March 2021 - GSL-Marina - mailman.xmission.com

CRANE DAY
by Dave Shearer 30 Mar '21

30 Mar '21

We are still aiming for having the first crane on the 15th of April starting at 9am sharp. I haven't made the final decision but that will be done by tomorrow. I have called for crane estimate. I'm trying to brace you all right now. This is not going to be a cheap crane day! Especially for those that have to use one crane to come out and another crane to be put in the parking lot. I wish this wasn't the case but it is. Because of the reach that the crane has to have along with the weight of many of the boats it requires a big crane to pull boats from the water. To keep the costs down as much as possible please get your masts down as quick as you can. Make sure your trailers, cradles or stands are ready and in working order. Make sure your masts are ready to pull, if you cant get to the crane slip. Paul Harrison made a great point. Don't forget about electrical or antenna wires that are inside the mast. Be prepared to disconnect those as quick as possible. Last Saturday's mast drop party went well. We have another one this Saturday at noon. It was very disappointing that we couldn't get any boats to the mast crane that had a draft over 4.7'. There was just too much mud to push them through. Thanks Dave

2 1

Preparing for Crane Day
by Dave Shearer 30 Mar '21

30 Mar '21

Bry Pratt sent out an email that was totally on point. So I'm repeating it here: To those boats that can't get to the mast crane and will require the mobile crane to unstep mast: Make sure that you have your mast ready to unstep before you get to the crane. You don't want to be paying for crane time (very expensive) while you're trying to get a frozen turnbuckle unstuck or get a stubborn clevis pin out. Everyone behind you will appreciate not having to wait for you to do those things that could have been done in advance. At your slip: remove sails, remove boom and its lines, unreeve and secure running rigging going to/from the mast, remove backstay adjuster (if possible), loosen turnbuckles to slacken stays and shrouds, twist clevis pins to ensure they move and can be removed, replace cotter rings (or bent cotter pins) in clevis pins with cotter pins just slightly spread, unreeve and secure jib roller furler control line. If you are going to store the mast on the boat, install any needed blocking and or padding on the bow and stern rails. Have short lines ready to tie the mast to the bow and stern rails.

1 0

MAST DROP PARTY
by Dave Shearer 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

We were able to drop about 9 masts this weekend during the mast drop party. We will have one more mast drop party this Saturday. If you draw 5 feet or more you will not make it to the mast crane slip and will have to drop your mast with the crane we will be bringing out. If you draw less than five feet you should be able to make it over there. Boats with a 4 foot draft or less do not need to drop masts yet unless you are going to store your boat on a cradle or stands. If that is the case, please get your masts dropped. This situation is serious. If you have any questions please email me. Thanks Dave

1 0

CRANE DAY REMINDER
by Dave Shearer 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

Just a reminder that the tentative first crane day is Thursday, April 15. I am working out the final details on that today and will have the official announcement out by the end of today or tomorrow morning. There are too many boats on the list for just one day so we may roll into Friday or schedule another day. For the first day we will prioritize the deep draft boats and boats that are on cradles and stands. We will also have a few boats with trailers prioritized too. I will keep you posted.

1 0

CRANE DAY Update
by Dave Shearer 23 Mar '21

23 Mar '21

Ok. We received a bit of a bump in lake levels due to the recent storms. The projected trend is still very dry this spring though. But because of that bump I am tentatively moving crane day back to April 15th. This is a Thursday. I will keep you posted. Thanks Dave

1 0

Mast Drop Party - Crane Day
by Dave Shearer 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

It looks quite stormy this Saturday. I don't know if dropping masts this Saturday is going to be feasible but we will still aim for it. We will also have a Mast Dropping Party from 11am to 4pm on the 27th and 28th. I am still working on the details but I am aiming for Thursday, April 8th for the first crane day. The lake has shown signs that it has stabilized out. If we start getting a lot of moisture we will push crane day back but right now aim for the 8th of April. Dave

