GLANTOA!

Latest News

by Dave Jones

May 9, 2014

The Program is almost finalized for the 2014 Rendezvous and will be issued shortly. The Registration Form is now posted on the Rendezvous page. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Launching is very slow all over this year as the lakes continue to thaw. We are still about 10 days away from launch day ourselves if the weather cooperates. The North Channel remains heavily iced (see http://iceweb1.cis.ec.gc.ca/Prod20/page3.xhtml) and the Great Lakes still have some ice (Lake Michigan - 2%; Lake Huron - 8%; Lake Superior - 20%; Lake Erie - 0%). Water temperatures are predicted to be lower than normal this summer but levels will be up again, helping depths in the North Channel.

Let's hope for a good Summer's boating that continues into the Fall to make up for our slow start.

See you on the water!!

April 12, 2014

Welcome to Another Spring!

Sir Tugley Blue is still sitting under wraps in the corner of the storage building awaiting its turn to be launched when the ice clears. We still have about a foot at the docks, so it will be a while before that happens. Normally we are the first in, but for some reason we have a number of boats in front of us with a couple needing some TLC before they are ready to launch. I think the long winter has just delayed a number of people's work. Work on STB is still ongoing with some major electrical upgrades underway and a number of miscellaneous jobs that all seem to take half a day each. Polishing and waxing has begun so I can see daylight at the end of the tunnel.

For those who are still working on their Springtime boat chores, check out the article at this link Spring Commissioning in the Members' Area of the site and the associated Checklist to see if you are missing anything.

2014 Rendezvous

Plans are coming together for the 2014 Rendezvous which will be held in St. Ignace on June 25 through 28 - see the link at the left side of the page. Note that Cummins would like to get a heads up on any work you may want Ed Hislop to do and there is a form link on the page to help them schedule work. The Program should be finalized and priced within two weeks and the page will be updated to include details and the Registration Form.

Welcome to New Owners

As usual there have been some ownership changes since last Spring with "Jenny Jo" (George and Mary Jo's 37) now "Legal Ease" being owned by Tom and Sally Lister, based in Port Washington, WI. August Windy II (Dave and Jean Bauman's 32) is now owned and kept in Lapeer, MI by Bill and Connie Bowman. Bill is the lucky owner of two 32s now and would like to sell the older one, listed by Harborview Yacht Sales in Traverse City. Mark and Sandee Holtsclaw are new owners of "Karissa Leigh," 32-981, kept in Holland, MI. Glen Stolt acquired 37-180 last year and is keeping the boat in Charlevoix, MI. Lynn and Pete Smith are the new owners of 37-092, "Charles A" (Erie, PA). We welcome you to the Nordic Tug fleet and and GLANTOA!! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at info@glantoa.net. Hope to see you either at the Rendezvous or on the water this season.

Factory News

At the Nordic Tug factory, there have been some changes in the past year. George Armendariz is now the General Manager, taking over from Paul Johnson. Bob Shamek, a long time contact for us at NT has left the company and Dave Allen has taken over as Director, Customer Service/Support. Dave's email address is davea@nordictugs.com and his telephone number is (360) 757-8847 Ext. 108.

Tugfests in Little Current and Midland, Ontario

A Tugfest is being held in Little Current, Ontario on July 12 and 13. Contact Ed Griffith at emgriffith@rogers.com for more information.

The main Tugfest Georgian Bay Rendezvous is being held at the Midland Town Dock, Midland Ontario, on August 22 and 23. To register or find out more information go to www.tugfestgeorgianbay.com. Judy and I attended last year's Tugfest and it was a blast. Events included a series of tugboat races, a lighted parade, a decorated parade, great food, boat tours, and great companionship. We were one of several "plastic tugs" but were made to feel very welcome. Midland's hospitality was fantastic and this event draws thousands of visitors. Check out the YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF09p6tnGHY

As usual I would welcome any member input, articles, Members Gallery photos, improvements made to boats, maintenance tips, ideas for additional information that may be useful to members. etc. Send them to info@glantoa.net.

See You On The Water!

May 28, 2013

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day even though the weather could have been better on the Michigan side of Lake MI. The Rendezvous in Elk Rapids, which for many kicks off our boating season, is almost upon us and the Registration Form and Cummins Work Request have now been posted on the "2013 Rendezvous" page. This year's program should also be posted in the next couple of days. It promises to be a great event in a beautiful location.

Judy and I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting some new ones.

April 28, 2013

 

Sir Tugley was launched three weeks ago on a cool but sunny day as soon as the ice had cleared on White Lake. Winter soon returned, so we have not spent much time on the boat since then but have plans to get there soon and finish our Spring chores before heading north for the Rendezvous and Ottawa via the Trent-Severn and Rideaux Canals. My checklist is about halfway done so there is still plenty of work to go. If you have not seen our list, it is at Spring Commissioning in the Members' Area of the site and could easily be modified to suit your needs.

Plans are progressing with the Rendezvous and preliminary information is now on the 2013 Rendezvous page. The Program should be finalized and priced within a week and the page will be updated to include details and the Registration Form.

