US Coast Guard Auxiliary Newsletter, South Lake Tahoe, Flotilla 11N

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3 Elements cont d 4, DISTRICT 11N ELECTION RESULTS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BRIDGE 2013 Stern wheeler race 5 Race cont d 6,7 Diesel Engine Temp 8 Odds and Ends 9 The DIRECTION FINDER is

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1 US Coast Guard Auxiliary Newsletter, South Lake Tahoe, Flotilla 11N DIRECTION FINDER DIRECTION FINDER Newsletter date: October, 2012 Volume XLVI, Issue 10 Inside this Issue: Page District election. 1 AUX National Elect. 2 Elements of Nav. 3 Elements cont d 4, DISTRICT 11N ELECTION RESULTS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BRIDGE 2013 Stern wheeler race 5 Race cont d 6,7 Diesel Engine Temp 8 Odds and Ends 9 The DIRECTION FINDER is published by the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, South Lake Tahoe CA. Flotilla Submission of articles or subjects of interest, including photographs are welcomed and encouraged. The editor reserves the right to make changes without altering the intended content. All submissions should be directed to the editor: Victor Beelik Po box Zephyr Cove, NV vbeelik@charter.net The information contained in this publication is subject to CMO Rodney E. Collins DCOS Richard Thomas DCPT Wally Smith DCPT Bill Correl DCPT Simone Adair CONGRATULATIONS! The provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974, and may be used only for the official business of the Coast Guard or the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Page 2 DIRECTION FINDER ANGELO A. PERATA WASHINGTON The Coast Guard Auxiliary national board has elected new senior leadership to guide the organization through October 2014.

2 Page 2 DIRECTION FINDER ANGELO A. PERATA WASHINGTON The Coast Guard Auxiliary national board has elected new senior leadership to guide the organization through October District Commodore Angelo A. Perata of Eleventh District - Northern Region, was elected to serve as the deputy national commodore - Pacific area. The commodore-elects will serve a two-year term beginning November 1, The elections were held at the Coast Guard Auxiliary national conference (NACON) in San Antonio, August (Angelo Perata is a member of Flotilla 11-01) CONGRATULATIONS! TRIVIA QUESTION: Do you know what WD-40 the name of the popular spray lubricant stands for? Answer: Page 8

3 Volume XLIVI Issue 10 Page 3 ELEMENTS OF NAVIGATION a historical PERSPECTIVE By: Vic Beelik CHARTS (The Sept. Issue ended with the introduction of the Gyro-Compass.) Military actions, on land or sea, or foreign land explorations could not be conducted without a good supply of accurate maps and nautical charts. Mapping of Western Europe got underway in the 17 th Century. Scientific academies of France, England, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark and others got together with the goal of mapping the earth s surface which included the hydrographic survey of shores, harbors and ocean bottoms. The chief purpose of all such nautical surveying was to produce the best possible charts for the use of navigators of merchant ships or naval forces. Early on Prince Henry the Navigator established a school for navigators in the South Eastern tip of Portugal. One of the problems that persisted was that map projection of a spherical surface was not suitable to navigators that were trying to plot a compass course on a flat chart they could follow. In 1569, Gerardus Mercator, a cartographer and instrument maker proposed a new straight line map projection. The meridians would be parallel vertical lines extending to infinity (not converging at the poles). This projection caused distortion of land masses in the high latitudes and no distortion at the equator. The so called Mercator Projection, enabled navigators to plot a compass course as a straight line. The Mercator projection charts are used today by all navigators on land and sea. THE 20th CENTURY The 20 th century has seen advances in navigation tools beyond anything Columbus might have imagined. The impetus for these developments was no longer trade or exploration, but for use in war. Three major wars: First World War , the Second World War and the Cold War spanning most of the 20 th Century created a technological race between nations that had no parallel in history.

