Harbourmaster's Jottings

Have you "winterised" your boat yet? For the intrepid few (-but increasing number of !) members who continue to sail throughout the winter (and wasn't the sailing from Jan to March this year amazing!) this is not an issue. However for others - who have perhaps not seen their boat for a while, it really isn't a very good idea to leave it without taking steps to secure it against the winter gales and potential floods.

In today's era of "extreme weather events" high winds that are capable of lifting boats off their trailers are not unknown (my own Laser - despite being tied down at the bows and midships was once lifted bodily - complete with stakes - and deposited in Sunnyside reservoir!).

We have also known the river to rise above the bank to a height that could carry boats away if they are not secured. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The preferred method of securing a boat is to use a vertical post driven at least 450mm into the ground to lift the bows and then tie down amidships to a tyre buried in the ground at each side. (This is quite straightforward and a 15 minute job using the mattock from the Bosuns store). Please do not use metal spikes, angle iron, ground anchors and the like - they play havok with strimmers and are potentially very dangerous to lightly shod feet - especially when hidden in the undergrowth.

Make sure also that the cover is taut, so that rain cannot collect in it and that bungs are out.

Some more grumps:

1. Please remove your unwanted items (old boat covers, empty paint tins, old trailers etc) from the Club and don't discard them on the bank. The Club has no rubbish collection and the policy should be "take your litter home". Litter tends to get lost in undergrowth and messes up the strimmers

2. Similarly please do not remove floating debris from the river - unless you want to take it away! You may think that you are helping river users, but the amount of debris that you are likely to extract is a fraction of what floats past but if deposited on the bank is both unsightly and impedes strimming.

3. The Club has 4 strimmers - 1 electric and 3 petrol. Please feel free to use them to keep berths free of undergrowth- but return them in the state that you would expect to find them. If you are unsure how to operate them I will be happy to demonstrate. We also have a variety of hand tools - all kept in the Bosuns store.