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Wind Warning!
by Dave Shearer 14 Sep '18

14 Sep '18

We are nearing the fall weather pattern which brings strong southerly winds as fronts approach. Tomorrow is the first of the fall pre-frontal winds. We will be issuing a Gale Force Warning tomorrow morning for all of Saturday. Winds will be strong and gusty from 25mph to possibly 60mph. We have these kind of winds multiple times during Fall, Winter and Spring. It is now time to consider whether your property at the marina is ready for those winds. * Are your dock lines in good shape? * Are mainsails removed from the boom or at least properly covered. Mainsails not removed or properly covered will shred in strong wind. It is a good idea to remove your mainsail from the boom or cover the sail and then wrap a line around the cover * Is your genoa removed or properly AND tightly furled? Genoas that are loosely furled are VERY prone tun unfurling and shredding in the wind. An unfurled genoa can also lead to dismasting * Are all your halyards secured? * Is your standing rigging properly pinned? Just one standing rigging wire that pops out due to a cotter pin or split ring failure can lead to a costly dismasting. * If you have a boat cover, is it properly secured? Loose boat covers can shred in the wind. * Is all your property on your boat or on the dock properly secured? We haven't had much wind this summer which has lead to some complacency. Ripped sails or dismastings can be very expensive. Unsecured property or rigging on your boat can lead to damage on the boat next to you also. Thanks Dave

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trailer
by Errol Remington 12 Sep '18

12 Sep '18

Dave, Do you happen to know if anyone needs to use my trailer tomorrow? I want to know what time I should be out there. I used to come early to help others with their boats but I'm at the age now where the most help I can be is staying out of the way. Errol

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Crane Day
by Dave Shearer 12 Sep '18

12 Sep '18

For all those that will be out here tomorrow for Crane Day, Dave Ghizzone will have the food trailer open around 11;30am. He serves some great food! Dave

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Sam Wilkinson Obituary
by Dave Shearer 11 Sep '18

11 Sep '18

Here is a link to Sam Wilkinson's obituary for those that would like read more about him or give condolences to the family. https://www.premierfuneral.com/obituaries/Samuel-Wilkinson-3/#!/Obituary Dave

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SAD NEWS
by Dave Shearer 10 Sep '18

10 Sep '18

Sad news today. Sam Wilkinson passed away yesterday. Sam, Jane, as well as their daughter, Gretha were a big presence at the marina and the yacht club in the 1970's through 1990's. They had a few different boats over their time here at Great Salt Lake. Their last boat here was a Catalina 30 called Sjoen. Sam donated countless hours to the marina community. Our condolences go out to Jane, Gretha and her family. Dave

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CRANE DAY - LAST CALL
by Dave Shearer 05 Sep '18

05 Sep '18

Crane Day is a week from tomorrow, September 13th at 9am SHARP. If you are planning on pulling your boat please let me know ASAP. Below are the names for the crane list so far. If you are planning to pull your boat and your name is not on the list please let me know. If your name is on the list but shouldn't be please let me know also. Thanks Adams Austin Suel Holt/Balk Remington Grillone Tabish Johnston Kent Johnson Figge Erickson Schmidt Boland Dave

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Important Updates
by Dave Shearer 21 Aug '18

