The 2008 PSUBS Convention will be held on Rockland, Maine from
July 31 through August 3.
Please read the following information completely and carefully. This
is a very lengthy notice, but has alot of important info within it.
All this info will eventually be posted on the PSUBS web site.
Special thanks to Jay Jeffries who did alot of leg-work researching
much of the information we've gathered about the Rockland area.
* LOCATION
As many of you are aware, we are holding the convention in Rockland
Maine this year because it is the home area of our keynote speaker,
Captain George W. Kittredge who designs and markets the K250 and K350
1-ATM submersible plans. At George's suggestion, our convention will
coincide with the Maine Lobster Festival so as to double as a fun
vacation for those who want/need to bring their families. The lobster
festival is a huge celebration with many events for young and old.
You can find much more information on their web site at
http://www.mainelobsterfestival.com. Additionally, we will be using
this opportunity to celebrate George's 90th birthday.
We had two location options available to us this year, Rockland, or the
Maine Maritime Academy in Castine ME. Thanks to both Lynn Darnell and
George Kittredge who had contacts at the Academy, we were offered the use
of
their facility for at least one day. The primary reasons for selecting
Rockland were:
1) Castine is 1.75 hours driving distance from Rockland, according to
MapQuest. We suspect this is on a good day and does not include
accounting
for tens of thousands of visitors on the road during the time of the
lobster
festival. This presents a problem for those who want to attend the
lobster
festival during convention off-times, or for family members who want to
attend the festival while you are enjoying submersible activities.
2) George Kittredge lives about 3 miles from the center of Rockland, and
about 2 miles from where we expect our center of activities to be.
Coordinating with him locally is just going to be a lot easier.
It was a difficult decision, especially since lodging in Rockland is going
to be so tight, but keeping things local to accomodate Kittredge seemed
like
the wisest choice at this time. I traveled to Maine last weekend (3/29)
and
visited with George and he appears in very good health. He still has his
two horses, he still drives his own car, and he still plans on flying his
plane this summer. He is looking forward to the convention and meeting
with
all of us.
* LODGING
We have been warned that lodging is going to be difficult to obtain
because
we are holding the convention at the same time as the Maine Lobster
Festival. The lobster festival draws 50-60k people. DON'T DELAY MAKING
YOUR ACCOMODATIONS. If you even remotely think you might want to attend,
reserve now and cancel later if necessary. Some hotels directly in the
center of Rockland (Trade Winds and Navigator) are already booked solid
for the lobster festival. There are a number of Bed and Breakfasts that
you might be interested in, and there are at least two nice hotels that
still have openings.
The Hampton Inn has a brand new facility built this year, located in
Thomaston, which is only about four or five miles from the center of
Rockland. I visited this hotel and (being new) is in excellent
condition. However, during the lobster festival they have a five night
minimum stay required. It's possible (I'd have to ask) that if enough
of us decided to stay here in a block of rooms, we might be able to get
them to drop the minimum stay to three nights which would suit us well.
For those looking for an upscale hotel, the Samoset in Rockland is an
excellent choice. I visited this hotel as well, and it is also in
excellent condition. It's only about two miles from the center of
Rockland, but because they own alot of property you'd think you were
somewhere quite remote. There is no minimum night stay required at this
hotel. They had a hallway full of photos of dignitaries, actors, and
sports figures who have stayed at the hotel. If it's good enough for
June Lockhart ( Lost In Space ), you know it's got to be good.
There appear to be a couple of nice campgrounds in the area as well.
I did visit them a couple of them, but I could not get in far enough
due to snow and so we're going to have to trust what we see on the web.
Saltwater Farm Campground and Megunticook By The Sea are two that look
promising. Lynn Darnell reports that another "The Lobster Buoy" is an
option. All the campgrounds are within 4-5 miles of the center of
Rockland and our center of activities. The Chamber of Commerce told
me that we would probably have good luck getting into the campgrounds
if other lodging options dry up. It looks like the campgrounds have
group areas that we could take advantage of as well.
Lastly, George Kittredge has about seven acres of land and has offered to
let us camp on his property. I'm not sure if we could include RV's,
but there wouldn't be any electricity or sewage. We'd have to rent a
portable toilet as well.
During my visit to the Rockland Chamber of Commerce, they provided me
with a listing of all available accomodations, and whether vacancies
were available or not. I have converted this to a PDF file that you
can view/download to get a headstart on accomodations. The web address
is http://www.psubs.org/convention/2008/lodging.html
* DIVE OPERATIONS
There is a public dock available in Rockland which looks like it will
suit us fine except for low tide. The ramp is well built and steep,
but does flatten out at low tide water levels. I was there at low tide,
and it looked to me like a rather long trailer extension would be
required at that time. I could also see the high tide water mark,
and it looked like the steepness of the ramp between high and mid-low
tides would have plenty of water depth to float the subs without any
trailer extensions. Alternatively, there is a commercial boat yard a
few hundred feet further down the road that has a crane. I don't
know what the costs would be for putting subs in and out, but will
find out so we can be prepared to use it if necessary.
The water depth in Rockland Harbor is shallow. At low tide, it appears
to be about 11 feet average. With a 10 foot tidal change, it would
provide about 20-25 feet depth at high tide. Even at the breakwater
to the harbor, the depth is only 50 feet at low tide. For subs
requiring more depth, we'll have to look at renting a boat to tow the
subs out to deeper water, or find another launch. For those with
Nautical Charts, you can view Rockland Harbor in Chart #13302. NOAA
provides viewable charts online at:
http://www.oceangrafix.com/o.g/Charts/Atlantic/NOAA-Nautical-Chart-Penobscot-Bay-and-Approaches.html
Note that due to text wrapping by email, the above link will be on two
lines and not work correctly by clicking directly from email. You will
need to copy both lines and paste them together in your web browser.
