Deer Isle Yacht Club

Sylvester Cove, Sunset, Maine

Harbor Committee Letter

Greetings from the Harbor Committee!

Seems I’m always writing to membership around the Easter season. The purpose of this letter is to inform membership about the impending mooring field reorganization slated for later in the spring. The Harbor Committee has been hard at work looking at the mooring field. We have begun the process of re-configuring the cove to better place boats within the mooring field. As described at the annual meeting, the intention is to group bullseyes, motorboats, and larger sailboats within the mooring field based on their navigational needs. In short, smaller boats will be moored closer to the dock and larger boats will be moored further out toward the nun. I’d ask membership to keep an open mind during this process as undoubtedly some members will be asked to move. As discussed previously, the mooring field realignment will provide the Club with two important improvements. First, the Club should be able to provide moorings for all those members on the waiting list. Second, the improved mooring field should provide membership with better ingress and egress from the dock. I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind members that the appropriate length of mooring pennants is approximately 2.5x the distance from the water to your boat’s bow toe-rail. This means that pennants should be no longer than 15 ft even for the largest sailboats.

The club will once again organize mooring maintenance in the spring with work to be done by Buster Peasley. As you know, Buster is a very experienced mooring maintenance expert. He has worked for club members over the years providing maintenance and repair services from his heavy duty barge, which can lift mushrooms of any size and granite blocks up 4000 lbs. If you did not choose to have work done last year or missed the opportunity, the Club would like to stress that the integrity of moorings continues to be the responsibility of members and annual maintenance is a good way to avoid the problems the Club has experienced in the past. In addition, we will have a diver in the cove to check the integrity of members’ moorings. We used the diver to located dropped mornings and inspect mooring integrity last year and it’s an excellent way to have your mooring checked should you be unsure about the last time your mooring was serviced. For a nominal fee of approximately $35, our diver will check your chain and tackle to determine whether your mooring is in need of maintenance. I highly recommend this service as a low cost way of insuring the integrity of your mooring. If you would like to have your mooring maintained or have our diver inspect your mooring, please contact me at jswakelin1@verizon.net by April 30th to get on the list.

For those members on the waiting list who have been cleared to drop a mooring, it is the member’s responsibility to obtain mooring tackle for placement by the harbor committee. The easiest way to do this is having Buster Peasley rig the mooring for you and have it placed when he comes to the cove to perform the annual maintenance. If you would like to order new ground tackle and have it placed by Buster this season, please contact me at the above email address by April 30th. If you are waiting for a slot in the cove and are unsure whether you have been cleared to drop a mooring, please do not place a mooring on your own and reach out to me at the above email address.

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