What to do after retiring from the Royal Canadian Navy?

[CPO Fast Forward]

I was in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) for 30 years as a Naval Communicator.

After retiring I spent a few years as Chief of the Ship (CotS) HMCS Sackville. Sackville is the world's last Flower Class corvette, a class of anti-submarine escort built in the hundreds in WWII. During my time as CotS the Sackville underwent major improvements including multi-million dollar hull work similar to what USS Texas recently went through and USS Kidd is just starting. Sackville starred as "Dicky" in the movie Greyhound with USS Kidd.
It was an interesting but hectic job and last summer I decided to retire for good.

I have taken up new hobbies and old. Recently I found some old rockets in the back of my shed and decided to give it a go again. It's been a "blast" for me and the family. The grand-daughters seem to really enjoy it.

I made a Youtube channel to share the launches, in so doing I have had to learn basic video editing so challenges continue! I am particularly proud of the camera in camera stuff in the Mini and Goliath vid

Drop by and have a look:
https://youtube.com/@rcnrocketchief?si=Mt5YmW_-QvB9fPi4

 

[Hobie1dog]

to the forum. We love videos.

 

[NTP2]

Welcome!! we have some other people who like boats, @boatgeek and @Capt. Eric, we also have some Canadians who can tell you more about how to get started in Canada.

 

[Capt. Eric]

Welcome!

My first rocket (as an adult) was one I found in a park. No one around to return it to, so I kept it and made it fly from a homemade launcher. That was a few years before I retired, and once that happened, I really got serious about things!

If you are up for it, look for a local club that launches regularly. Best thing I ever did. Good friends, good advice, and good encouragement.

Video of rockets is surprisingly difficult, but I like the picture in picture thing you did. As you get nicer rockets, you'll want better video and pictures. It's a slippery slope!

Have fun, and good luck!

 

[boatgeek]

Welcome! Fiberglass boat repair/building skills are a little more useful in hobby rocketry than steel, but you’ll find what you love. If there’s a CAR club near you, stop by a launch sometime. Organized launches are an awful lot of fun since you get to see other people turn money into smoke!

Flying with kids is the best.

 

[Scott_650]

Welcome aboard Chief! Retirement definitely has its ups and downs, for me mostly ups - I have built and flown a bunch of rockets. Enjoy.

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

Welcome aboard Chief! Retirement definitely has its ups and downs, for me mostly ups - I have built and flown a bunch of rockets. Enjoy.

I have passed through the retirement "black pit" twice! But things are really looking up now.

Finding rockets again was a fluke when I stumbled across the remains of an old Estes beginners kit in the back of my shed. With that was an unbuilt ARV Condor which launches with two parasite gliders. I decided to see if I could get it all flying. The Condor worked great and was quite spectacular. I was pleased I could build this more advanced kit properly.

My grand-daughters really enjoy it all and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without them.

I will check and see if there are clubs in my area. There is an active club in the next province over that recently had a launch weekend on a Canadian Army base, but it was all high powered stuff and I am a long way from that.

With that said, I am ordering LP crazy stuff

 

[boatgeek]

My experience at club launches is that even the ones that do high power welcome low and mid power. But every club is different and my sample size is small.

 

[teepot]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[KenECoyote]

I was in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) for 30 years as a Naval Communicator.

After retiring I spent a few years as Chief of the Ship (CotS) HMCS Sackville. Sackville is the world's last Flower Class corvette, a class of anti-submarine escort built in the hundreds in WWII. During my time as CotS the Sackville underwent major improvements including multi-million dollar hull work similar to what USS Texas recently went through and USS Kidd is just starting. Sackville starred as "Dicky" in the movie Greyhound with USS Kidd.
It was an interesting but hectic job and last summer I decided to retire for good.

I have taken up new hobbies and old. Recently I found some old rockets in the back of my shed and decided to give it a go again. It's been a "blast" for me and the family. The grand-daughters seem to really enjoy it.

