Friday, March 26, 2010

Final Build of Sea Scout ROV

With just over 4 weeks left until the regional competition in Alpena, Michigan Ship 41 is putting together the ROV components.




To the left is the making of the en-defector or mechanical arm.

A clevis pin (not shown) will connect the claw to the compressed air cylinder.

This assembly will be inserted into a PVC tube with a slot at the end to hold the claw in place.





The wiring for the temperature sensor, hydrophone, camera and lights, and the two compressed air lines will be encased in an expandable plastic hose.  The hose is very kindly being donated to us by Dave Zwart of Zwart Systems , St. Catherines,  Ontario.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Sea Scout Flag Travelling the World Visits Cleveland


Taking a break from our build of the ROV, the Sea Scouts participated as part of the BSA, Greater Cleveland Council contingent of over 1,000 scouts in this years St. Patrick's Day Parade.  A highlight for us was to parade with a Sea Scout flag making it's way around the world that was stopping at various countries 100th anniversary celebrations of Sea Scouting.  The flag was flown over the grave in Scotland of Warington Baden-Powell, founder of Sea Scouting, last August. A link to details of the New Zealand celebrations can be found here by Ron Bird.  There is also a great article on the founding of the Sea Scouts and the U.K celebrations here by scout archivist Frank Brittain.



We received the flag from New Zealand and after putting on our patch had to express mail it on to Barcelona, Spain for their celebrations. At each stop a celebratory patch is being sewn on to the navy blue flag which has the universal Sea Scout emblem in white at it's center.


Ship 41 was excited to be part of history in the making as this is the only visit the flag will be making in the U.S.A. This world travelling, Sea Scout flag,  was seen by over 200,000 spectators at the Cleveland, Ohio St. Patrick's Day Parade,



Photo courtesy of Mark Horning and Co. Photography.