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1. How do I stop the back of my wetsuit wearing out before everywhere else? If you wear an old pair of shorts on the outside of your wetsuit it will stop it chafing.

Club Stories

22/09/2008

WightAir Weekend. I think that every Club Member owes the few volunteers a huge thank you. Over four days they worked day and night to promote the club and bring in extra funds. The weather was fantastic and although the sailing (and other activities) were curtailed, a lot of us still managed to get out on the water (but one of the sailors was only out for about 10 minutes). The Thundercats were terrific (I'm thinking of putting an outboard motor on my cat and joining in next year), there were displays by the jetski and of course some breathtaking displays by the Red Arrows and Red Falcons. I'll put all the photos onto the website once they have been downloaded from the camera.

8/08/2008

For Fathers Day I was given a Cat Hawk Wind Indicator. It took me two months to fit it and one hour to loose it!! It has a design fault that causes it to flow off the top at the first gust of wind. I had tied some cotton on to stop it blowing away but it blew off, dangled on the cotton and then the cotton snapped so it was bye bye indicator. But I've not given up and I've had an idea to improve it. So all I need now is to buy a new indicator.

I'm now having an e-mail-argument with the company (Hawk Marine Products) because they insist that I assembled it incorrectly and I'm insisting that it is a design flaw. So if you have had the same problem with your Cat Hawk Wind Indicator please can you e-mail them at sales@hawkmarineproducts.com and tell them.

16/07/2008

To avoid getting a sunburned head I try to remember to wear a hat. However, every time I go out with a hat on I end up loosing it and then spend the rest of my time going backwards and forewards trying to find it (without success). So I'm now keeping a count of the number of hats I've lost ...... the count so far is 2. So if you are out on your boat and find a hat floating in the sea, its mine. However, if you are out and your motor gets caught up on a hat its not mine!!

12/01/2008

I last took my boat out at the beginning of October 2007 and since then I've been really missing taking the boat out. However, the drysuits I've looked at were way out of my price range. Then a friend mentioned that he goes fishing in winter and uses a floatation suit to keep warm. I did a lot of research and found that they are designed to keep a user warm if they fall in the water, which was just what I wanted. After receiving some money at Christmas I bought a one-piece floatation suit (on special offer), a fleece undersuit for extra warmth, neoprene gloves (half price with the floatation suit), wetsuit boots and neoprene socks and a wetsuit hood. Everything arrived within a couple of days but the boots were too small so I sent them back and exchanged them for a larger pair.

I did not want to rush straight out on the boat so we waited until the weekend and I dragged the wife and children down to the club. I expected it to take ages to get ready but even with putting my wetsuit and buoyancy aid on underneath I was all kitted out in about 15 minutes. We all walked down to the beach and even though it was quite rough I ventured out on my wife's kayak. I then returned to shore and waded into the sea. As you can see from the picture, the floatation suit and buoyancy aid kept me completely afloat without having to swim at all. But more importantly I was lovely and warm so could have "happily" floated about for a lot longer. The only problem I had was with the gloves as they did not keep the water inside the glove. Every time I took my hands out of the water the water ran out of the gloves and so did not keep the warmed water against my fingers (in contrast the boots did this perfectly and they stayed lovely and warm). But even with this minor "problem" my fingers still did not get very cold.

So I'm now all set to take the boat out ...... anyone want to join me!! To see all the pictures visit the Gallery Page.

As a footnote to this story I finally took the boat out on 2 February 2008 and was told I was the first to take my boat out this year [but if you know different let me know]. All my cold weather gear kept me lovely and warm. The excitement of going out must have been infectious because Nigel decided to take his boat out too and he did not even have any cold weather gear!!

05/04/2007

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