21 Aug '18

Well it has been a tough year at the Great Salt Lake Marina. Last year's dredging as well as a great 2016-2017 snowpack allowed us to get all the boats back in the water. And even after a disastrous 2017-2018 winter everyone that wanted to sail could sail all spring and into early summer. And those with drafts of 4.5 feet or less are still getting out with no problem. We made several attempts at keeping the mouth open through the generous help of Dave Ghizzone. The strong winter/spring winds silt in the mouth during these lower water years. In order to maintain the mouth on a more regular basis we are looking at purchasing equipment so that silt in the mouth can be removed as needed by us. I will keep you updated on our efforts in this area. As you all know, we had a horrible winter last year. The early winter was about 70% of average. December through February saw a snowpack of only 66% of normal snowpack. And the spring precipitation was at normal levels but the damage was already done. The summer has been VERY dry and consistently hot even though we didn't break 100 degrees at the lake or see a record high this year. These above average temperatures can speed up evaporation. National Weather Service predicted a wetter-than-normal winter last winter. That didn't happen. They also predicted a wetter-than-normal summer for the Great Salt Lake area. That also didn't happen. In fact we only saw 12% of normal precipitation for Great Salt Lake this summer. What is the forecast for this fall? National Weather Forecast thinks we are going to have a wetter-than-normal Fall. Their forecast also states that we have an equal chance of being wetter-than-normal or drier-than-normal this winter. But I do not have much faith in their long-term forecasts. Farmers Almanac states we should have a milder and wetter-than-normal fall and winter. Expert forecasters are predicting the 2018-2019 fall/winter season will be largely effected by the development of an El Nino trend. NWS is predicting January through March will see the biggest effect of the El Nino. But how strong of an El Nino will we see. They don't know yet. What I do know is that 50% of the time there is an El Nino we have a wetter-than-normal season and 50% of the time we have a drier-than-normal season. During at typical El Nino, snowfall is greater than average across the southern Rockies and drier in the northern Rockies. So what is Great Salt Lake considered to be? Central Rockies. That means we are in the zone where NWS doesn't know if we will be wetter-than-normal or drier-than-normal. Many current models shows the Great Salt Lake drainage area as going into a wet pattern by January and continuing through next spring. SO HERE IS WHERE WE ARE AT. We are in desperate need of a wetter-than-normal winter. Without it we will probably be putting boats in the parking lot again next spring/summer. Boats with drafts of 5 feet or more are now grounding out in the mouth of the marina. It is mostly soft silt and the inboard boats have had enough horse power to blow through it. But the lake is still going down and could go down as much as 0.8' still. The lake usually stops dropping mid-October to mid-November. It is all dependent on temperature and moisture as to when we stop dropping. We will likely see lake levels similar to what we saw in 2016 or about 4192.2' msl. This is not good. This means many of the deeper draft boats will be stuck in their slips with potentially having keels in the mud this fall. Some boats drafting around 4' may also find themselves trapped in the slips and there will only be about 3.5 to 3.7 feet at the mouth of the marina. We do have a Crane Day scheduled for September 13th for those that want to pull out now. If you are interested you need to email me at dshearer(a)gslmarina.com<mailto:dshearer@gslmarina.com> to get on the list. We will likely see the lake start to rise again in late November. If we have a great winter than all is good. But if we have a below-average winter or even an average winter we are going to be faced with tough choices again next spring/summer as much of the runoff will be trapped to fill the reservoirs and ground water back up. I know this is not the news everyone wants to hear. But it is the reality we face. There is definitely hope. 20 years ago long-term weather forecasters stated we were going into a 20 year dry cycle. I thought they were nuts. It appears they were correct. Now there are some models that show we should be going into a six year wet cycle. I thought we were beginning that in the 2016-2017 season. Let us hope it begins soon. Dave

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CRANE DAY
by Dave Shearer 16 Aug '18

16 Aug '18

This is another announcement for Crane Day on September 13th. Please confirm if you want to use the crane to pull your boat or put a boat in. Thanks Dave

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Sad News
by Dave Shearer 16 Aug '18

16 Aug '18

A member of the Great Salt Lake Marina has died. Jim Banta had a Lancer 30 on K dock for many years even living on it at times. He recently passed away. His obituary can be viewed by going to the following link: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=james-bant… Dave

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CRANE DAY
by Dave Shearer 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

Crane day for August 2nd has been cancelled due to lack of participation. A new Crane Day has been set for Thursday, September 13th at 9am. If you want to be on that Crane Day please RSVP. Thanks Dave

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