience to the student.
Individuals with a potential interest are requested to reply to Craig Murchison, 989-295-0810,
cbmurch2@gmail.com, expressing their interest.

For more info please click on the following link : Fall Boat handling Course

Please note that as a SSYC member you are eligible for a discount on your Tow Boat/BoatUS membership by using the SSYC insurance discount code number GA 82524Y

Save the date! The annual SSYC Picnic is rapidly approaching!

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Meet and greet your boating neighbors at 5:30 pm

SSYC will provide: Hot Dogs, Brats, and Chips

*** please bring your favorite dish to pass ***

Dinner will be served at 6:00 pm

Drawing to be held around 6:30 pm

Euchre tournament to begin around 7:30 pm Feel free to bring your favorite lawn game!

SSYC has located two areas in the channel that have submerged logs/debris near the center of the channel. Both areas are marked with jugs. It has been reported by fellow boaters that they have had good luck when going around the two marked areas that they stay to the north side of the jugs and split the distance between the jugs and the red channel buoys. Once past the markers they move back into the center of the channel going both directions. SSYC will continue to work on removal of the debris in the coming weeks.

Our channel is free of logs for now!  This was more trouble than any of us can remember regarding log removal.  The process was performed in 2 stages.

First stage: Dennis Albee, Tom Duch, Dennis Reinke and Bill Roberts went out to locate & remove whatever could be found.  They located and removed a single 25’ log. They also located a second submerged log. However, due to the size of the log they didn’t have the proper equipment to complete the job and the weather was turning on them.  So, we contacted Prime contracting to see if they could remove the log for us. He said he would give it a try for $5,000. If we had done it that way we would have split the cost with Bay City Yacht Club.  $2500.00 divided by 186 = $13.44 a share… Seemed fairly reasonable.  In the meantime, Joe Shotwell (BCYC) called. He wanted to try to get the log out.  The Commodore said “well, okay if you think you can do it then let’s get it out!”

Second stage: Dennis Albee, Dave Dammann, Dennis Reinke, Randy Bauer (SSYC neighbor)  and Joe Shotwell (Bay City Yacht Club) went out to give it a try.  Joe Shotwell used a ladder to get down on top the log.  He was able to get a wire line around the log and Randy Bauer then pulled the log out with his tractor.  After that they searched around and found yet another log. They removed that one as well.  

For now our channel is clear, but we must continue to be careful because the potential for more logs to drift into our channel from the river is ever present.

In the meantime, if you cross paths with any of the club members mentioned who volunteered their precious time to clear our channel… a hearty handshake and a gigantic Thank You is certainly in order

Great news! Dredging is now complete!

The dredge is in the process of being removed from our channel. We are very happy with the final results. The channel marker buoys will be put in place tomorrow.

Below are the depths recorded this morning with a southwest wind, approximately 5 mph.

Happy Boating!

In discussion with the dredgers this morning, they will move the dredge back over to our channel sometime tomorrow, Monday. Anticipate it being there Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully, that will be the end of dredging for us for this season!

Dredging update… we had a crew of SSYC, BCYC, and the dredging Foreman take manual readings of the channel depth this morning. Unfortunately, there is still more material that needs to come out. So, we will see the dredge moving back over to our channel to perform some touch up work based off the readings taken this morning.

Below are the depth readings taken this morning. Keep in mind… these depths will fluctuate based upon wind speed and direction…

We’re almost there! 

A quick update on the dredging status… The dredgers have moved the dredge over to Bay City Yacht club’s south channel. We believe they are done with our channel. We, along with BCYC personnel, are going to go out at 8:00am tomorrow morning and take manual readings throughout the channel to make sure we are satisfied with the dredging results.

We will add a post tomorrow after the manual readings.

The 2023 America’s Boating Club of Saginaw Bay (formerly called Saginaw Bay Sail and Power Squadron) will be at SSYC for boat safety inspections this summer  on Saturday, June 17, starting at 10:00 am.   Sign up sheets for a boat inspection will be posted at the bath houses. This is a good way to learn a little more about your boat and boating safely on the Saginaw Bay. It helps avoid (but not necessarily stops) those untimely  inspections by the Coast Guard too.  Hope you take advantage of this great opportunity.