4 Page 4 Direction Finder The basis of all advancements in navigation during the past century was: ELECTRONICS In 1873 James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist published his theory of electromagnetic waves. Fifteen years later Heinrich Hertz succeeded generating radio waves with a spark across an air gap and was able to receive the radio waves a few feet away. HERTZ HAD SENT AND RECEIVED THE FIRST MAN MADE RADIO WAVES! In 1898 Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian Physicist was able to transmit a radio signal across the English Channel and in 1901 he transmitted a signal across the Atlantic. By 1915 spark gap radio transmitters were installed on British and Italian naval vessels. Onshore stations followed suit. The early operators of these spark gap transmitters used a code system to transmit information. The code was developed by Samuel Morse for telegraphs in Voice radio transmitters using amplitude modulation (AM) followed and in the 1930s Frequency Modulation (FM) was introduced. ELECTRONIC AIDS TO NAVIGATION RADIO DIRECTION FINDER Once radio transmissions became a popular method of communication it was discovered that by the use of a rotating narrow beam directional antenna one could determine with reasonable accuracy the direction of the transmitted radio beam. By plotting the direction of two or more received radio beams from station of known position one could determine the receiver s geographical position. The accuracy of this method was marginal since radio waves can be affected by many factors. A better use of the direction finder was to home in on the radio signal. Many ports installed radio transmitter at the port entrance so that ships could home in and find the entrance of the harbor in fog or bad weather. (Look for the final chapter of this story in the November Issue of the Direction Finder) Photo by: Jack Leth

Volume XLIVI Issue 10 Page 5 LAKE TAHOE STERN WHEELER RACE 2012 On September 1, 2012 the two stern wheelers, DIXIE II and her older sister the TAHOE QUEEN, continued their yearly rivalry and

5 Volume XLIVI Issue 10 Page 5 LAKE TAHOE STERN WHEELER RACE 2012 On September 1, 2012 the two stern wheelers, DIXIE II and her older sister the TAHOE QUEEN, continued their yearly rivalry and participated in a race along the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. Stern Wheelers race course Two CG Auxiliary vessels, Lulu Pearl and Cammie Marie were under orders to provide regatta patrols. The AUX vessel Lulu Pearl was under the command of Coxswain Jim Snell, Flot Cammie Marie with a crew of 3 was under the command of Bill Stolz Flot Lulu Pearl Cammie Marie Photos by: Vic Beelik

6 Page 6 Direction Finder TAHOE QUEEN DIXIE II OFF TO A GOOD START! Bill Stolz watching DIXIE II leading TAHOE QUEEN at the turning mark Photos by D. Walters

7 Volume XLIVI Issue 10 Page 7 Photos by: D. Walters Flotilla Ozzie Gonzales the Captain of DIXIE II accepts the winning trophy with a great smile! THE TROPHY: TAHOE CUP AUX vessel LULU PEARL Recovering the turning mark