A couple of new projects have been added to the Members' Upgrades page. If you have any good ideas to share, please send me a brief description and a photo so we can share them with each other.

I would like to welcome new members, Mike and Beccie McCarville - new owners of Lil Red Tug (42-15) and Jim and Connie Gillette - new owners of Patriot (32-167). Both boats are shown in the Members' Gallery.

The Nordic Tug factory has had a Facebook Page for some time now and regularly posts items that may be of interest to you. Click on the following link to get to their page. Nordic Tug

As usual I would welcome any member input, articles, Members Gallery photos, improvements made to boats, maintenance tips, ideas for additional information that may be useful to members. etc. Send them to info@glantoa.net.

August 5, 2012

Our season is going well for us on Sir Tugley Blue and we are into our 6th week of cruising the North Channel of Lake Huron with our friends aboard Carrie Rose (Dean Raffielli and Charlotte Keer) and Dolly (Bill and Jo Schaars). Unfortunately, we only have another week before heading back to the USA. On the good side, we will be spending time with family and friends in Traverse City before returning to the real world.

The GLANTOA Rendezvous was a great success with thirteen boat attending plus three Bay Breeze Yacht Sales boats, including the new 26. See the 2012 Rendezvous page for more information on the event. We missed a few regulars this year including Sea Dog (Bob Harvey) who was cruising Lake Superior; Marla D (Dick and Marla Lavanture) who were heading to Ottawa via the Trent-Severn and Rideau Canal; and LeeLoo (Cary and Nancy Cook) who were on a big boat in the Caribbean; and D'Este (Randy and Sandy Estes).

I would like to welcome newcomers, Rick and Jill Ericksen, who have just acquired a 1996 32 Nordic Tug. The boat which is unamed as of now is based in Elk Rapids. If you run into them, please welcome them to the Nordic Tug fraternity.

Dean Raffielli aboard Carrie Rose has been writing a blog of his travels and other topics that is great reading. You can find his blog at www.chicagotug.blogspot.com

GLANTOA and Nordic Tugs received some great publicity in the July 2012 issue of Lakeland Boating in an article entitled, "Cruising Clubs - Join the Fun". The article also included a number of photographs of Nordic Tugs. The St. Ignace News published an article about the Rendezvous - see the Rendezvous page. A photograph of a GLANTOA tug won 2nd place in the Passagemaker 2012 Photo Competition - it will be in the October issue.

I have been trying to perfect my breadmaking skills this summer as it is hard to find good bread in the North Channel. As a result, I have written a short article/recipe titled "Bread" which is posted in the Members' Area. I have also posted a few modifications that have been made to Sir Tugley Blue recently that could be applied to any Nordic Tug.

A couple of us have signed up for the US Customs and Border Patrol Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS) that is meant to simplify re-entry into the US and I have posted our experience in a short write-up at the following link Small Vessel Reporting System.

As usual I would welcome any member input, articles, Members Gallery photos, improvements made to boats, maintenance tips, ideas for additional information that may be useful to members. etc. Send them to info@glantoa.net.

May 13, 2012

Wecome to the 2012 boating season! Sir Tugley Blue was launched three weeks ago and several projects are underway and planned before we take off in June to enjoy Northern Michigan and the North Channel.

The Program for the 2012 Rendezvous has been "finalized" and can be found under the "2012 Rendezvous" tab at the left. This page includes the Program and Registration Form and a Cummins Work Request Form if you want any work performed by Ed Hislop. Ed will do his best to accommodate ad hoc work but it would help to schedule work ahead. It looks like we will have a good set of programs, a great social time and some excellent food!!

I was recently contacted by Peter Shaugnessy (tatlayoko@explornet.com) as he has a smoke stack for a 1997 32' he is willing to give away for only shipping costs. Contact Peter for more details.

As usual I would welcome any member input, articles, Members Gallery photos, improvements made to boats, maintenance tips, ideas for additional information that may be useful to members. etc. Send them to info@glantoa.net.

Happy and Safe Boating in 2012 and hope to see you at the Rendezvous or on the water.

February 28, 2012

Time flies and the winter, or what we have had of it, is drawing to a close and thoughts turn to the upcoming boating season. Planning is in progress for the 2012 Rendezvous which again will be held in St. Ignace. The website has been updated to include the Rendezvous information (click on the tab to the left). Updates will be added as the program is developed.

Work continues on the website with some additional GLANTOA boats listed in the Member's Gallery and updates to some of the Members' Area pages. While planning for our summer cruise to the North Channel, I found that Customs and Border Protection has a new program designed to ease entry into the US for boaters. It is called the Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS) and is similar to the NEXUS program but more limited in scope. More information can be found by clicking on the following link SVRS.

