History Of Safety Trip Plan, World Association of Yacht Clubs
and
Float-Plan Registration
The history of safety Trip Plan (a service of Float Plan
Registration, a registered not-for-profit corporation)
actually begins with the story of the "World Yacht Club"(WYC),
originally know as "World Yachting".
The "World Yacht Club" was formed in 1972 by a group of Texas boating
and sailing enthusiasts.
A professional service company, "Adventure Cruises" was employed to
service their vessels. Since that time, this participatory service
based boat club has grown and expanded to include hundreds of active
members throughout the U.S., Canada, Bahamas, South America, Germany
and other European block countries under the banner of " World
Association of Yacht Clubs" (WAYC).
WAYC is committed to serving the community's greatest need -- a
concept which has been recognized by government and civic
organizations as an outstanding community service throughout the
marine industry.
The base of the Club's organization is its members.
WAYC has organized many chapters and hundreds of marinas, hotels,
restaurants and other businesses to offer substantial savings and
discounts to WAYC members. The club has established several unique
services for its members, including free boat transporting and
ferrying service, parts pick up and forwarding for cruising boaters
and more.
Volunteer members have been organized into Public Service Flotillas
providing various safety services to public events and projects,
gaining valuable publicity and recognition within the community.
In 1988 the US Coast Guard asked that the Float-Plan filing system
being used only by the WYC (World Yacht Club members) up to that
time, be expanded and made available to all recreational boaters.
When widely used the stored information could greatly assist their
search and rescue efforts and save lives and dollars.
The WYC Chapter in Miami Florida rallied to this need and expanded
their Float-Plan filing system. This system utilized a toll free
telephone number that allowed boaters to file Float-Plans anytime.
The system was highly successfully and was soon also introduced to
the Bahamian government and "Bahamas Air Sea rescue Assoc".
(BASRA)
In March of 1999, high-ranking members of the Canadian Coast Guard
became aware of the service and upon review, it was felt that
if used by a majority of boaters, many lives could be saved and
also considerable tax dollars salvaged on search and rescue
expenses.
A Not-For-Profit Federal Company (Float-Plan Registration) was formed
and is in operation today serving the boating public and all search
and rescue agencies.
In 1983, Steve Adams was the Chairman of the WYC (World Yacht Club)
Float-Plan Committee. Steve's regular job as a weather man on WSVN
TV, channel 7, in Miami Florida, caused him to notice just how
quickly weather can change and create dangerous conditions. Steve
and other club members, over the years had experienced problems on
the water. He related poor weather conditions with disasters at
sea.
Steve was aware that WYC was acting as a voyage monitor and was
holding Float-Plans for its members who were going across the Gulf
Stream to the Bahamas. He suggested that voyage monitoring should be
expanded to include all their boating trips.
Joe Rubano, owner of "RPM DIESEL", a WYC member business in FT.
Lauderdale, Florida and a regular Float-Plan filer, was the first to
donate funds to expand the monitoring system.
A computer and software program were designed to interface with the
telephone network by Richard Sablon.
In 1988, when information on this professional voyage monitoring
system was shared with the general WYC membership, United Coast
Guard personnel became aware of it and introduced Steve to the
search and rescue headquarters Senior Duty Officer (SDO) LCDR Dave
Hill. Steve had many meetings with Commander Hill and his staff. The
Commander was very enthusiastic about monitoring and wanted WYC to
make their professional Float-Plan filing system available to all
recreational boaters. These talks and planning sessions moved
forward until in June 1994, Captain J.G. Hamilton USCG Chief of SAR
(Sea Air Rescue) strongly endorsed the filing of Float-Plans with a
voyage monitor on shore.
"Phone-A-Float-Plan" a not-for-profit 501-C-3 corporation had been
created in1993 to monitor voyages professionally. Commander Hill was
transferred and LCDR Dan Cutrer, a navy pilot took over as SDO.
Steve was replaced as Chairman by Richard A. Mac Clary, FBI Special
Agent Retired, pilot and Naval Captain.
In February, 1999, the Canadian Coast Guard became aware of the USA
system and had several meetings with members of the Toronto Chapter
of WYC. On April 15,1999, Charles Gadula, Acting Director General
Rescue Safety, issued a statement endorsing the use of Float-Plans
and recommended that they be left with a responsible party on shore.
In November 1999, FPR (Float-Plan Registration) a federally registered
Not-For-Profit was formed. At a meeting in Ottawa, Mike Voight, CACG
Chief of Operation SAR stated that FPR is a very, very responsible
party on shore.
FPR's first Chairman was Edward Jud, a professor of law and former
RCMP officer. At that time Judd was using the USA computer
facilities of "Phone-a-Float-Plan" He was soon replaced as Chairman
by Al Braden, former Chairman of the Board of the Provincial
treasury Branch of Alberta. In September 2003, Al Braden was
replaced by Glenn Anderson, who became the Executive Director. Glenn
has a wealth of experience in electronic banking and has been
involved thru out the Caribbean and Central America with Scotia Bank
as part of their senior management team.
When FPR first started, Edward Jud had the toll free filing numbers
pointed to the US computers, then while Al Braden was the chairman,
FPR built its own filing system with assistance of Exe-U-Link.
As of September 2003, Al Braden was replaced by Glenn Anderson, who
became the Executive Director. Glenn has a wealth of experience in
electronic banking and has been involved thru out the Caribbean and
Central America with Scotia Bank as part of their senior management
team.
In March, 2001 at the Canadian Sportsman Show a great deal of interest
was shown in the filing of trip plans on land by snowmobilers, hunters
and others who were concerned about safety.
The web site was modified after a meeting with the CACG SAR who requested
additional services be added relating to double checking of overdues and
the notification of multiple search centers. At this time modifications
were made to accommodate the SAR request and also trip plans on land
were included.
The concept of Safety Trip Plan became instantly popular right after
September 11/2001 due to the heightened awareness for loved ones and
their whereabouts.
Much interest in safety was found in areas not previously
considered. RV travellers love the security of this professional
monitoring system, as do female students leaving their colleges and
universities and dorms, after dark. Separated women, people who work
alone such as realtors and farmers, and even Grandmothers going off
to the store on icy streets get comfort from using the service.
Safety Trip Plan caught the attention of major insurance carriers
and underwriters when the storage of medical records was added in
2002.
The current system is equipped to do everything the old system
did via phone and does much, much more thru the internet.
Travellers can now file in absolute privacy, even when travelling
from one country to another. Ask your travel agent for details.
Safety Trip plan can also be used as a member benefit for auto
towing clubs and travel medical coverage and life insurance, plus
many other services.
This is truly a world wide Safety Trip plan system.
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