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Greetings From Sun Harbor Marina -
It’s November Already
Welcome to the November issue of Sun
Harbor’s monthly e-mail newsletter! As all Southern
California boaters know, some of our best weather is yet to
come, but so is the rainy season! That’s why now is a
great time to plug up those pesky “leaks” you meant
to get to after last year’s rainy season, and see if you
can’t have a drier Winter this year. If your canvas is
getting older and the water leaches through, there are some
waterproofing sprays available that will solve the problem.
Another area to check are “channels” that direct
water inward instead of overboard. Often, these trouble spots
can be fixed with simple channel blocks that redirect the flow.
Similarly, there are some simple weather stripping solutions to
overhangs that drip water inward. In any event, whatever you
can do to reduce the moisture inside your boat will pay back
big dividends in reducing mold, corrosion and odor.
O.K. - We Need Your Help!
A marina is required to have two things
on file for every boat. Your current federal documentation or
state registration and proof of insurance. If you’ve been
ignoring our request for these two important items, remember
current documentation is a condition of your lease, do not risk
receiving a notice of termination over paperwork. We’re
sorry to be so forceful, but we have no other choice. If you
have any question as to whether we have these two items on
file, please call the marina office today!
Also, many of you know we had a small
fire aboard a vessel and in order to provide the utmost safety
for you and your neighbors, please be sure to also provide the
office with current emergency contact numbers and whether your
boat is fueled by diesel or gas.
Good luck, and we’ll see you soon
at the marina.
Kathy OBrien - Sun Harbor Marina
Former Sun-Harbor Dockmaster Passes
Away
Brian Peele | |||||||||||
San Diego - August 31, 2006 - Former long
time Sun-Harbor dockmaster Brian Peele passed away after
suffering a heart attack at work at the Bay Club.
Sun-Harbor tenants who knew Brian
remember him as someone who always had a good word for
everyone, and a person who did whatever it took to keep
Sun-Harbor operating one way or another, especially during the
redevelopment.
About Brian, Jim Sutter recalls,
“The power was regularly out on the end of A dock. Brian
would be there rewiring outlets, fixing a breaker, or whatever
it took to get things fixed - - with a smile on his face.
“He took a personal interest in the
tenants. He kept track of all the new babies born to
liveaboards. One day, the waitress at Red Sails brought me a
drink. Said it's from that guy. When I looked there was Brian
with a big grin on his face waving at me. I can't remember how
many times that happened in the 30 years I was lucky enough to
know Brian.
“He always had a friendly word for
every one around him.” Many times heading out for a race,
Brian would be on the loudspeaker - ‘there goes Jim and
Joe out to race. Good luck Jim’. That was
Brian”.
Recycling Your Used Oil - Why You Should
and Where You Can
Recycling is an essential step to
maintaining the best boater’s management practices.
Little actions make big impacts on the water we all call home.
Reclaiming used
“uncontaminated” oil takes
half the energy used to refine crude oil and is accepted by
most auto maintenance shops, automotive supply stores, and
service stations. Toxic transmission fluid can also be
recycled and mixed with the motor oil.
Oil filters,
while still warm, should be drained into a container and taken
to an appropriate collection center. It is cheaper to reuse
steel recovered from these filters than producing new steel,
and prevents an unnecessary one-time use of metal.
The California
Integrated Waste Management Board's Used Oil Recycling Program develops and promotes alternatives to the
illegal disposal of used oil by establishing a statewide
network of collection opportunities and undertaking outreach
efforts to inform and motivate the public to recycle used
oil.The California Oil Recycling Enhancement Act, which is
administered by the Board, is a law designed to
discourage the illegal disposal of used oil. This law requires
oil manufacturers to pay to the Board $0.16 for each gallon of
lubricating oil sold in California. Registered industrial
generators, curbside collection programs, and certified
collection centers are eligible to receive $0.16 for each
gallon of used lubricating oil recycled. To find a convenient
recycled oil and oil filter collection center close to you, Click Here.