8 Page 8 Direction Finder DIESEL ENGINE TEMPERATURE By: CAPT Alan R. Hugenot Diesels operate by compression to ignite the fuel, not by spark plug as gasoline engines do. This means that the interior temperature of the cylinder needs to reach about 750 degrees Fahrenheit at full compression to start and 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit before the engine will run efficiently. For example, if the temperature outside is 100 degrees and you compress the air at a ratio of 10 to 1, then the air in the cylinder will be 1,000 degrees at full compression. Most diesels have a compression ratio of 17:1 or better, in order to achieve this temperature using ambient air of about 45 degrees (17 x 45 = 765). The math is important. With a compression ration of 17 to 1, the engine simply can't start when the temperature is below 45F. But the typical diesel engine gets a little help. On engines with compression ratios of 17:1 glow plugs are provided to add about 60 degrees to the interior of the cylinder prior to cranking, which helps the cylinders reach 750 degrees during compression on those cold mornings. In my experience, smaller engines that are not fitted with glow plugs will have a compression ratio of about 20:1 to achieve the same interior temperatures, but that 20:1 compression requires a stronger battery and clean electrical terminals to achieve that initial start. Operating on warm days is different. If it is 90 degrees outside, almost any diesel will start right up without using the glow plugs. But diesels never run efficiently until the cylinder temperature reaches 1,000 degrees, which usually takes about 20 minutes of running under load or 30 minutes at the dock without it. Suddenly, all the sluggishness is gone. As a commercial charter captain, standard operating procedure is to start the diesels at least 30 minutes prior to departure. This gives time to figure out if anything is wrong with the engines and gives the engines time to come up to full operating temperature, allowing full operational capabilities to accomplish any maneuver required underway. Next time you charter, give a listen as you walk on board. The engines are almost always running before the passengers show up. Capt. Alan Hugenot is a naval architect and marine surveyor based in San Francisco, whose writing has appeared regularly in Sea Magazine, Latitude 38, The Log newspaper, 48 Degrees North, Go Boating and many other boating publications on the Pacific. TRIVIA ANSWER: The WD in WD-40 stands for Water Displacement and it was the 40 th formula that did the trick.

9 Volume XLIVI Issue 10 Page 9 ODDS AND ENDS NEW WEBSITE FOR VESSEL EX- AMS AND RBS PROGRAMS By: Kelly L. Townsend, DIR-V The National Department of Vessel Examinations and RBS Program Visitation (V- Department) has just rolled out an entirely new department Website based upon the Auxiliary's WOW "pushbutton" website system. The project has been the result of a sixmonth collaboration between our Communications Division and the National IT Group. The new website: In addition, we are also standing up a completely new "I Want a VSC System" -- the online system where members of the boating public may request Vessel Safety Checks at their home or marina. The new system is designed to assure that no request goes unanswered, and provides a level of visibility that we did not have before. SIERRA DIVISION COW WILL BE HELD NOVEMBER 3, 2012 The annual Change of Watch (COW) brunch will be held in Carson City at : CASINO FANDANGO Saturday November 3, :00 (Sierra Division held their COW at the same place last year with satisfactory results.) Brunch will be served at the RUM JUNGLE BUFFET ($28/prson) Menu: Soups Various Salads at the salad bar Over 140 delicious house made dishes Served at seven stations Crepes, Omelets, BBQ, Oriental Dishes, Seafood, Prime Rib Assorted Desserts Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee, Hot Tea, Ice Tea House Bread (FULL BAR service AVAILABLE) THOUGHT OF THE MONTH: In the immortal words of Jim Kilroy: Mass times velocity equals right-of-way (Jim Kilroy, owner of numerous racing yachts over 70 ft long, all named Kialoa )

10 Page 10 Flotilla Officers Year 2012 Jim Snell FC Stu Harrington VFC Stu Harrington IPFC Staff Officers (FSO): Vic Beelik CM Bruce Cole FN Victor Beelik VE Jim Snell MA Victor Beelik PB Stu Harrington MT Mort Meiers PE Jim Snell OP Jim Snell CS Vic Beelik PS Dale Herman HR Brian Williams PA Jim Snell IS Stu Harrington PV Bruce Cole NS Stu Harrington MS Flotilla Meeting Tuesday October 16, hours WYC ROOM Tahoe Keys Marina COW: NOVEMBER 3, 2012 SIERRA DIVISION WEBSITES SIERRA DIV: FLOTILLA FLOTILLA FLOTILLA FLOTILLA Department of Homeland Security FSO-PB 11NR Post Office Box Zephyr Cove, NV OFFICIAL BUSINESS

February As I write this message I wonder where January went. I guess the old saying is true that time flies when you re having fun.

February As I write this message I wonder where January went. I guess the old saying is true that time flies when you re having fun. The Coast Cutter February 2012 U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary District 11 Division 11 Flotilla 9 Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 From the Flotilla Commander As I write this message I wonder where January went. I