May 7, 2011

If you are not aware, Charles Billings is discontinuing the hard copy of the Nordic Tug Newsletter and will be issuing it electronically after the Spring 2011 issue. Herb Nickles has created a new web site called NordicTugOwners.com that provides access to the current and all previous Nordic Tug Newsletters and the current Fleet List. These are available to view as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files and can be saved to your computer and/or printed. The new website also has links to all of the regional Nordic Tug owners associations' websites, to information on the regional rendezvous, the SENTOA Listerver instructions, the listing of Nordic Tugs for Sale and more. NordicTugOwners.com went live with full content yesterday and can be accessed by clicking the following link:  http://www.nordictugowners.com 

May 3, 2011

Finally, the season is beginning for many of us with boats launched or soon to be launched. Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated like it did last year and Sir Tugley Blue was only launched last week, five weeks later than 2010. Frosts are still in the forecast for many of us!

The major news is that details of this year's Rendezvous have been posted in the 2011 Rendezvous Section of the site. It includes the Program and Registration Form (in .pdf format) and a Cummins Work Request form (Word format) for anyone who wants Cummins to work on their boat in St. Ignace. We have an exciting program planned for the end of June and hope to see many of you in St. Ignace - check out the Program and get your registrations in to Bay Breeze Yacht Sales.

On the Factory front, three new boats have been shipped, (34, 39, and 42) with at least three hulls in the shop. New orders are in the works as well so it looks considerably better than this time last year. We all hope that NT will see more orders from the many Spring Boat Shows and the brand we love will continue to rebound.

Work on the website continues albeit at a slower pace with several more boats added to the Member' Gallery, Canadian Chart No. 1 added to the Navigation section, and a Ships' Store section set up. The store includes a number of high quality apparel items available with your boat logo and name at reasonable prices - check it out!

I have also added the new bimini for Sir Tugley to the Members' Upgrades section.

I would welcome any new articles, Gallery inputs, member upgrades, etc. or comments on what you might like to see on the site.

Have a great season and hope to see you in St. Ignace!

February 20, 2011

It has almost been a month since the site was officially launched and work continues to add content. Since I sent out the last News, the following have been added to the site:

The Nordic Tug factory is now on Facebook for those who use Facebook. Check out their Nordic Tugs - Factory page for news.

Just a reminder - any contributions to the site would be welcome.

January 22, 2011

The site is now officially online with a mass e-mailing sent out yesterday to the prospective membership and to the SENTOA list server. (For those of you who are not familiar with the listserver, it is a service provided by the South East Owners Association where one can post questions and receive responses - check it out as it is a great source of information). My mailing list was not the best but was the only one available and I hope to refine it as time passes. I am now working throught the dreaded "MAILER DAEMON" messages to reconcile invalid e-mail addresses and with Charlie Billings, who publishes the Nordic Tug Newsletter, to update the list. So far, I have received a number of add-ons to my list for which I am grateful as it saves me the work of trying to track owners down. We even have a new member from Bella Coola at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound in BC!

We now have eight tugs on the Members' Gallery (and I would welcome more) and some Member Upgrades (mainly my own).

Feel free to send me any comments and other information for addition to the site.

Note: If you have a concern with listing your contact or e-mail information, I will not include it in the Gallery.

January 15, 2011

Happy New Year to everyone! We are now in 2011 and we can start counting down the weeks to Spring and the annual launching of another season. With snow falling and wind howling, sitting in front of a warm fire as I write this, it is hard to imagine that Sir Tugley Green was only ten weeks away from splash day this time last year. Other projects have been consuming my time this winter and I have not seen Sir Tugley Blue (our new 37) for some time. Work on the web site is close to complete so please check it out. The Members' Page has content now with a couple of articles, the spare parts list, homeport information, factory information, useful documents,and navigation information up on their respective pages. This is only the start and I would like to add more information, particularly in the Members' Gallery Area. I welcome any information you want to send in for sharing.

At this time, the membership registration page is being finalized and will be added soon.

All of the preliminary arrangements have been made for the Rendezvous and it the Program is starting to take shape.

December 26, 2010

The Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Passage Maker features a review of the new 39' Nordic Tug.

The website is now on-line in a trial mode. If you have any comments, please send them to info@glantoa.net

December 22, 2010

Work is progressing on the new GLANTOA site at glantoa.net and pages are gradually being developed as I get time.

The dates have been set for the 2011 Rendezvous which will be held in St. Ignace - click on the 2011 Rendezvous button on the left for more information.

I encourage you to go to the Member's Area and to register as a GLANTOA member. This will ensure that I have as complete a mailing list as possible to send information out to the region's Nordic Tug Owners.

I met with Jay Kraft at Bay Breeze Yacht Sales this week and things are beginning to look up at Nordic Tugs with five boats under construction and several prospective orders in the works. He is optimistic that the tide may have turned for both NT and BBYS as the economy gradually revives. Jay is now the Island Packet Dealer for Michigan and east to the mid-Atlantic States. This is a great opportunity for Bay Breeze Yacht Sales, representing the best of both power and sail. In the New Year, Jay is expanding his staff to better serve both Island Packet and Nordic Tug prospective buyers and owners.

For those of you that may not have heard, John Kraft passed away on October 4, 2010. John was a key part of the Nordic Tug family in the region and he will be missed by all who knew him.