Hello everybody…………….Just a quick note following last week’s committee meeting. Firstly, it was resolved to reduce the towing levy from 50p to 40p across the board and will come in effect after the current crop of planned trips. The committee is also considering lowering the boat levy which currently stands at £15 per day, but no ‘white smoke’ is yet to be seen.
The club’s Facebook page is a great tool for passing on information, but unfortunately there has been another incident of an inappropriate photograph appearing on the club’s Facebook page. Let me remind everybody that the club does a have a strict policy which will be enforced resulting in censure and eventual removal from our Facebook page for anybody who continues to flout the rules. So please be sensible folks and be nice to each other!
The River Swim as part of the Festival of the River took place on Sunday, 19th. September was a great success with the club providing 3 safety boats amongst a flotilla of other small craft from other clubs to cover the 159 swimmers taking part. We have been promised a donation, which last year was £250, so hope the powers that be are equally generous this year.
Dave Edwards ran an Anglesey trip last weekend (25/26th. September), which due to the inclement weather turned out to be more of a glee club outing than a diving adventure, but at least everybody enjoyed ‘the crack’ in the pub. He also asks me to remind you of the Dinner Dance on the 30th. October and that he is now collecting in the money (£40 pp).
As the autumnal gales have arrived Geoff Oldfield has had to cancel the planned ‘Assistant Dive Manager ‘training this weekend on Anglesey. Currently I do not have an alternative date, but knowing Geoff he will have some cunning plan in train. On the other hand the Boat Handling Course planned for the 9th/10th. October is full steam ahead with the course packs having arrived in the last few days.
Looking forward to next year, I have been in touch with Dive/Tec Wise based at St Julian’s Bay, Malta and have a provisional date of Saturday, 4th. June 2022 for a week’s adventure in the sun. The way it normally works is that I circulate my flight and hotel details together with a list of hotels and apartments and you make your own arrangements. This means that you have considerable flexibility over flights/dates, times and accommodation to suit individual needs, but that we arrive and depart with a day or so of each other. A ‘flyer’ will appear on the club notice board the week for those seriously interested in taking part.
The new Suzuki engine is working extremely well, but requires running in over the next 7 hours. The manual states ‘Safe operating conditions permitting. Operate the engine at desired speed. You may occasionally use the engine at full throttle however do not operate continuously at full throttle for more than 5 minutes.
Notice – Running continuously at full throttle for more than 5 minutes at a time during the 7 hours of break-in operation may cause severe engine damage such a seizure.
During the last 7 hours of break-in operations do not operate at wide open throttle for more than 5 minutes at a time.’
Out intrepid Equipment Officer Chris Mills has put a log sheet in the new boat which should be completed after every trip up to the 20 hour point after which the engine must be serviced. Bear in mind that the engine is compatible with E10 fuel and as it is a four-stroke design does not need a separate oil supply. The oil is contained in the sump just like a normal car engine and this should be checked before every trip via the dip stick located under the engine cover. Suzuki recommend SAE 10W-40 or 10W – 30 marine 4 cycle engine oil.
That’s it folks take care and safe diving.
Alan Jones
Chairman