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END OF 2021 SEASON RUMINATIONS
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New Mast Crane Winch at Provo Marina
A brand new winch has appeared on the park's mast crane. Thank you Ranger Holt. This is a great safety addition to our end of season ritual of dropping the mast.
In the past I have heard complaints that (the old winch) was too slow. I will admit that cranking by hand, got to be a patience tester.
Then the idea came to use a cordless drill, an extension and a socket.
Viola! This combination worked much better than anticipated. CAUTION. It is possible to back the shaft nut off the shaft if you mash the accelerator on your super torquey new 50V Binforrd 4000, cordless drill. Take it easy. Start off slow and then increase your revs.
Treat this baby well and it should give us all good/safe service for many years to come.
SOS
Our Logan boat (Catalina 27) going into Utah Lake for the first time, to test for hull integrity. No leaks. So far so good. We've been using this boat for regular lessons and spinnaker work. There are still bugs to work out, but this C27 should be a great new platform to teach on.
Please help us save our ship. Our Logan Catalina 27 (it's in the water right now), will need to be pulled out by October 31. We need a trailer to accomplish this. It's a long (long) story. We know how rare trailers are these days, but in all seriousness, we need a trailer that will fit this C27. Please give us a call if you have any information on a dual axle boat trailer that would work on a 7,000 lb boat. Thank you very much.
Bonneville's well traveled Celestial Navigation Instructor, Doug Hendricks, is about to cast off dock lines... sextant, chronometer and Nautical Almanacs in hand, to explore unknown waters with a full crew of Home Schooling Swabs, aboard the trusty vessel Hau Kea.
Back in July, when all the boats where coming out of the Great Salt Lake, due to very low water levels, we received a phone call from the Crawford's about their beloved Catalina 27, Jolly Mon. They were aware of our 501-C3, and we began negotiations to add Jolly Mon to the New Horizons Maritime Center fleet.
If you have youth groups that could benefit from after school maritime activities, we would like for you to consider having your kids learn trade skills, engage in meaningful, hands on boat related projects, and when J.M. gets ship shape, take her out on the water to learn some sailing skills.
Jolly Mon currently sits atop the trailer belonging to the C27 Logan boat (now in the water).
So in order to pull the Logan boat out of the water, of all the many options we considered, getting the trailer out from under our Springville C27 currently awaiting an engine install, turned out to be the best solution. At times, all this boat trailer swapping,
felt like a shell game.
Thanks to Mitch, Chad and Alan, the job only took one (long) hour. A true Yeoman's effort. The tarps are draped over the boat to keep autumn leaves out.
We are still one trailer short.
We would like to thank all of you who have sailed with us in 2021. This was our busiest year ever, with last year being the most prolific until 2021. Thanks also go out to an incredible group of instructors: Dale, Melanie, Doug and Kevin. We could have put more future sailors and sailorettes through, if the weather would have cooperated more...but then that's sailing.
Prop Shaft Seal Killer
In August of this year, our trustworthy Nissan 9.8 outboard, became increasingly hard to shift. I had just serviced the engines lower unit at the start of the season, so was perplexed by this behavior. Then the engine simply refused to shift from one gear to the next. I had to cancel lessons for at least two days for a cursory inspection. Right off, I was amazed at how much fishing line was wrapped around the propeller shaft. I probably spent a good half an hour unwrapping spectra cord...thinking this can't be good. I had heard rumors about this stuff ruining prop shaft seals. Once all the spectra cord was removed, I thought I would have a quick peek at the gear lube level. To my horror...there was nothing in the lower end. Nada. When I phoned up the Nissan dealership and told him I had no gear lube in the lower unit, he said, "did you check your prop shaft for fishing line? That'll kill a lower unit every time. You should pull your prop every month, and get rid of any line wrapped around your prop shaft".
I am still waiting for parts to be delivered to repair the 9.8 lower unit.
So far that little bundle of fishing line has cost us around $4,000 (lost revenue, replacement parts, new engine, etc). Ouich!
Fishermen are supposed to bring in their lines when boats are using the marked channel.
There are signs on the north jetty explaining this.
I can't be the only one getting fishing line around my prop shaft. Please report these incidents to Ranger Holt...unless you're O.K. with spending hundreds of "Boat Bucks" on parts that are on continual back-order.
Bonneville School of Sailing
www.bonnevillesailing.com
801.636.5204
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