San Diego’s 35th Annual Parade of
Lights
The Port of San Diego’s 35th annual “Parade
of Lights” will be
held on Sunday, December 10, and Sunday, December 17, 2006 from
5:30 PM until 9:00 PM. Fireworks on both Sundays begin at 5:
30pm; the Light Parade begins immediately following the
fireworks The parade takes approximately one hour to one and a
half hours to pass any given point along the parade route.
If you’ve never witnessed San
Diego’s Parade of Lights before, plan to be entertained
by the imagination of San Diego’s recreational boaters,
who deck out their boats with lights in creative and
entertaining themes. Bring the chairs and blankets early to
stake out a good viewing place along the waterfront, and
prepare to have a fun evening.
For boaters wishing to view the parade from their boats on
the bay, a good viewing area is where the parade route turns
for Coronado, near the 10th Street Terminal. For those viewing on land,
the north and south ends of the Embarcadero as well as the
pathway along Coronado are good spots as they tend to be less
crowded. If you plan on viewing the parade from Harbor Island,
get there early and be aware that parking is at a premium.
Another good spot is the park behind Seaport Village.
Or better yet why not be a part of the
Parade? To enter your boat in the
parade download the entry form and
return it to the Parade organizers by November 30th with the
entry fee of $30.
Or, If you are not up for the grand scale
of the Parade of Lights, you may
still want to join in the Sun Harbor Marina Christmas boat
decorating contest. Prizes will be given for the most
creative, most effort, most nautical and managers favorite.
Boats will be judged on December 8th.
Uninsured Vendors Can Cost You Plenty
Do you check vendors that work on your
boat to see if they have current insurance? Common sense and
potential big dollar liability suggest you should. The failure
of a vendor to have insurance can leave you in the position of
insuring yourself. In some cases, lack of insurance can mean
that the vendor either lacks the assets to fix the problem or
there are other problems in their business practices.
Additionally, if the vendor does not carry Workman’s
Compensation, you could possibly be liable for a
workman’s compensation claim. The bottom line? Make sure
your vendors are insured! It only takes a minute to gain that
peace of mind.
e-Letters to the Editor
 | ||
Debbie B.
San Diego, CA
Dear Debbie
We could write a whole book about
printing things from your browser like this e-mail newsletter,
but in general, if you want to print it without truncated
margins, go into Page Setup under your File Menu, set the Paper
Size to 8-1/2” x 11”.
eliminate the Header and Footer, and set all four Margins to the minimum setting (0.166”).
New Manual Now Available For Pickup
“Good Mate” Recreational Boating and Marina Manual is now
available in the marina office – stop by if you are
interested in a manual or video.
NEW - BlueSkyNews.com Desktop Photo of
the Month
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There’s nothing finer than sipping
champagne on a sunset cruise in Hawaii watching the sun go
down. We suspect there’s a bit of champagne flowing on
the sailboat in the photo too.
To use this photo on your desktop, click
on this link www.BlueSkyNews.com and follow the complete step-by-step
instructions on how to download.
Clif’s Chronicles - Did You Know?
What’s That Grey Thing That Looks
Like a Submarine?
Ever notice the long grey
submarine-looking vessel on the starboard side as you head out
to Point Loma from the South side of Shelter Island. It’s
right next to the small blue-hulled ships.
Research Vessel FLIP | |||||||||||
That’s FLIP, which stands for
“Floating Instrument Platform”, a 355 ft’
long vessel that belongs to the Marine Physical Laboratory, a
division of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which in
turn is part of the University of California.
Back before the era of political
correctness of the sixties, the Marine Physical Laboratory used
to be called the “University of California Division of
War Research”, but that’s another story.
When Flip is “flipped”, it
has 300 feet below the waterline and 55 feet above the
waterline. Everything inside Flip is on gimbals (sinks,
counters, toilets, etc.), and it’s quite an experience to
ride it when it is flipped, and afterwards, everything that was
around a corner is now on a different floor. In the flipped
position, as the name implies, it is like sitting in your
living room. The motion is imperceptible. Flip is technically a
barge (it has to be towed to its desired position), but once
flipped, it does have orientation motors that let it rotate in
the vertical position. The flipping process takes many hours,
but the last few degrees go relatively quicker, so it’s
an e-ticket ride in the last few minutes.
