December Newsletter
the winter is not really sailing season, it’s a good time of year to get in some quality boat maintenance! For the month of December While coming up, if you’re able, help the club get our boats back in top shape for the ‘23 season.
Annual Registration Night
The Club Annual Registration Night is Wednesday January 25th at the La Jolla Village Square Community Room from 6 - 8 pm
This is a social event and opportunity to meet your fellow club members!
Address: 8657 Villa La Jolla Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037
Location: Community Room downstairs next to the AMC movie theaters' ticket office
Directions: https://ljvillagesquare.com/directions/
Members are all invited to attend to sign up for the new year, and get a new key to the Club blue lock box. Please bring your old key to exchange.
Read this post on the website
2023 Convair Sailing Club Board of Directors
A special thanks to all our 2022 Board Members for their time and contribution to help to run your club and make it a sucess and all the dedicated hours of hard work!
The 2023 slate of 13 voting officers for our club’s Board of Directors will be as follows.
Elected Officers:
Commodore: Louis Swanepoel
Vice Commodore: Sandy Leon
Rear Commodore: Tracy Williams
Secretary: John Rosen (will also serve as Historian)
Treasurer: Rich Gadek
Directors (3): Mark Sutton (will also serve as Port Captain)
Bob Keefe (will also serve as Dockmaster)
Bill Burch (will also serve as Registrar)
Jr. Staff Commodore: Traci Kush
BOD Appointed Officers:
Port Captain: Mark Sutton
Fleet Captain Paul Feldon
Chief of Racing Robert Skillings
Chief of Instruction Robert Skillings
From all of us at the club, thank you! to our fellow members listed above who volunteered their personal time to run the club in 2023!
If you’d like to get more involved, come to a board meeting or reach out to any of the members here to get involved in any of the club’s activities, from racing to boat maintenance to marketing the club to attract new members.
2023 Budget & Annual Dues
Your club has performed well in 2022 and we have had 32+ new members join the club in 2023
WE ARE GROWING!!
Thanks to all who refered new members, helped with recruitment and promoted out club!
As you may know, we are currently undertaking the neccessary sceduled maintenance of bottom painting the sailboats, starting with the Victorys. By doing this ourselves, we can save significant expenses - read article in this newsletter. Our sails are also aging and are already earmarked to be replaced on a staggered annual schedule: Victory jibs, Ensign jibs, Victory mains, Ensign mains. The marina has also announced an increase in the monthly dock slip fees to keep up with the ever rising inflation enemy.
After much debate and consideration the Board has approved a limited increase on the annual membership due to $495 per annum. This also already includes a benefit of $50 in sailing hours. Sailing hourly rate remains the same - THIS IS STILL THE BEST DEAL IN TOWN!
Dues are per calendar year and Annual Dues are due January 1.
Please complete the 2023 Application Form needed for insurance and mail to:
CSC Registrar P.O. Box 22981 San Diego, CA 92192-2981
or bring to Annual Registration Night.
Let’s Get the Victorys in Shape
We’ve started the Victory boat bottom repair and painting project. Victory 610 is the first. It is on a trailer in Sandy Leon’s yard, and he has fourteen volunteers so far, both new and old CSC members, wanting to work on the project. He has room for more — send him an email if you would like to help. Don’t feel you need to volunteer for the whole project, even just an afternoon or working on a single boat would help. A couple of the boats need only paint. Others will need more extensive work. When done, it’ll be like each boat just left the boatyard, ready to sail - but sans the boat yard bill.
For 610, we’ve already spiffed up the sides, because everybody likes a pretty boat, stripped the keel, and are trying to find the fastest way to remove many years of bad bottom paint.
See more pics on the website
How to Repair the Winches
Tracy Williams
Now and then, a winch will start making growling sounds. That most likely indicates it needs to be cleaned and re-lubed. The process is rather straightforward and only takes 20-30 minutes. You can even do it directly in the boat, but you should bring a towel or large shop rag to lay the parts on so that nothing falls into the bilge.