1 0

Post
by J. Shannon Doyle 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

JSD

1 0

CRANE DAY COMING UP
by Dave Shearer 17 Mar '21

17 Mar '21

We have had an absolutely disastrous winter. It appears it is going to go down as the driest on record. Governor Cox has just declared a State of Emergency due to the drought conditions we are experiencing. The lake may be showing signs of already topping off. If it hasn't topped off yet, it will early to mid-April. I have not set a crane day yet as I am wanting the lake to come up as much as possible before we pull the boats to make it easier to move boats around to the crane out slip on D dock. As soon as the lake shows signs of flattening or even dropping we will schedule a Crane Day for shortly after that time. It really is time to start de-rigging boats; especially the deeper draft boats. We started dropping masts last Sunday and were able to get 4.5 foot draft boats over to the mast crane slip. I know many of you are shallower draft boats (3 feet or less) and want to get as much sailing as possible in before we see what your future holds. Four foot draft boats can also still get out of the marina. But I can pretty much guarantee you that anything over 3.5 feet draft will have their boast in the mud in their slip by early to mid-summer. If we have a long hot summer we could see the lake drop as much as 2.8 feet in the marina. That would leave most of the marina shallower than 3 feet and will only leave around 1.5 to 1.7 feet at the marina mouth. If the weather is ok this Saturday, we will be available in the afternoon to give guidance on dropping masts. We already have a significant amount of boats signed up for the first crane day. In fact we have so many signed up we will need to do at least two crane days. The priority will be to pull those with cradles and stands first as well as the deeper draft boats. This is all just tragic for the boating community. But it is where we are at. Dave

1 0

LAKE LEVEL - CRANE DAY
by Dave Shearer 08 Mar '21

08 Mar '21

I've been analyzing the lake level this morning. NOT GOOD NEWS. Usually, in March, we come up 0.44'. WE WILL NOT SEE THAT THIS YEAR. The ground is too dry and just not much water is coming our way. And the first half of March looks completely dry with only one very small storm. Twice in the last 20 years, we have not come up at all in March. It is possible we have already topped off for the year. And, although I have never seen the lake drop during March, that doesn't mean it is not possible. That is also not good news. It means we will have difficulty getting any boats with more than a 4.5' draft to the mast crane. That means we may be forced with two choices for the deeper draft boats (can you hear me Catalina 30's?) Option one is to do what we used to do and use the halyards of the boats on each side of your boat to drop your mast. The other choice is to use the crane, on crane day, to drop your masts. That is not ideal as it will cost quite a bit more time and money to get boats out. The other bad news is that now the 4 foot draft boats look like they WILL have to come out this spring too. Please take this very seriously. Start getting trailers, cradles, stands rounded up and make sure they are all in serviceable order. Get on the crane list. I am sill planning on a Crane early to mid-April. But if the lake shows signs of going down before that time I will have to pull the trigger much earlier. Sorry for all this bad news. It just seems we can't get a break out here lately. Dave

2 1

Time to ramp up pulling boats
by Dave Shearer 03 Mar '21

03 Mar '21

This is a hard email to write but PLEASE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. I know it seems like we have had a lot of snow lately. We have. But it only brought us up from a snowpack of 57% late January to 81% today for the Great Salt Lake Drainage area. This is not even close enough to what we need to keep boats in the maria. And Direct Precipitation is only 57% of normal. Great Salt Lake gets 50% of its water from Direct Precipitation and 50% from spring runoff. Water watch experts only give us a 15% chance of catching up before the water year ends in May. To add to our problem, water watch experts say that the soil is the driest they have ever measured since they were keeping records. See recent KSL story. https://www.ksl.com/article/50115754/utah-drought-worries-farmers-ranchers-… Our water year began last October. Here are the stats since then: October = 18% of normal precip November = 49% of normal precip. December = 28% of normal precip. January = 62% of normal precip. February = 128% of normal precip. And the forecast for March = Much Drier than Normal. And much warmer. See NOAA Forecast: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?… On a normal water year the lake would have already come up 1.1' since its low in the fall. We have only come up 0.5'. That is LESS THAN HALF! On a normal water year we would likely come up another 0.73' topping off early May. We will be lucky to see another .4' this year. We are poised to see a new record low for the lake this fall breaking the low record of 4191.6' msl in the early 1960's. It is time to prepare for pulling boats from the lake while the water is high enough to do so. Any boat with a draft over 4' needs to get out VERY SOON! Boats with a draft of 3 to 4 feet will need to pull md-Spring to early Summer. The water is not high enough to get 5 foot draft boats to the mast crane slip but will be soon. Any 4' to 4.5' draft should be able to get there now. PLEASE TAKE THIS VERY SERIOUSLY. We cannot just keep boats in the marina if their keels are going to be in the mud. This risks too much damage to the slips. Right now, I plan to have the first crane day early April to maximize the highest water level possible. Please get your trailers ready. Work on cradles or boat stands. I am so sorry we are here again. But the reality is that we are. If you can take your boat home or to other waters please do so. Otherwise we will plan on storing them in the south parking lot as we did last time for a storage fee. Please plan now. Start removing as much as possible from your boats to get them to float higher. Start unrigging your boats. Please email me to arrange getting on the crane list. Thanks Dave

2 1