Try again this Sunday?

According to windguru.com, it looks like we might get lucky with some decent wind this Sunday. If anyone would like to commit to racing at 10 am for this coming Sunday Nov. 11 please send me an email or respond to this post below. Thanks.

Shut out again!

Oh well, good intentions shut down by no wind and huge surf. Sunday's scheduled race day was a non-event unfortunately. However, four of us made good use of the lack of wind and fixed the leaking hatches on another boat. Mike, Paul Fletcher, Noel Percival and I spent an hour visiting, wishing for wind and taking apart the hatches on a boat that was less than water proof.

What follows below is a good combination of Mike Rosati's experience on how to fix a boat, Paul Fletcher's suggestion to document how to fix the boat, Noel's photography skills and my posting abilities (and tools).

Step 1: Find the leaky hatch.
Paul described how he took out one of the boats and had to drain the hulls 3 times! So, time to get busy. Under each seat pad is a round plastic hull cover fastened to the hull with six screws. Mike's suggestion to find the leaky hatch was to remove the drain plug and use a kiteboard pump to "inflate" the hulls. Worked like a charm - the leaky hatch started to hiss and was further identified by pouring a little water to see bubbles form around the hatch cover.

Step 2: Remove and clean the hatch
The plastic hatch is held in place by 6 easily removed screws. We used a sharp paint scraper and a knife to remove any dried glue and sand encrusted glue underneath the seat pad.




Step 3: Apply Goop
Once cleaned up apply a liberal bead of Marine Goop (actual glue product) around the hatch opening and place the hatch cover back over the screw holes and screw back into place.





Step 4: Spray adhesive
Next, the seat pad needs to be glued down using a spray adhesive. I used 3M's product that should be allowed to set up for 5 or 10 minutes before pressing the seat pad back in place. Don't be afraid to apply lot's of spray adhesive. Do be afraid of overspray covering your watch face. I'm hoping I can remove the oversprayed adhesive with Goo Gone!

Repeat the above steps for each hatch that you find leaking and don't sail the repaired boat for a day. That should do it for another year!

UK Halsey Racing Quiz

Thanks to Simon Wood for the following link:

www.ukhalsey.com/RulesQuiz/index.asp

This is a great site and worth spending some time understanding the rules of racing. The animations keep it interesting and give you a good understanding of rights of way etc.

Now there will be no excuses on Sunday's race day..."STARBOARD"!!!!!

Thanks again Simon!

Mike fixed our wheel!

Mike just called me and said he has fixed our tire on the cat trolley and he will have it back on tomorrow. He's keen for racing on Sunday (see last posting), so see you there - the more the merrier!

Here's the Happy little Commodore delivering our new boat from a few weeks ago!

See you Sunday! If anyone wants to show up a little earlier than 10 (eg 9am) to help me set up please let me know. Thanks!

First Race Event for '07/'08: this Sunday Nov. 4

Just a quick reminder that Sunday November 4 is the first Sunday in November, the first Sunday of the 2007/2008 racing season and also Daylight Savings time. So, turn your clocks back an hour Saturday night but still get up for racing at 10 am on the beach! The new boat is ready and waiting...

Also, only a handful of members have paid or contacted me to make payment for the '08 year. Please make arrangement to drop off your waiver forms to me or Becky Carlson as soon as possible as year end was yesterday. Or, bring your info and cheque to the beach on Sunday and we can get it then.

Happy Sailing!