Tips & Hints

Dust Off That GPS

Have a portable GPS you intend to use on your boat? This week set a waypoint for a common place you drive  and another at your your home. Put the unit on the dash of your car and use the "GO TO" function to get there and back.

If its been a while since you used it you might first set up a few points in the neighborhood and walk to them without the distraction of driving. You get 5 extra points for the exercise.

If you wait to practice until you need to get back to that cove on the lake from Jamestown, you probably should take extra gasoline and food on the trip.

Previous Hints

Locking the LSPS Way

24 September2008  The LSPS fleet leaves the McAlpine Lock after locking down to the lower river, rafting-up for lunch, and reentering the chamber as "lock savvy" boaters. This type of event is why we are members - becoming better/safer boaters while enjoying friends on a gorgeous Saturday.

Jelly Fish Problem

9 August 2008

Jelly Fish are becoming a big problem.

From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The Story

Site Navigation HELP

12 October 2007

Now available for new and returning visitors is a help window for main menu selections.

Access it from the link on the top of the right column - "Click Me for Menu HELP".(You must have "scripts" enabled for this version to work.) This will open a second smaller window with the help. If you want to click on the button, use the version below.

It is also available on the "Navigation" menu on the left side of each of the section main pages with no script restrictions. You may click on a button to go to that section. Right click then "Back" to return.

Move the cursor over a button for information on the section. You can drag the window to a more convenient location by left click and holding down the mouse on the top border (Give it a try!). Remove the help window by clicking on the X in the upper right corner.

Our new LSPS Mapping System

Drive or boat to the next event with total certainty. Our new mapping program will show you where it is and even give you turn by turn directions.

Click on this symbol (Knights of Columbus) and choose the location listed next to it

 Click here for help.

Biofuel Boating News

29 July 2007

The way gas prices are going, and since I'm not interested in a lateral move to a sailboat (been there, done that, bought the t-shirt around 1953), it's probably a good idea to pay attention to any potential developments in alternative fuels. To that end, I submit the following:

Peter Bethune, a former oil exploration engineer from New Zealand, is seeking liposuctioned fat to power his prototypical Earthrace Boat. Yeah, it's mostly a publicity gambit to draw attention to the boat, the race and Bethune's efforts to get the word out on biofuels. An effective publicity gambit, I hasten to add. The various "Soylent Green"-type headlines surely got me to investigate

And an Italian farming association is working on biofuels produced from sunflowers and sugar beets. Its sunflower oil-powered boat premiered at the recent Kyoto Protocol conference in Montreal. Sounds crazy, but the boat ran fine, the retrofit - whenever it comes on the market - is going to be relatively inexpensive and (my favorite part) everything reportedly smelled faintly like French fries after the demonstration.