Winter Maintenance DO IT NOW!!!!!

gouvernail

Super Opinionated and Always Correct
There are a bunch of maintenance items you really want to address during the "off season"I thought starting a list and getting your heads directed toward the task would be a good idea. So here aare a few things:

1. Buy 2 tubes of 3M 5200 fast cure. Remove every fitting on your boat and re- bed it. If the holes are stripped, now is the time to move the fittings or through bolt them. Toss the second un-opened tube in your toolbox.

2. Check your trailer bearings. Re grease them or buy new ones and install them3. Re carpet the trailer. Use the cheap outdoor stuff without rubber backing and use a few layers. The moisture will wich away from the hull or deck.

3. Check the wood while you are at it.

4. Paint the rusty areas of the trailer. All you really need to do is Scotch Brite off the rust and apply a freah coat of paint. Rust-o-leum Hammered Aluminum paint looks just like a galvanized finish. Otherwise, whatever color you like is great. Light colors are easier to see in the water, especially late in the evening.

5. Get some brand new nylon tie down lines for $10. Your boat should never travel tied down with a crappy old mainsheet. What a dumb way to save money that would be...

6. Does your sail have batten pocket issues?? Get the thing to the local sailmaker.

7. Want to fix all the scratches?? The article we wrote in the nineties for the Laser Sailor is on this page. Scroll down to it or read until you get there. All the maintenance stuff on that page is pretty good>>> http://schrothfiberglass.com/LaserMaint.htm

8. Do you still have a wood tiller or blades?? Time for varnish.

9. How ore those flex joints doing on the extension?? Time to buy two, instal one and get a spare for the toolbox. If you have ACME stull, order his nifty repair kit for your particular extension.

10. Usually my lists have ten items

11. Check all your lines. Time to buy new??

12. get that class sticker for the transome. Yes, it is time to buy a new 2006 class membership. You may as well do it now. It ends at the same time no matter what (December 31) and all you do by waiting is screw yourself out of a newsletter or two or three.

13. Register for a few regattas. Go visit the website listings and sign up now. you will not only have to go to rescue your investment but you will ABSOLUTELY THRILL the hosts of the event. Thrill me first>>>my event>>> http://schrothfiberglass.com/Easter.htm

14. call the members of your local group and meet at a restaurant somewhere. Fleet maintenance is just as important as your boat or more so.

15. Do something nice for your significant other. get your "bank account" dfull so you can blow off for sailing events later in the year.

16. Go to the gym. Personal maintenance is way big on the list.

17. Get some CDs for trips to events.

18. Do you wear a dry suit? How are the collars and sleeve rubbers?? Time to ship them off for repair?

19. Is that life jacket good for another year?20. How are your sunglasses? have you had an eye exam lately?Anybody else care to add to the list??
 
But how do I get off the couch :D ?

PS: @12, the North American office doesn't do the boat stickers anymore; now we just get the membership card.
 
I ain't doin any of that stuff!

Puttin my boat on top of my land yacht and leavin for FL next Wednesday.

FL masters in W. Palm then clinic at Jensen Beach, then Midwinter masters in Clearwater.

And Fred...I've got the Holiday Inn for Fri and Sat night. Right at the bridge, launching the boats there, lots less hassle than the Sailing Center.

Yep...this is an invite. Room ON ME! Stuck with Hartman as a roomie but I'm sure you can manage.

Time for YOU to go sailing...

Come to FL Fred!

mark
buffalo, ny
 
Holy heck Mark!! =That's about the nicest thing anybody has written said or done in my direction in a long long time..maybe ever....

This may get me permanently booted off the Laser Forum but the truth must be told.....
I have already teamed up with long time Laser sailors Bill Mitchell and Ravi Subramanian to compete in the J-22 Midwinters next week. My Laser probably won't make it to a regatta until the good folks at Seabrook Sailing Club have to put up with my five boat trailer and a bunch of us pond sailors from Austin in March.
For the short term, my Buffalo, New York fix will have to come from watching old black and white movies at 3 am on the "Off Beat Cinema" program.
also note: The "Opti Butt" photo on my website was taken at 50 Delwood Road in Buffalo. (or is that in Kenmore?)
 
gouvernail said:
This may get me permanently booted off the Laser Forum but the truth must be told.....
I have already teamed up with long time Laser sailors Bill Mitchell and Ravi Subramanian to compete in the J-22 Midwinters next week.

