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I can appreciate that lots of people everywhere are making comments about the missing marks. Here's what's up.
First off, we have a $10K annual budget for buoys. Thats it.
The YRA owns 9 marks on SF Bay: Mason, AR, XOC, G, F, E, B, C. We also coordinate with the Blackaller Foundation for their buoy and the RYC Youth Foundation for the Bob Klein buoy. IOW, we get reimbursed for our expenses for those two buoys.
We had been using polyethylene buoys on the Circle, but they've proven to not be durable enough for our fleets and conditions. When you guys hit them, they kind of shatter. Those buoys cost about $879 ea. they're basically light duty buoys designed to be pulled every winter. Ahh, but we race all winter. I've replaced entire buoys and I've just replaced hulls. There isn't a ton of cost savings. The poly buoys just don't work here. Once the break loose or are cut loose and they hit the rocks they're toast. Half of the time the metal scavengers get the hardware before I can recover the buoy.
Now, as crappy as XOC looked, it, G, Blackaller, and Mason have quite a lot of durability. They're made of an isomer closed cell foam. You can't kill them no matter how hard you try. But they cost a bit over $1800 ea.
If we're lucky we recover the marks. The anchors are a loss. For the past four years we've been using cast iron pyramids that bury themselves in our silt in about 4-5 tide cycles. The cruise ship that snagged Mason found out the hard way that 400 lb of steel and 1" spectra wrapped around a wheel can be a bit of a bitch. Depending upon location we use anywhere from 200-700 lb anchors, each with 15' of 1" H beam chain (10 lb/ft) This is heavy stuff. The 400 lb anchors are around $1500, the 700 lber is $2700. The new Know buoy will have a 400lb anchor. All of the Circle buoys are 200 lbs.
You see the costs adding up?
The riser/tethers are about $200-$400 ea depending upon depth.
So that is the hardware. My friends at Quantum in Richmond let me cut out the numbers etc for a 12 pack and a good joke.
Setting the heavy anchors requires special stuff. Done haphazardly you can kill someone. Scott Easom and I set 3 marks on the Circle using the Bin Laden method. You can only do that with the 200 lb anchors. For anything over that we rent a crane barge at $1800/day. Clearly I can't do that one mark at a time.
That is the fiscal fact of life for our buoys. You guys can crunch the numbers, but it isn't a lot of money and the buoys and associated hardware isn't cheap. BTW, we tried cheaper cement/steel hybrid anchors and we lost all of them.
Finally, I know that there has been lots of commentary about the "once proud Berkeley Circle". The fact is that the BYC is the only club that uses the fixed Circle buoys on a regular basis. The SSS uses F or G as a pin mark for the Vallejo 1-2. Virtually EVERY other club that races in the Berkeley flats sets temp tetrahedrons.
I'd like to know what you guys think. The Circle buoys consume a disproportionate percentage of the buoy budget, and unless you sail a BYC event, you don't see the investment returned to you. I personally have no stake in the game other than an opinion. But if you want the Olympic Circle to be maintained, we're going to need some creative financing, because the YRA just doesn't have the cash.
Finally finally...our budget isn't big enough to permit maintenance. We replace, we don't maintain. If you look at the numbers you can see how much we lose every time one of these buoys comes loose or is vandalized.
Chime in guys, it really is your money.
First off, we have a $10K annual budget for buoys. Thats it.
The YRA owns 9 marks on SF Bay: Mason, AR, XOC, G, F, E, B, C. We also coordinate with the Blackaller Foundation for their buoy and the RYC Youth Foundation for the Bob Klein buoy. IOW, we get reimbursed for our expenses for those two buoys.
We had been using polyethylene buoys on the Circle, but they've proven to not be durable enough for our fleets and conditions. When you guys hit them, they kind of shatter. Those buoys cost about $879 ea. they're basically light duty buoys designed to be pulled every winter. Ahh, but we race all winter. I've replaced entire buoys and I've just replaced hulls. There isn't a ton of cost savings. The poly buoys just don't work here. Once the break loose or are cut loose and they hit the rocks they're toast. Half of the time the metal scavengers get the hardware before I can recover the buoy.
Now, as crappy as XOC looked, it, G, Blackaller, and Mason have quite a lot of durability. They're made of an isomer closed cell foam. You can't kill them no matter how hard you try. But they cost a bit over $1800 ea.
If we're lucky we recover the marks. The anchors are a loss. For the past four years we've been using cast iron pyramids that bury themselves in our silt in about 4-5 tide cycles. The cruise ship that snagged Mason found out the hard way that 400 lb of steel and 1" spectra wrapped around a wheel can be a bit of a bitch. Depending upon location we use anywhere from 200-700 lb anchors, each with 15' of 1" H beam chain (10 lb/ft) This is heavy stuff. The 400 lb anchors are around $1500, the 700 lber is $2700. The new Know buoy will have a 400lb anchor. All of the Circle buoys are 200 lbs.
You see the costs adding up?
The riser/tethers are about $200-$400 ea depending upon depth.
So that is the hardware. My friends at Quantum in Richmond let me cut out the numbers etc for a 12 pack and a good joke.
Setting the heavy anchors requires special stuff. Done haphazardly you can kill someone. Scott Easom and I set 3 marks on the Circle using the Bin Laden method. You can only do that with the 200 lb anchors. For anything over that we rent a crane barge at $1800/day. Clearly I can't do that one mark at a time.
That is the fiscal fact of life for our buoys. You guys can crunch the numbers, but it isn't a lot of money and the buoys and associated hardware isn't cheap. BTW, we tried cheaper cement/steel hybrid anchors and we lost all of them.
Finally, I know that there has been lots of commentary about the "once proud Berkeley Circle". The fact is that the BYC is the only club that uses the fixed Circle buoys on a regular basis. The SSS uses F or G as a pin mark for the Vallejo 1-2. Virtually EVERY other club that races in the Berkeley flats sets temp tetrahedrons.
I'd like to know what you guys think. The Circle buoys consume a disproportionate percentage of the buoy budget, and unless you sail a BYC event, you don't see the investment returned to you. I personally have no stake in the game other than an opinion. But if you want the Olympic Circle to be maintained, we're going to need some creative financing, because the YRA just doesn't have the cash.
Finally finally...our budget isn't big enough to permit maintenance. We replace, we don't maintain. If you look at the numbers you can see how much we lose every time one of these buoys comes loose or is vandalized.
Chime in guys, it really is your money.
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