I made a Youtube channel to share the launches, in so doing I have had to learn basic video editing so challenges continue! I am particularly proud of the camera in camera stuff in the Mini and Goliath vid

Drop by and have a look:
https://youtube.com/@rcnrocketchief?si=Mt5YmW_-QvB9fPi4

Welcome! Your intro post was very well communicated!

 

[Capt. Eric]

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

View attachment 647501

A LONG halyard would have been required to hoist all my blabbing!

I started in 1986 on the flag deck sending messages by flashing light, semaphore and flags. Training on the bridge for voice comms.
My last trade related job was on a team purchasing satellite communications equipment for the ships. Things changed a bit!

But old navy guys show up everywhere!

 

[Capt. Eric]

A LONG halyard would have been required to hoist all my blabbing!

I started in 1986 on the flag deck sending messages by flashing light, semaphore and flags. Training on the bridge for voice comms.
My last trade related job was on a team purchasing satellite communications equipment for the ships. Things changed a bit!

But old navy guys show up everywhere!

Been a very long time since I did flashing light!

And I feel ya. A lot of big changes in the way ships communicate over the last 30 years. And I'm talking merchant ships. More so for naval ships I'm sure. (Although the US Navy has had the same silly message format since the 1970's I think. Just the means of transmission has changed.)

 

[lr64]

Welcome.
-----------

Welcome!! we have some other people who like boats, @boatgeek and @Capt. Eric, we also have some Canadians who can tell you more about how to get started in Canada.

I'm a little bit of a boat guy, too, though just boats that one or two people can pick up. Aeons ago, however, I understood things like metacentric height. The largest vessel underway I've been on was probably a ferry. The longest one was maybe 100 feet LOA but probably displaced less than 5 tons.

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

"... Although the US Navy has had the same silly message format since the 1970's I think. Just the means of transmission has changed... "

HAHAHAHAH ACP 127 and 128. I think everyone in NATO can still do them, but the tools are pretty much all automated so you just punch in the text, press the button and it will format and send when you want it to go.
"In my day" we were taught the whole thing as the Basic Message Format (BMF which we took to be the Big Mother F*&*%) and could write it all out, including things like destination routing instructions, on a message pad by hand.

The changes even to VHS comms, Channel 16 and other SOLAS comms blows my mind how fast it all seemed to happen.

And ferries are pretty interesting. We once did Officer of the Watch Maneuvers (sorry, I don't know USN equivalent term) around one of the Newfoundland ferries. The CO had us call him up and ask if it was OK if we did jr officer ship training around him and how close he was comfortable with us getting to him? I think he said 1,000 yards, but don't cross my bow at less than 2nm. We were surprised he'd let us in there. Maybe he sold it as a show because the upper decks were quickly covered with passengers while we played around.

 

[Capt. Eric]

HAHAHAHAH ACP 127 and 128. I think everyone in NATO can still do them, but the tools are pretty much all automated so you just punch in the text, press the button and it will format and send when you want it to go.
"In my day" we were taught the whole thing as the Basic Message Format (BMF which we took to be the Big Mother F*&*%) and could write it all out, including things like destination routing instructions, on a message pad by hand.

The changes even to VHS comms, Channel 16 and other SOLAS comms blows my mind how fast it all seemed to happen.

And ferries are pretty interesting. We once did Officer of the Watch Maneuvers (sorry, I don't know USN equivalent term) around one of the Newfoundland ferries. The CO had us call him up and ask if it was OK if we did jr officer ship training around him and how close he was comfortable with us getting to him? I think he said 1,000 yards, but don't cross my bow at less than 2nm. We were surprised he'd let us in there. Maybe he sold it as a show because the upper decks were quickly covered with passengers while we played around.

A couple of comments:
1. BMF is the right term for it. My problem as a contractor and as a reservist was that there were few resources to explain it that I had access to. That's another story, but the result was that I struggled with that the whole time I was contracted to them (about 6 years). Sometimes I would have to ask "them" to send me the message they needed. I would change the dtg and such, then send it back to them. Crazytown! There was a format program to "help" write a formatted message, but the instructions and how to information was behind a navy firewall that I couldn't get through, not to mention my ship didn't have much internet access anyway. So the program was so difficult to use that just winging it was easier. I learned some of course, but never got good at it. Thankfully Navy folks are very patient with us contract operators once they understand the Captain is doing it, not a real Comms guy.

