Spring Launch Dates!

[Warren Kaplan]

My yard (in Oyster Bay, NY) says the earliest they are allowed to put boats in the water is April 1st. The long arm of the local government regulator no doubt has reached in here. There's no way that I want to be launched that early but it just made me curious as to how early "your yard" would splash your boat. My yard has boats packed in like a can of sardines and I'm deep in the pack. The only way I'll get in early is if they attach the slings to a helicopter and pluck her straight up from the jack stands and over 50 odd boats between Sine Qua Non and Oyster Bay Harbor. I'd like to get in by the first week of May though. How does it look at your yard?

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27 #166 1980



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[Catherine Monaghan]

Warren,

We keep our boat at a boat yard (they don't consider themselves a marina). I don't know if that makes any difference or not, but boats go in and out of the water all year. This includes commercial vessels like fishing boats, tugs, fireboats, pilot boats, CG vessels, etc. There are liveaboards too and they keep their boats in all winter long, haul them briefly in the spring to repaint their bottoms and then they go right back in. So it must be a local or NY state law preventing the boats from being launched prior to April 1st (or the yard just doesn't want to do it).

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

My yard (in Oyster Bay, NY) says the earliest they are allowed to put boats in the water is April 1st. The long arm of the local government regulator no doubt has reached in here. There's no way that I want to be launched that early but it just made me curious as to how early "your yard" would splash your boat. My yard has boats packed in like a can of sardines and I'm deep in the pack. The only way I'll get in early is if they attach the slings to a helicopter and pluck her straight up from the jack stands and over 50 odd boats between Sine Qua Non and Oyster Bay Harbor. I'd like to get in by the first week of May though. How does it look at your yard?

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27 #166 1980

catherine_monaghanNOSPAM@merck.com

[Richard Feffer]

"Adamarie" has been in the water all winter! We were able to get in some wonderful sailing long after most boats were out of the water. Hopefully we will be able to do the same early in the season. She's covered to the water-line with a custom fitted canvas cover. It keeps her relatively clean and warm below. I see no reason to put myself at mercy of a yard. Not to mention the added expense. Some yards will not store the boat unless they remove the mast. Supposedly, for insurance purposes. There goes another $500 bucks. The cover comes off as soon as temps go up a little.

Happy sailing in '02.

Richard Feffer
s/v Adamarie
CD30MKII



RichFef@Prodigy.net

[Hanalei]

Captain Kaplan,

Hanalei's launch date has always been April 1st. I'm cheap, and like to get all the bang for my buck that I can! Well, let's make that frugal. I don't haul out until November 1st. either....after that it is just TOO cold!! The end of last Ocotber my Uncle, my brother and I were at the Montauk Yacht Club for a final "Men against the Sea" voyage. There was NO ONE in the harbor, but the sailing was great!

Dave Stump
Commanding Hanalei

[M. R. Bober]

Our local yard (Severn River, Annapolis) uses a last out/first back method, because they park boats in their road. However hauling and launching goes on all year long.

Does your yard have an insurance policy that restricts the hours (months??) of operation?

It's very near time to get that hull wet!
Every best wish.
Mitchell Bober
RESPITE
CD330

[Duncan Maio]

How does it look at your yard?

Warren:

My yard in Bristol, RI generally starts launching around April 1st, although they would probably go earlier if anyone was ready. They simplify things somewhat by requesting a launch date (by week)when they haul the boat; that way, they know where to stack her in the yard. We only get to pick the week, not the day of launch, and typically the whole schedule shifts a week due to weather. Then we are given an overly optimistic estimate of the day, which is not met, followed by a call a couple of days later announcing that the boat is going to be launched within the next few minutes (I work nearly 60 miles away). Fortunately, the yard is pretty good about checking for open through-hulls, etc. and I can usually swap a case of beer for a few days at the dock before moving to a mooring. Not my mooring, of course; either another boat is on itat the time, or it's not rigged yet.

We are scheduled for the week of April 15th, which puts us near the top of the list. The yard is still launching boats at the end of June, for those who only sail for half the season.

Duncan Maio
s/v Remedy
CD27 #37
Bristol, RI



mail@mysticmarine.net

[Warren Kaplan]

Our local yard (Severn River, Annapolis) uses a last out/first back method, because they park boats in their road. However hauling and launching goes on all year long.

Does your yard have an insurance policy that restricts the hours (months??) of operation?

It's very near time to get that hull wet!
Every best wish.
Mitchell Bober
RESPITE
CD330

Mitchell,
I don't believe its an insurance issue directly but rather a local ordinance from the Town of Oyster Bay. Here's why. Anyone who wants to moor their boat in Oyster Bay Harbor must get a mooring permit (read tax) from the Town of Oyster Bay. That's straight forward enough. But the town also has an ordinance that requires every mooring, whether your own private gear, or gear supplied by a marina or yacht club, be inspected every year by a qualified inspector to make sure it has the right size chain, shackles etc, and is in good and safe working order. I suspect that if during a season a mooring setup failed and big damage was done by a boat adrift, the town could be named in a lawsuit if it is determined that the gear was not in A-1 shape since the town gave "approval" by issuing the permit. There's your possible insurance link. So just about every mooring is pulled every year at the end of the season. Mooring permits are usually sent our around mid March. When you get the permit, you take it to your yard, or whoever is "licensed" to do the inspection of your mooring gear, and they inspect, repair and certify the mooring set up. Once done, they then have to place the mooring in OB Harbor at the assigned spot on the mooring permit. Since the permits come out mid March, there's really no way to get any boats in on a practical basis much before April 1st. So, I think this is just an Oyster Bay thing. Not necessarily a New York regulation.
This is my first year at this marina so I'm "renting" my mooring this year. All I have to do is send them my mooring permit and, of course, the fee for the mooring rental, and they take care of the rest. Its a somewhat expensive proposition. I suppose making sure that a mooring chain isn't going to fail from years of neglect and corrosion the first time the wind gets north of 18 knots, setting a 35 footer adrift in a crowded anchorage, is a good idea. I'm pretty sure my take on this is correct but I'll check anyway.

