Welcome to the Buzzards Bay Post page!
The Posts has a full schedule planned for the 2023 season
The Buzzards Bay Post, kicked off their Winter 2023 Post luncheon’s on December 2nd at the Beverly Yacht Club, in Marion MA. The December event was the annual meeting of the Post with the changeover of the Post officers. Post Captain, Paul Busheuff announced the new Post officers; Ray Cullum, Post Captain and Ed Van Keuren, Secretary/Treasurer. After a very nice lunch, Jim and Dee Woodward gave a terrific presentation called “99 Locks” about their two trips on two different boats to all five Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River.
The February luncheon is being held at Buzzards Bay Yacht Services owned by CCA members Peter Cassidy and Ed Van Keuren in Mattapoisett, MA. There will be a casual luncheon in the shop followed by a talk by Peter and Ed on “Fiberglass Yacht Restoration.” The March event will be back at the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, MA on March 24th.
Planning is in the works for the summer Follow the Wave rendezvous in Narraganset and Buzzards Bay over the summer including the 3rd annual combined rendezvous with the Narragansett Bay Post at 3rd Beach in Middletown, RI, a stopover at the home of CCA members Peter and Jen Francis as part of the cruise in company heading north for the Maine cruise, and a visit back to Bassetts Island in the early fall.
As the Nation deals with COVID-19, the post is thankful for the great events held during the off season and to those that contributed to their success. The following are some highlights.
The BBP in coordination with the Boston Station hosted the Spring Gam in Vineyard Haven at Gannon and Benjamin. Larry Hall, assisted by Dan Crete, handled keg duties and served up a “Gunsmoke clam rolls.”
Dan Crete With Post Captain , Larry Hall
In June the rum keg was relocated to The Spirit of Bermuda in New Bedford Harbor. The Crew provided tours of the ship amd Contributions to the rum keg were donated to the Bermuda Sloop Foundation. Thank you Wendy Cullum for coordinating this event.
CC Cunningham With Post Captain , Larry Hall
Wendy Cullum with Post Secretary, Paul Bushueff
We convened our first fall luncheon on Friday, November 1, at the Beverly Yacht and enjoyed our usual fair of excellent clam chowder and chicken Caesar salad followed by a great presentation of personal safety devices and their use given by Mark Lenci.
This was followed by an animated and informative discussion on provisioning for long voyages delivered by Skip Garfield. Thank you, Mark and Skip, for two excellent presentations! The discussion on provisioning spawned the idea of a post cook and provisioning guide. Please send in a couple of your most imaginative offshore recipes and let’s see what we get. Rusty Kellogg showed up with a Tupperware container full of samples!
On Dec 6, CCA member and Blue Water Medal Award winner, Rich Wilson. Rich was introduced by Past Boston Station Rear Commodore and CCA National Awards Chair, Bill Cook. Bill explained that since the Club awarded Rich the Blue Water Medal in 2004 for a series of passages in his 53’ trimaran, Great American II, to equal or beat the record passages of famous 19th century clipper ships, including San Francisco to Boston (1993), New York to Melbourne (2001) and Hong Kong to New York (2003) and since you can only be “Knighted” once, the Club had to create a special award for Rich when he went on to complete two Around the World Nonstop Singled-Handed Vendee Globe Races, the second at the age of 66!
Rich talked about his most recent project which is the creation of the Collegiate Offshore Sailing Circuit (COSC) that features the deployment of 10 Beneteau 33’s, the Figaro 2’s, to 10 US universities that have offshore sailing programs. These capable boats will allow collegiate sailors to train and compete on the same sailing circuit in level platforms. The presentation included some exciting video of the Figaro 2’s sailing in heavy air in the Bay of Biscay. Eventually Rich hopes to grow the fleet to 20 boats. More information can be found at https://www.cosc-usa.org/
In February we met in Hyannis, starting at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum with lunch and a tour of the Museum. Then we went on to the Boatbuilders Show at the Convention Center. Thank you, Bill Cook, Liz Rabideau , Director, Don Stucke, Curator, and the great staff at CCMM. for arranging this event. The day was enjoyed by all.
Our March event was held at the New Bedford Yacht Club. Our Guest speaker was Dan Crete, Saltworks Marine, talking about the care and maintenance of small diesel engines. Dan hilited things to watch on popular Yanmar diesels and best maintenance practices. Judging by the questions and interest, this session could have lasted all afternoon. Dan, thank you for a great job.
Due the potential for cancelling the last post lunch of the season. Tim O'keefe, chairman of the Post nominating Committee, announced the changes to the Post organization. Paul Bushueff will assume Post Captain duties and Jeff Gonsalves will become Post Secretary.
Larry, I thank you for your excellent stewardship over the last two years. It was a pleasure to work with you, Paul.
April, was to be be a safety meeting with Brian Flowers from Life Raft and Survival Equipment talking and demonstrating the latest offshore safety gear. Unfortunately this meeting is cancelled. We hope to reschedule in the fall.
Paul Bushueff Jeff Gonsalves
Post Captain Post Secretary