2. If I were on that ferry, I would have asked for minimum 4,000 yards. 6,000 would be better. The worst rules of the road violations I saw were from Navy and Coast Guard vessels. Our general attitude was "if it's gray, stay away!" Hopefully the Canadian Navy was better. The problem in the US services is the folks on the bridge don't have much experience on the bridge. It isn't a real career track for them, believe it or not. There was talk of changing that (after a rash of accidents a few years ago), but I don't know if it ever happened. It's not their fault, they just don't get enough training and experience. My junior 3rd mates have more bridge experience than most OOD's. That's US anyway. I think you guys and the Brits were squared away better.

 

[boatgeek]

HAHAHAHAH ACP 127 and 128. I think everyone in NATO can still do them, but the tools are pretty much all automated so you just punch in the text, press the button and it will format and send when you want it to go.
"In my day" we were taught the whole thing as the Basic Message Format (BMF which we took to be the Big Mother F*&*%) and could write it all out, including things like destination routing instructions, on a message pad by hand.

The changes even to VHS comms, Channel 16 and other SOLAS comms blows my mind how fast it all seemed to happen.

And ferries are pretty interesting. We once did Officer of the Watch Maneuvers (sorry, I don't know USN equivalent term) around one of the Newfoundland ferries. The CO had us call him up and ask if it was OK if we did jr officer ship training around him and how close he was comfortable with us getting to him? I think he said 1,000 yards, but don't cross my bow at less than 2nm. We were surprised he'd let us in there. Maybe he sold it as a show because the upper decks were quickly covered with passengers while we played around.

Some years back a Navy ship got out of shipyard out here and went up to the straits for maneuvering and engine trials. They were doing crash starts and stops, hard turns, the whole nine yards. After a while someone on shore called up the Coast Guard and said that the Navy captain must be drunk.

I think the post 9/11 exclusion zone around our ferries was about half a mile, but we have fairly tight waters and a lot of traffic that crosses the ferry routes. For several years there were little Coast Guard boats with mounted machine guns following the ferries around to enforce the zone.

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

RCN Naval Warfare Officers (NWO) don't get to the warfare part of their training without first getting their Bridge Watchkeeping certificate. I doubt it is as extensive as merchant training but there are exams on Rules of the Road, time as Second Officer of the Watch on a real bridge, time in a simulator, etc, it is several years in the early part of their career.

When USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) was leaving station after her final deployment and headed home for decommissioning and scrapping, they called their Battle Group in one at a time for a photo op. I was Senior Naval Communicator (a PO1, USN equivalent is Chief) of HMCS IROQUOIS (DDH 280) by this point and we were part of the group. Everyone who could justify a reason was on the bridge to see it.
The bridge communicator was exchanging info with Connie using signals from ATP 1 VOL 2. A pub designed so that navies speaking different languages can exchange voice info using just the phonetic alphabet and numbers. He reported to me that the carrier wanted us to take station 200 yards on her port beam. I made him show me and that's what it said. I reported it to the Commanding Officer, "Are you sure?" and I said yes. He paused and I added, "I will check personally."
So I picked up the mic and trying not to speak with too much Canadian accent (I spoke slower, not too many eh's) said, "Desig (meaning plain text follows). Please confirm two zero zero yards and not two zero zero zero yards." The operator at the other end just rogered out (meaning I heard your transmission and understand, not "yes")
A second later a new voice, "Yes, two hundred yards unless you are not comfortable with that." I looked at the Old Man and he smiled, "Yes, no problem!" So I sent that.
It was not unlike a replenishment at sea, but a speed the RCN would never to that at! The helmsman later said he it felt like the ship was surfing the carrier's bow wave! We flew the largest Canadian flag we had from the masthead but it was dwarfed by Connie's US flag

 

[NTP2]

We flew the largest Canadian flag we had from the masthead but it was dwarfed by Connie's US flag

You poor Canadians… America junior indeed…

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

You poor Canadians… America junior indeed…

We just show the way and then you copy it bigger ...