We need to put together a safety diver team. Lynn Darnell is going to
investigate local dive shops in the Rockland area that might be willing
to help us out. We'll also need a dive shop for purposes of filling
MBT air tanks since it's likely we'll be performing multiple dives
this year. I know we usually get volunteer divers from our own
community. If you are interested in being a safety diver this year,
(Al Secor?) please contact me privately. It would be nice to have a
safety diver from previous years act as the coordinator.
The Town of Rockland charges a fee for use of the public launch. This
appears to be minor ($5/day) but I will investigate a waiver and/or
group fee.
Remember that this year, submersibles will be diving in coastal waters
governed by the USA and the US Coast Guard will have authority to
inspect vessels and enforce coastal waterway laws. All currently known
US regulations are at http://www.psubs.org/guidelines. Click on the
"US Federal Regulations" link and read that material. Don't risk
trying to avoid anything required in the regulations. Both the Coast
Guard and US Navy have a presence at the Lobster Festival, and your
submersible is going to attract attention even from seasoned seamen.
Additionally, if you are going to dive with PSUBS you must comply with
the PSUBS guidelines located in the same area of the web site. Go to
http://www.psubs.org/guidelines and click on "PSUBS Guidelines", then
click on "Operating Guildelines". Please note that you are required to
use a Marine Band radio for sub-to-sub and sub-to-shore communications
while surfaced this year. These policies and guidelines do not apply
to submersibles that will be attending as a static display or not
diving with the PSUBS group. We welcome everyone to bring their
submersible for public viewing, whether it is divable or not.
There has been some concern expressed regarding harbor congestion
during the festival affecting our dive operations. I have been assured
by locals directly in the area of the public dock, that there is plenty
of water space even during the lobster festival. When you look at the
Rockland Harbor nautical chart you will see that it is sort of split in
two by a small land mass that curves into the harbor. We will be
located in the southern area of the harbor, while all the hub-bub and
activities occur in the northern area of the harbor. Our main diving
operations will not occur near US Coast Guard or Naval vessels.
* CENTER OF OPERATIONS
We have selected a site called Sharps Point as our base of operations.
The address is 75 Mechanic Street, Rockland Maine, 04841. The site
consists of three buildings that are being renovated into a restaurant,
nautical museum, and office building. This is immediately adjacent to
the public dock and the owner will allow us to park the submersibles
on his property. We will be holding our seminar and public display at
this location as well. After launching subs for diving, the trailers
can be parked here as well. This is an excellent location for us
because we would otherwise be required to file a permit for a group
gathering, obtain liability insurance for the event, and also hire
police for traffic control.
The owners expect the restaurant to be fully functional by August, as
well as the museum. Just a couple hundred feet further down the road
is a boating facility that should be able to launch subs via crane, if
necessary.
This location is less than one mile from the Lobster Festival activities
and we are hoping that both the Nautical Museum and PSUBS will benefit
each other by joining together to promote each other.
* PARADE / PUBLIC DISPLAY
Saturday, August 2, is the Lobster Festival "BIG" Parade. It's called
the "BIG" parade because they have smaller ones throughout the week.
This is a call for all psubbers who have a submersible in any state of
fabrication, to consider bringing sub to the convention whether it is
currently operational or not. Our intent is to get as many
submersibles into the parade as possible, and at the end of the parade
congregate at Sharps Point for a public display. This will be
advertised in numerous publications so we really want a good showing.
George Kittredge will join us in the parade, and I suspect we will have
no problem getting him to stand in the conning tower of one the subs as
we tow it down Main Street. (yes, it really is called Main street)
They claim to have about 20,000 people viewing the parade, so it will
be a great way to show off your submersible.
This year, it might be fun to let the public vote for the "Best"
submersible of the convention. We could hold a little ceremony at the
end of public display, count the votes, and then present an award to
the winner. A little competition might be fun. Comments?
* SEMINAR SPEAKERS
This is our first call for papers and speakers to present topics related
to submersibles, ROVs, AUVs, oceanography, components, etc. If you have
a white paper you would like to submit, or topic you would like to
present, contact myself or Ray Keefer. If you have a suggestion for a
person or business that you would like us to invite, let us know and we
will invite them. Feel free to invite them yourself, just let us know
about it so we can work them into the schedule.
George Kittredge will be our keynote speaker. We have also invited a
number of commercial vendors to talk about their products which have
relevance to submersibles.
This year, we want to end the seminar by 3pm which means the speaker
slots will fill quickly so please let us know your preferences asap.
* REGISTRATION FEES
We have not determined the registration fee yet, but it is likely to be
similar to previous years. As always, we try to make sure that these
fees are minimal since we know that travel and lodging are a large
expense. We also ask that you consider being a convention sponsor, or
if you know of a business that might be interested in sponsoring the
convention to let us know so we can contact them. We try to provide
valuable services such as advertising to our sponsors and you can see
our 2008 sponsorship schedule at
http://www.psubs.org/convention/2008/sponsorships.html
* COMMITTEES
We need your help. I'm sure we're going to need a couple of committees
to solidify planning and coordination of events. Diving operations for
example will require safety divers and operational management. We will
likely need some surface boats as well as dive flag markers. Please
help us make this convention a success. It is alot of work, but very
rewarding. Contact Ray Keefer or myself if you want to help with
coordination efforts.
That's about all at this point. More info will be distributed as we
finalize plans. As always, the web site will be updated with the latest
information at http://www.psubs.org/convention/2008/
Thanks,
Jon
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