How We Do Fleet Maintenance
Our home at West River Yacht Harbour is adjacent to the Galesville Harbor Yacht Yard, a do-it-yourself yard. This allows us to keep costs low and member maintenance involvement and training high. We also keep membership costs low by sailing experienced boats.
We keep boat reliability high with our extensive preventive maintenance program. Safety of the fleet is of primary concern. Our members do almost everything that needs to be done to keep boats safe and in service. They bring a broad array of technical expertise to the effort: fiberglass, engine and gearbox, electrical, rigging and sails. Women play a prominent role in our maintenance effort, hands-on, administration and leadership.
Expertise is not the whole answer. Our guiding principle is “many hands make light work.” Members are encouraged but not required to participate in maintenance year-round. We have members who never see the boats except during the summer sailing season. Others put on the layers and work in the yard through the winter. Some of our most enjoyable social moments happen while we are crawling around in and under the boats with our hands dirty.
Training less experienced members is integral to every element of our work. Knowing some technical details can come in handy when a boat delivers a mechanical surprise far from home. Members need not know how to play mechanic, but it is good to be able to name components in a cell phone conversation with our on-call experts. The cell phone numbers of our maintenance leaders are in each boat logbook for consultation as needed.
Maintenance leadership is provided by our fleet captain assisted by a boatswain and two assistant boatswains assigned to each boat. We keep track of everything in an extensive on-line digital maintenance management and record keeping system accessible to all members.
An added benefit of club membership–for each full day of work, a member is awarded a maintenance coupon that covers the cost of one organized club sail or can be applied toward annual maintenance fees or private boat use.
Below is a brief summary of our maintenance program.
Winter layup December through March
- Extensive inspection and repair driven by our maintenance checklists that have evolved over decades of experience.
- Bottom sanding, repair and antifouling application as required.
- Replacement of critical components on a calendar-life basis. We do not run components to failure.
- Detailed inspection of all sails (we have more than 20) done in-house or by local professional sailmakers.
- Professional inspection of areas beyond our expertise, for example, standing rigging.
- Modification and upgrade of boats as the budget allows.
Sailing season April through November
- Boat reliability is our guiding principle and in season repairs are minimal.
- We conduct a Saturday maintenance day about every 6 weeks: sail for free when done.
- Boats and bilges are cleaned, upholstery is shampooed.
- Accumulated minor maintenance issues are resolved.
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