 

[Capt. Eric]

RCN Naval Warfare Officers (NWO) don't get to the warfare part of their training without first getting their Bridge Watchkeeping certificate. I doubt it is as extensive as merchant training but there are exams on Rules of the Road, time as Second Officer of the Watch on a real bridge, time in a simulator, etc, it is several years in the early part of their career.

When USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) was leaving station after her final deployment and headed home for decommissioning and scrapping, they called their Battle Group in one at a time for a photo op. I was Senior Naval Communicator (a PO1, USN equivalent is Chief) of HMCS IROQUOIS (DDH 280) by this point and we were part of the group. Everyone who could justify a reason was on the bridge to see it.
The bridge communicator was exchanging info with Connie using signals from ATP 1 VOL 2. A pub designed so that navies speaking different languages can exchange voice info using just the phonetic alphabet and numbers. He reported to me that the carrier wanted us to take station 200 yards on her port beam. I made him show me and that's what it said. I reported it to the Commanding Officer, "Are you sure?" and I said yes. He paused and I added, "I will check personally."
So I picked up the mic and trying not to speak with too much Canadian accent (I spoke slower, not too many eh's) said, "Desig (meaning plain text follows). Please confirm two zero zero yards and not two zero zero zero yards." The operator at the other end just rogered out (meaning I heard your transmission and understand, not "yes")
A second later a new voice, "Yes, two hundred yards unless you are not comfortable with that." I looked at the Old Man and he smiled, "Yes, no problem!" So I sent that.
It was not unlike a replenishment at sea, but a speed the RCN would never to that at! The helmsman later said he it felt like the ship was surfing the carrier's bow wave! We flew the largest Canadian flag we had from the masthead but it was dwarfed by Connie's US flag

Yeah, that's a little close at speed for my comfort. But that's another thing I observe about the Navy. They drive their ships like they are sports cars. But that's because they are. I was driving a large, heavy truck. The fun part was doing convoy exercises when the Commodore kept stressing that we should "pop up" to a certain speed, "drive into position", than "cut it back down to convoy speed." I have a large slow speed diesel in a heavily loaded bathtub. We don't "pop up" to anything!

Unreps are another thing. Did a few of those on a tanker years ago and got a few stories out of it. Once to a Canadian oiler in fact. Nice looking ship. Good guys. Had their stuff together. They felt bad for us when they found out we had every person on our 24 man crew on deck or on watch for the duration of the transfer. So they sent us over a few boxes of fresh baked cookies.

 

[CPO Fast Forward]

"Drive it like you stole it!" is the mantra on the bridge

Yes most warships are spoiled with people. I recall sailing with one merchant ship that needed lead time (15 minutes?) so they could get their engineer to go make a speed change.

 

[boatgeek]

But that's another thing I observe about the Navy. They drive their ships like they are sports cars. But that's because they are.

Give a 22-year-old access to that much horsepower, and that's what you get!

The USCG ran into those kinds of issues with the small boats I mentioned above. They had Honda outboards, and were always in for warranty service because 22-year-olds did what they do with a 40-knot boat. For a while, USCG was leaning on Honda that the warranty restarted after warranty repairs, which led to an infinite warranty period (and nobody else in Seattle being able to get Honda outboards serviced). Eventually Honda cut them off.

 

[g.pitts]

I think the post 9/11 exclusion zone around our ferries was about half a mile, but we have fairly tight waters and a lot of traffic that crosses the ferry routes. For several years there were little Coast Guard boats with mounted machine guns following the ferries around to enforce the zone.

I've seen them first-hand on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in and around the San Juan islands, and once on the Columbia River as a military vessel was departing Portland just prior to the end of Fleet Week (they asked us to get as close to shore as possible, since we could not meet the prescribed distance from the vessel due to the width of the river where we passed). They were friendly to boaters, but I certainly would not want to be on their wrong side given the weapons they carried.