Barnt Green Sailing Club - Hints & Tips

Members, if you have any useful hints & tips to share with fellow members please submit them to the webmaster for possible inclusion here.  Email

A few thoughts on securing parked boats at Barnt Green Sailing Club - by Rob Lennox. Posted on 25/3/08
 
As you may know, 3 of the 4 Lasers our family keep at BGSC were badly damaged during the storm of 8 January 2008.  Fortunately they were insured with the class Noble Marine policy, and within a few weeks our fleet was back to full strength.
 
However, the experience has come at a price.  There were the obvious costs like insurance excesses, and delivering and collecting boats from repairers.  As I now have a poor claims record, and one of the hulls was a write-off, the insurance company has loaded the premium for the replacement by 100%!
 
It could have been worse.  As we don't securely tie our boats down at BGSC, many insurers would not have paid out at all - and that would have cost me well over £5,000 to get back to where we are now.
 
It must be said that Nobles are looking at their claims experience over the years from Barnt Green, and it's not the first time there have been claims from high winds.
 
So, as a result, I've looked into the problem, and bought 'corkscrew' earth anchors of the type pilots use to secure aircraft. From  www.pilotwarehouse.co.uk  (phone 01296 624840), the Triple Tie Down Set comprises 3 heavy duty 40cm long galvanised metal screw earth anchors, 3 3.5m lengths of nylon rope, a 40cm galvanised metal lever bar and a durable carrying case.  All this comes for £45.95 - which is probably less than the excess on your premium.
 
I'd strongly encourage all members to do something similar.
 
After all, I'd hate for my next claim to be against you if your boat blows on to one of mine!
 
Rob. 
 
Web Admin:  Thanks Rob for writing this timely piece as guidance for members, you are not the only member to experience problems as a result of claims following the tornado. Members who decide to buy and / or use tie downs are asked to discuss the matter with their Class Captain,  the Commodore or Vice Commodore. In addition please advise our keeper, Fred Rollins, as he will be the one who mows and strims around these rings.  They stick up above the ground by about two inches. From now on members should take care when walking around the dinghy parking areas that they do not trip on these obstacles.
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Click this link to read extracts from the Snowflake Series Sailing instructions with tips from Rob Lennox to help Race Officers who may not be used to running average lap races using PY numbers for scoring. Opens in a new window. Thank you Rob.

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Here is an important message about trailer corrosion, kindly sent in by John Preston in August 2007, keen to share with us all what could have been a disaster.   Thank you John.

Be Alert for Hidden Trailer Dangers !

Sounds dramatic but it might well have been had I not done a check of the trailer before loading up.

A few days before loading the boat on to my road trailer to compete in last years Salcombe regatta, I did a quick check of tyre pressures and lifted the wheels off the ground to give them a spin to listen for any bearing noise. Tyre pressures were a bit low, just needed a few pumps from the foot pump, wheels running smoothly with minimal amount of play in bearings all looked in good order for the trip. I Thought no more about it until I dropped one of the valve caps which just vanished. Getting down on my hands and knees I looked under the suspension where I thought it had fallen and my eye just caught sight of the underside of the unit which appeared to be rather rusty.

On further investigation I was horrified to see that the underside of the unit had actually disintegrated and a huge rusty split had appeared leaving virtually no metal to hold the rubber suspension in place. On checking the other side of the trailer everything was in good order with no more than some superficial surface rust. Why one side only had rusted I do not know, but rusted it had, into a potentially lethal and of course illegal state. The thought of losing a wheel from the trailer whilst driving down the M5 gave me a very uncomfortable feeling as well as a flashback to when some 40 years ago I lost a wheel from a car at fairly high speed. An experience I do not want to repeat.

The only answer was complete new suspension units on both sides - the units being only sold in pairs. In any event it would be inadvisable to just replace on side.  With new suspension and bearings fitted we went to Salcombe and got there and back in one piece thanks to dropping and searching for a valve cap. I never did find it.

So to all of you who use trailers a plea to check carefully before setting out for your open meeting. We tend to ignore trailers as being only a means to an end but ignore them too much, and it could be a means to a sticky end.

John Preston.

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