Your list gave me a headache, and now this!

Merrily
 
gouvernail said:
There are a bunch of maintenance items you really want to address during the "off season"I thought starting a list and getting your heads directed toward the task would be a good idea. So here aare a few things:


But Fred, I live in Florida and this is prime sailing season.....

Thanks for the list though.
 
gouvernail said:
...Anybody else care to add to the list??
:)
21. Have you paid your 2006 fee for membership to your sailing club, the 2-years fee for the "International card for pleasurecraft" (at "orbit" "Europe")

22. Have you paid the insurances for 2006 your Laser and your trailer and yourself?

23. For having it in summer (for quick temporaily pre-repair of small gelcoat cracks during a racing-event), you may like to go to your local dealer for snow-boarding now and buy wax-candles like this ones (you not get them in summer time):
http://www.toko.ch/toko/katalog.asp?view=detail&did=90&dart=5&tid=2611&sid=2

24. how is the shape of your camping stuff that you need at your racing events? Now, it is a good time to clean all and repair the tent (Is it still waterproof? Did you lost pegs?-replace the lost ones), get "gas" for your camping-cooker-/-light (its cheap now). Your camping-sleeping-bag maybe need to be washed - now you have plenty of time to get it dry again.

25. Not forget to wash your functional-underwear for sailing, too.

26. Is the wetsuit okay, maybe you need to glue the tears, that they got during the last season.

27. Where are your sun-hats. You perhaps need a new one, because you lost your last at the finall reach-ride last year. ;)

28. PTFE-lubricate all the blocks, control the sheaves of the Holt-allen-blocks and if they are worn-out it is a good time to replace them now.

29. Is the windindicator in good shape?

30. Control the batteries of your racing-watch and Ipod.

31. Search for some good music at www for your Ipod. The next time you sit in the sun during a dead calm on your Laser and wait for a start you want to be entertained ... ;)


32. Have you enough PTFE-disks for the mastep in reserve to come through the first races of the season? In general: do replace that stuff like cotter-bolts/-rings that you have lost during the last season.

Ciao
LooserLu
 
OK Fred...you ain't comin....haven't been on this site for a week or so cuz I'm trying to get my act together to go South.

Got all the stuff packed. Will put the boat on top of land yacht tomorrow. Out'a here on Wednesday blah, blah, blah.
Palm Beach Sailing Club sez I can camp there if I don't hang any laundry. Can't wait til they see my "camper" (745il).

1.) You are a wimp.
2.) How come you have so much time to write all this stuff? Maybe you should devote some time to biz then you might actually be able to do some traveling.
3.) I still think Laser Lu is Shevy or Lainie.
4.) You are a wimp.
5.) Have you noticed that as you get older you basically become "invisible" when you are around younger people?

mark
 
Lainie is Lainie Pardey. She was the NA Vice President for a few years in the late nineties.( not hers...you idiot reader) She was instrumental in causing the development of the new hardare and rigging as she was a tad physically challenged by the boat. Lainie ( Pronounced LAY Knee) spent more time on shore organizing the class and events than sailing. Her photos used to fill the pages of the newsletter and she was a fixture at the registration table for most major North American Events.
I certainly cannot say for certain but my experience says she spent more personal time and money on the promotion of the Laser than any other class member before or since.
If there is a person who has rivaled Lainie's constant donation of time and personal attention to the NA Class it must be our current NA President...now if we could just find a way to have both of them involved....oops...neither is a twenty something!!!

OK until one of you lazy punk kids takes over I want to see a few more folks with enthusiasm and time and resources they are willing to spend like Lainie and Tracy
 
Mark Grinder said:
...3.) I still think Laser Lu is Shevy or Lainie...
Ha, ha :) Sorry Mark, I'm neither the one than the other. I live in the north-west of Germany (150 km in the north of Cologne) and not at Istanbul and the other one I only know form reading at the former laser.org-email-list and from a comment at Dick Tillmans book.
 

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