
Altogether 12 volunteers were present for our extremely productive maintenance day today. I'm sure all present will agree we achieved much more than we'd hoped for.
Boats are now sparkling and back on their trailers in the yard.
Fortunately we had a lovely sunny day for our work. John and Jill Armstrong were our hosts, and a huge thanks to them for allowing us to use their big front yard to work on the boats. When we arrived at 9 in the morning, John had already done a lot of the prep work, including getting the 303s down on the lawn and washed. He'd arranged all the centreboards and rudders, and done some preliminary repair work.
Maintenance officers Peter Withington and John Parker were busy checking all that needed to be done, and working their way through various repair jobs, as well as all the cleaning work. Michael Leydon got busy with various repairs, and we worked our way through all the boats, sails, trailers and kit to check for repairs, replacement parts and that all parts were present. He and Tish organised wind indicators and calibrations of outhauls. John A had already attached telltales to booms and checked them all. All travellers and lines were measured to aim for consistency. Thanks to Jill, a keen sewer, who provided and eyelet and attachment kit, with which Michael repaired one of the 303 jibs.
Most welcome helpers with boat lifting, hull scrubbing, cutting and polishing work, were Victor, Denis, George, Allan and myself. We all had a go at the various tasks. The kit bags were all opened up and all corrodible items washed and lubricated where appropriate. The contents of very bag was checked. All sails were washed. Trailers were rearranged.
Around 11am 12 of us had a morning tea break and some very yummy sweet snacks provided by many volunteers. Thanks to all who brought them. Then later on, after 1pm, we decided that to keep on working we needed more fuel, so I went out and got pizzas, which we all demolished.
It was a full day's work, and once again a huge thank you to all involved. It's so important to look after our boats and gear, so we can in turn give our sailors the best possible sailing experience on our days on the water.
We'll check all the boats again before the next season, but we can at least rest assured they're in all in pretty good nick at the moment. We may have some other events during the off season, otherwise we hope to see you all again in September for the new season. I'll let you know as soon as the new calendar is available. - T.McD-Secretary
Boats are now sparkling and back on their trailers in the yard.
Fortunately we had a lovely sunny day for our work. John and Jill Armstrong were our hosts, and a huge thanks to them for allowing us to use their big front yard to work on the boats. When we arrived at 9 in the morning, John had already done a lot of the prep work, including getting the 303s down on the lawn and washed. He'd arranged all the centreboards and rudders, and done some preliminary repair work.
Maintenance officers Peter Withington and John Parker were busy checking all that needed to be done, and working their way through various repair jobs, as well as all the cleaning work. Michael Leydon got busy with various repairs, and we worked our way through all the boats, sails, trailers and kit to check for repairs, replacement parts and that all parts were present. He and Tish organised wind indicators and calibrations of outhauls. John A had already attached telltales to booms and checked them all. All travellers and lines were measured to aim for consistency. Thanks to Jill, a keen sewer, who provided and eyelet and attachment kit, with which Michael repaired one of the 303 jibs.
Most welcome helpers with boat lifting, hull scrubbing, cutting and polishing work, were Victor, Denis, George, Allan and myself. We all had a go at the various tasks. The kit bags were all opened up and all corrodible items washed and lubricated where appropriate. The contents of very bag was checked. All sails were washed. Trailers were rearranged.
Around 11am 12 of us had a morning tea break and some very yummy sweet snacks provided by many volunteers. Thanks to all who brought them. Then later on, after 1pm, we decided that to keep on working we needed more fuel, so I went out and got pizzas, which we all demolished.
It was a full day's work, and once again a huge thank you to all involved. It's so important to look after our boats and gear, so we can in turn give our sailors the best possible sailing experience on our days on the water.
We'll check all the boats again before the next season, but we can at least rest assured they're in all in pretty good nick at the moment. We may have some other events during the off season, otherwise we hope to see you all again in September for the new season. I'll let you know as soon as the new calendar is available. - T.McD-Secretary