The purpose - Researchers needed a stable
platform for sonar and transducer research. Click Here if
you would like to know more about Flip.
Clif Oliver | |||||||||||
Between the Sheets - How Fast Will She Go?
Sailing down the bay a friend of mine
asked “how fast will your boat go?” I begin
to spew out my text book answer. “You see, a
sailboat’s hull speed is equal to the square root of the
length at the water line times 1.34, but that’s not
always correct, since as a boat heels, the water line is
extended and the speed would be more than that unless the heel
angle becomes too great, and!!!”
My friend’s face morphs into that
“deer in the headlights” look and he asks for
another beverage and says “Oh, look at the pretty
bird!”.
Seriously though, how do you find out
what the best speed for a given point of sail, wind and course
is for your particular boat? To get the answer, you need to
develop a polar chart for your boat. There are general polar
charts on the web for many production boats that can be
downloaded for free, but these usually represent the
manufacturer’s new production boats and do not represent
the many boat bucks you personally may have invested in the
quest for more speed.
Until recently you had go spend many boat
bucks to achieve a polar chart that only approximated your
particular boat, but thanks to the internet, there are now some
excellent analyzers which will give you a much more exacting
answer to the question, “How fast will she go?”.
One I found that I like is the Sailfish Yacht Analyzer at
techsail.com which
for only one half of a traditional boat buck, I was able to
develop my own polar charts that represent the specific changes
I have made in my boat. So now I know for a given wind speed
and point of sail what my boat performance should be. The
challenge now is achieving the proper sail trim to reach that
speed. “How fast will she go?” - Hey, I’m not
going to tell you that!
Richard Benscoter | |||||||||||
Docking Your Boat - “A Mini
“Crash Course”
Everyone has their own way of docking
their boat, and as we all know, some work better than others!
Having taught sailing and boating handling since 1979,
I’d like to offer some general tips that I teach my
clients:
1. Take your
dock lines with you. When
returning to your slip, it is much safer to have dock lines
attached to your boat rather than trying to place the loops
back on the boat from lines secured to the dock. Serious injury
to fingers can occur by trying to loop dock lines onto mooring
cleats of a still-moving boat…don’t risk it!
2. Secure your dock lines so as not to
foul your prop. Also known as
a “high speed underwater winch”, wrapping a line
around a prop can rip the prop shaft loose.
3. Plan and prepare early for docking. If your regular “crew” is not
aboard, choose capable line handlers. (Often it is better for
friends NOT to help, especially if they know nothing about
boating or have been drinking!) Turn down the stereo & VHF;
ask noisy kids and guests to quiet down so you can concentrate!
For “double” slips, position fenders below
the toe rail or wherever the boat is likely to touch your
neighbor’s boat. If you have extra crew, position them so
that they can “fend off” without endangering
themselves. Instruct line handlers to step onto the dock only
when they are certain they can make it. If short handed or
single handing, drape the end of your bow line over the rail or
lifelines so that it can be grabbed from dockside and not be
tangled.
4. Check wind direction and strength
before entering the fairway. Handling
in wind is fairly predictable. When docking, I usually check
the relative wind angle on the masthead wind vanes on the
sailboats sitting in the slips. Think about which way
it’s going to push you as you make your approach and
final turn. You may need to turn early or late to compensate.
When the wind is light or calm, enjoy the luxury of a slow
approach.
5. Anticipate what the boat is likely to
do, once stopped, but not yet tied up. Once in the slip, wind or current may continue
to help you or hinder you, depending upon the speed and
direction. Trying to dock on a single side-tie (such as a fuel
dock or “double” slip) with the wind blowing you
away may require a faster approach, the use of more power, and
expert line handling. Sometimes, tossing lines to someone on
the dock is necessary even for the best boat handlers...but be
careful of overzealous helpers and give clear instructions as
to what you want the person to do with the line.
6. Practice makes perfect. If dockings are uncomfortable for you,
take some lessons with a qualified instructor-captain. You
spent a lot on this toy…why not invest a little more to
make docking the fun part instead of the stressful part? Next
month, we’ll talk about what it takes to be a good crew
member.
Bob Sherman | |||||||||||
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