The Main Sheet
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AQUARIUS S.C. THE MAIN SHEET Autumn 2009 Edition Web Site: http://www.sailaquarius.org.uk Editor: Richard Cannon 01932 786636 Email: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Publicity: Over Easy 020 8393 5495 E-mail: [email protected] Contents Commodores’s Report - Tony Hopkins Commodores’s Report 1 Well the Sailing season for us is and padlocked to the bank and there are Joan Bray welcomes 1 nearly over this year but there are still a no valuables on board! Also that din- Newsletter Printing 1 lot of social activities planned leading ghies are secured and not left sailable! Website 10th Anniversary 1 up to Christmas. The reach has had its So please do remove centre boards, rud- Christmas Greetings 1 first Autumn working party, I say first ders and tillers and sails if possible. Trouble with Over Easy 2 because we plan a second to sort out With the festive season rapidly clos- Lasers Named 2 the trailer park which is now jammed ing in on us and the sailing season com- Skittles Evening 3 full with trailers and more than a few ing to an end (for Aquarius) thoughts A Pat on the Back for Janet 3 dinghies, cruisers and catamarans, it is tend to turn away from the club but Bosun Open Regatta 3 now difficult to retrieve trailers, also the there are always jobs need doing on HMS Bristol 3 drive and car park require de-weeding. dinghies, its best to get those repairs Casino Royale 4 If you have an old trailer in the trailer done sooner rather than remember when Use of Club Dinghies 4 park that is no longer used please dis- afloat next season and you are left Laying-Up at the end of season. 4 pose of it or let me know as someone floundering downstream. Security at Aquarius SC 5 else maybe in need of a trailer. Don’t forget to lookout for the Our first Youth input 5 With the nights drawing in it means Aquarius social activities that tend to Sailing Course Review 5 the reach is in darkness for longer and happen between now and next season. Sailing at Loch Insh 5 we have had more than our share of Weather permitting, as usual, the sailing Work Party on 10 October 5 unwanted visitors along the bank and season will be extended as long as pos- My First Stories 6 around the clubhouse, if you have a wet sible. Chapter 1 - Before You Can Finish 6 berth please do make sure it is chained Chapter 2 - Birth of a Signet 6 Chapter 3 - Sailing in SunseT 6 th Aquarius at Bewl Water 7 Website 10 Anniversary - Richard Cannon Dates For Your Diary 8 I can't find when the website first It is still hosted there although own- Kempton Park Fireworks 8 went live. The earliest I have found is ership changed to Tiscali and now Annual General Meeting, Prize Giving 8 the AQSC Regatta on 4 June 99. And I TalkTalk provide the excellent service. Sailing Beyond The End of Season 8 uploaded web pages on 25 May 99. Our domain sailaquarius.org.uk was Aquarius Sailing Club Annual Dinner 8 There was nothing in the Spring registered on 16Aug02. 1999 newsletter published March 1999 In those days web access speed was and it was announced in the Summer very different; I had recently upgraded newsletter published 9 July 1999; so my 9.6 kbs modem to the latest 56kbp between April to June 1999 seems like- modem at a cost of £180; 40 times Christmas Greetings ly. slower than the slowest you are likely Richard and I would like to wish I used my free UkGateway web to get today. you all a very Merry Christmas and a space to create I hope you find the website useful Happy New Year. http://www.aquarius.sc.ukgateway.net. for finding current and historical infor- We hope you enjoy your club news- mation like newsletters and race re- letters as we try to make them informa- sults. tive, amusing and above all interesting. We are both very happy that this is- Joan Bray Welcomes Newsletter Printing sue contains a good number of stories The printing and paper costs of this submitted by members and especially We give a warm welcome to: Kerrig- Newsletter were met in full by JDC some from some of our younger sailors. an, Eman, Mariam, Tariq, Sam and Far- Independent Financial Advisers If these inspire you to put pen to ris Wild. And also to Elizabeth Seward 69 The Green Twickenham paper or to fire up your word processor and her sons William and Ralph who 020 8755 5577 in 2010 Richard and I would be more have re-joined Aquarius after a long We thank Frank Rainsborough for than pleased to publish your stories in absence wishing them all a long and setting this up. Apart from the cost the coming issues of 'The Mainsheet'. happy membership of Aquarius. saving, it is good to have this task Richard & Mike delegated. 1 Trouble With Over Easy Over Easy, ST369 that is, not yours bottom pine beam and the outer tank out between the showers before every- truly became forty-one years old this wall were sound. I also removed the P thing was finished including the instal- year. That's a good age for an amateur & S self bailers. lation of the new larger bailer in the built plywood dinghy of any class. The The whole area was then cleaned up starboard side floor. trouble is that dinghies of that age were and 'pickled' with wood preserver and Finally I was able to turn the dinghy usually constructed using an adhesive wood hardener. I next made up some over and start on the inside. The new called Aerolite 306. cardboard patterns which I used to cut inner tank wall and floor required some A306 was made by Ciba-Geigy and the new marine ply; but nothing’s dressing and the section of the reinforc- was a synthetic powder resin which you straightforward and at this point I real- ing strap that had been cut out had to be mixed with water; this was applied to ised that the floor was 6mm ply and the replaced together with a patch over the one half of a joint. The Formic Acid tank walls 4mm ply. I only had 6mm. old port bailer aperture. The rest was hardener was then painted onto the mat- Richard solved the problem and routed straightforward and required applying a ing surface(s) and the joint clamped up. down a section of the thicker material fillet to the inner tank wall floor joint, Three hours later you had a bond that to 4mm, what a star! The fitting of the staining and varnishing the tank walls could be handled although it took sever- new wood was fairly trouble free al- and painting the floor with non slip al days to achieve full waterproof though cutting 1" scarf joints is very deck paint. strength. Although not known then it is time consuming and requires very sharp By now I'd just about had enough now commonly accepted that this prod- planes and chisels <Photos available> but the decking still had to be rubbed uct, albeit the best of its era, had a life Any inconsistencies were taken up by down and re-varnished. Finally on Sat- of about 35-40 years. copious amounts of epoxy resin thick- urday 31July the sun came out and I Over Easy was constructed using ened with colloidal silica. was able to get two good coats of var- A306 and around about regatta time I West & SP epoxies are the modern nish on. A couple of days later I got the began to notice rather large amounts of day versions of A306 but they are toxic final satin coats applied and the deck water appearing in the boat. At first I and require VERY careful handling. fittings reinstalled. Over Easy is back in thought that a self bailer seal had gone, You can get sensitized to the stuff and business, although I admit I'm being Oh! That it had been that easy. Further the results are not very pleasant. Colloi- very unfaithful to her at the moment investigation revealed that the port side dal silica should not be used without a with Laser called Peanuts. floor was dropping away from the port mask; its carcinogenic and you do not I have to say that the maintenance side tank walls. The A306 had finally want to inhale any of it. I also took the overhead, let alone the skills required to let go. The joint in question is where opportunity to seal up the opening do something like the above is why the floor meets a curved pine section where the port bailer used to live and nowadays nobody wants a wooden din- that runs the length of the boat and se- increase the starboard bailer opening to ghy anymore. Having said that I've cures together the inner and outer side take a new slightly larger Evestrom watched Bryan Clements repairing fi- tank walls and the floor. The break bailer. breglass Lasers at the club and that no seemed to run aft from the thwart sup- The next job, while the dinghy was easy task either. I guess any kind of port on the port side. upside down, was to strip the P & S boat will, eventually, require some kind Nigel kindly hauled Over Easy to chines back to bare wood and cover of work … but please don't come to Epsom for me.