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27



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[len]

april 29, slip for a few days and then the moorings are open may 1 (to oct 30) -

my marina only launches/hauls bare pole boats, i never understood why - ? others have same "rules"

vernal equinox is just 5 weeks away!



md.frel@nwh.org

[Ed Haley]

Captain Kaplan:
The reason you give is a sound one, if in fact that is the reason why Oyster Bay has a mooring inspector. I think it's an essential position in a marina to prevent anyone from placing a mooring that is grossly insufficient to do what it's supposed to be. You'd be surprised at the number of boaters who buy a $25,000 boat and then attach it to a buoy that's held to a bucket filled with concrete with nothing more than a clothesline. I've even seen parachute cord used in this situation.

I belong to an inland yacht club where we had to fend off several boats that dragged their mooring in a storm. When I became Commodore, one of the first things I did was to develop a mooring guide that showed members how to rig a mooring. Sadly, not everyone followed the directions.

I think a Mooring Inspector is a sound position in any marina. He/she could help prevent many headaches caused by noncaring boaters.

Ed Haley
Captain, S/V Mokita
CD330 #1



eghaley@twcny.rr.com

[BobM]

My yard (in Oyster Bay, NY) says the earliest they are allowed to put boats in the water is April 1st. The long arm of the local government regulator no doubt has reached in here. There's no way that I want to be launched that early but it just made me curious as to how early "your yard" would splash your boat. My yard has boats packed in like a can of sardines and I'm deep in the pack. The only way I'll get in early is if they attach the slings to a helicopter and pluck her straight up from the jack stands and over 50 odd boats between Sine Qua Non and Oyster Bay Harbor. I'd like to get in by the first week of May though. How does it look at your yard?

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27 #166 1980

================================

Hi Warren:

Ranger is sitting in a backyard on a river (next to her berth) and can go in as soon as I get her ready and painted, and the riggers can schedule time to come up the river to put her in.

How's the winter treating you? You getting cabin fever?

cheers,

Bob
Ranger #144



Ranger1442@hotmail.com

[Warren Kaplan]

================================

Hi Warren:

Ranger is sitting in a backyard on a river (next to her berth) and can go in as soon as I get her ready and painted, and the riggers can schedule time to come up the river to put her in.

How's the winter treating you? You getting cabin fever?

cheers,

Bob
Ranger #144

Bob,
What winter?? I'll tell you if I knew the winter was going to be like this I would have been tempted to leave Sine Qua Non in the water and just pick some nice weekends to take her out. But I guess I do have some cabin fever. I'm ready to start to do something tangible and positive on the boat. Anything!!
How's with you?

Warren



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[Dave Potts]

Falmouth, ME apparently has a similar ordinance to Oyster Bay. They are host to the largest mooring field in Maine. The moorings are privately owned but must be registered with the town and inspected at least once every two years. Falmouth ordinances state that pleasure boats may only occupy moorings from April 1st through October 31st - frankly, April 1st is way too early up here - most boats launch between mid-May and late-June. It's the Oct 31st date that bugs me. I hauled out on Oct 31st last Fall (my first year at Falmouth), but in prior years at other locations, I've been in as late as through early December (although the latest I've acually sailed is early-mid Nov).

May 15th is my traditional launch date (and that is the date my countdown calculator on my web page is referencing - 88 days plus change, as of now).

Dave
<a href=http://home.maine.rr.com/andronikos/ind ... Andronikos, CD30</a>



david.potts@fairchildsemi.com

[Ann and David Brownlee]

We launch the week of March 18.

"Windrush" just came out of the shed at Tidewater Marina after a very beautiful repair of the waterlogged cockpit sole and port foredeck. The gelcoat match is perfect, and all the work was done very neatly.

Our new Selden furler was installed before hauling in November, and Skelley is building us a new 140 right now.

The warm weather yesterday gave us a chance to fill a few dozen tiny blister pocks with West System resin and microballoons.

That more or less completes all the major things we knew we'd wanted to do when we bought the boat in 2000. (We replaced the stove and head, installed a hand-pumped water system, and reconfigured the peculiar fold-away upper berth on the port side of the main cabin last year. We also insalled a large heat exchanger to cure persistent overheating.)

Right now, we just have a few days of work to do on the teak and bottom.

Hooray!

Ann and David Brownlee
CD 31 #1
"Windrush"
Havre de Grace, MD



dbrownle@sas/upen4.edu

[Jack Chamberlain]

The reason for the bare pole rule, I suspect, is windage. Covered and lashed mains OK, sometimes, but our marina particularly wants roller furling sails removed so they cannot accidentally unfurl and blow the boat off the stands, and onto other boats.



jchamber@kaballero.com