the Propeller Club NewsletterAmver AwardsDinnerCaptain Mike Rand, Representative of the U.S. Coast Guard,Mr. Nicholaos Pappadakis, 1st Vice President of the of thePropeller Club, Mr. Ioannis Tzoanos, General Secretary of theMinistry of Merchant Marine, Mr. George Vlachos, Secretaryof the same Ministry responsible of Ports and Port Policy.Once again the Propeller Club of the UnitedStates in cooperation with the U.S Coast Guardand the American Embassy organized theAMVER Awards Dinner, on the 24th of October2006 at the Intercontinental Hotel.<strong>The</strong> President of the Propeller Club, Mr. VlassisKatrantzos extended his special greetings to allshipping companies who receive awards andreferring to the importance of the AMVERprogram noted that according to the AMVERrecords, during 2005 670 vessels belonging to140 Greek Shipping companies participated inthe AMVER system (Automated MutualAssistance Vessel Rescue) and that 962additional vessels were recruited into AMVERsystem in 2005 thus increased the awardrecipients 11% from 2004. He also noted that122 vessels belonging to AMVER system, rescued177 lives.After that the Minister of Aegean and IslandPolicy Mr. Aristotelis Pavlides and AmbassadorMr. Charles Parker Ries, after they extendedtheir greetings to the audience and theypresented the AMVER Awards helped by theGeneral Secretaries of the Ministry of MerchantMarine Messrs. Ioannis Tzoanos, GeorgeVlachos, and captain Mike Rand, representativeof the U.S. Coast Guard.During the dinner, Mr. Vlassis Katrantzospresented a special award to lieutenantcommander G. Leventis, commander of frigateAEGEON for the efforts made by the crew tosave the lives of 14 crew members of the Turkishvessel A.AKIF in January 2006.Captain Michael Rand, representative of USCG,presented a special award to the representativeof shipping company STEALTHGAS for the rescueοf a couple whose yacht burst in flames, by thecrew of vessel Gas Shangai, on May 16, 2005.Present after dinner were the Minister of Aegeanand Island Policy, Mr. Aristotelis Pavlides, U.S.Ambassador, Mr. Charles Parker Ries, GeneralSecretaries of the Ministry of Merchant MarineMr. Ioannis Tzoanos and Mr. George Vlachos, theEconomic Counselor and Commercial Attaché ofthe U.S. Embassy, Mr. Woodward Clark Price andMr. Steve Alley, the President and the GeneralSecretary of the Propeller Club Mr. VlassisKatrantzos and Mrs. Marianna Moschou andmembers of the Board of Governors. Alsoshipowners Messrs. Panagiotis Tsakos, Mr.Ioannis Koustas, Mr. Constantinos and AlexisArnokouros, Mr. Karydopoulos and manageriallevel people from the shipping community andbanks. Also present were representatives of oursponsors, Mr. Skev <strong>The</strong>odorou of the IFCHORS.A., Mr. Krassaris of the OLYMPIC SHIPPINGAND MANAGEMENT, Mr. Ugo Salerno of RINO(Registro Italiano Navale).Golden Sponsors:A.G. PAPPADAKIS AND CO LTD.IFCHOR S.A.OLYMPIC SHIPPING & MANAGEMENT S.A.RINABronze Sponsors:ANANGEL MARITIME SERVICES INC.EUROPEAN PRODUCT CARRIERS LTD.KOUROS MARITIME ENTREPRISES LTD.Silver Sponsors:QUINTANA MARITIME LTD.SEAWORLD MANAGEMENT & TRADING INC.STEALTH MARITIME CORPORATION S.A.TEO SHIPPING CORPORATION