The first step involves using a small screwdriver and needle nose pliers to remove the retaining metal springy O-ring, which is called a circlip. Use care to avoid dropping it into the water (left picture).
Other models like the Harken winches may not have a circlip, but instead, a screw which you need a bit of leverage to un-tighten (right picture). You may find it necessary to use a pair of vise-grips on the shaft of a large screwdriver to give two-handed leverage.
Once the retaining ring is removed, you can carefully lift up and wiggle a bit to remove the whole assembly off the spindle, keeping your hands around the top and base to avoid any loose parts falling into the water.
Over time, the lube grease mixes with dust and dirt and fouls up the winch. With gentle cleaning and focusing only on one task at a time you can have it cleaned and back together as planned.
In the photos, you can see the dirt and buildup on the spindle – gently use a brass wire brush and a small screwdriver to clean off the residue bit by bit.
Once the spindle is cleaned up, you can apply Super Lube (gray tube) on all of the working gear surfaces below where you normally attach the winch handle. This includes the smooth brass area over which you will re-install the roller bearings once they are ready.
The roller bearings will need a good cleaning. Using a cloth work towel or rag is better than paper towels to avoid the fibers of the paper towel getting caught up in the bearings as you clean off all the old lube and dirt.
Once it is all cleaned up, you should use more Super Lube on the roller bearings on both external and internal surfaces. Be sure to rotate the bearings to ensure the lube covers all the roller bearing surface area.
Now that the main spindle and roller bearings are cleaned and lubed, we can move on to the pawls and pawl springs. They can come loose during cleaning or de-install, so it is essential to anticipate that and to have the work area set up such that if one does fall, it won’t fall onto the floor and into the bilge.
The one here was rather messy and required some thorough cleaning and then a treatment of 3-In-One oil, not lube grease. Using lube grease can result in the pawls getting gummy later and prompting further repairs. You want the pawls to be oiled and be freely springy to function well.
A close-up view of the pawls and pawl spring is shown here. If they do fall out, they are rather easily re-inserted as long as one doesn’t lose the parts.
There are pawls on the bottom of the winch. Be sure to clean and oil those with 3-In-One oil too.
Our Chief of Maintenance, Paul Feldon, has done a nice job of equipping our dock box with the required supplies. You’ll see the grey Super Lube and the 3-in-One oil in the blue supply organizer shown above.
Below is what the winch looks like when all cleaned up and re-assembled, first by lubing the spindle and re-installed the cleaned and lubed roller bearings, then gently re-installing the crown (housing) such that the pawls don’t come out of place when sliding back into position over the gears. CAUTION: Be sure that the spring clip (circlip) is fully seated in its groove. If not fully seated, the winch top and drum can fly apart and off during use! Once done – you’re now back in business and ready to sail!
If well-maintained, our winches should last for many years. If certain parts are damaged or cracked, it is possible to buy replacement parts such as roller bearings, pawls, and pawl springs for much less than the cost of purchasing a new winch. Schematics and part numbers are available on the manufacturer's websites if you want to look them up.
Don’t Get Electrocuted
Our marina, like most, is not wired with GFI (ground fault) protection circuits. Especially in the marine environment, this could pose a significant risk while using AC-powered devices on the dock or on the boats. A faulty connector or worn cord could result in an electrical current flowing in the water or through the boat resulting in a shock hazard.
An excellent explanation of this is detailed in a West Marine article
To avoid a shock hazard, we have installed a short extension cord with a built-in GFI protector to the electrical box attached to the dock box containing the battery packs, bilge pump, and electrical supplies. Any tools or extension cords used on the dock should be connected only to this protection device. The cord and protector are stored inside the dock box and remain connected to the electrical circuit breaker box, which is attached to the dock box (see photos below).
Any question regarding the setup, just ask Paul Feldon, Fleet Captain, pfeldon@aol.com
