Roughly 300 students living on Broad St. between West Kendrick Ave. and College St. lost water access twice last week, first when a water main broke in front of 94 Broad St. on Friday, Sept. 9, and again two days later when a main broke near 66 Broad St. on Sunday, Sept. 11.

Both disruptions were announced by Joe Hernon — associate vice president for emergency management, campus safety, and environmental health and safety — in emails to the Colgate community. The Village of Hamilton initially notified the University of both breaks, and a boil water notice was not issued on either day.

Water service was restored by 6:15 pm on Friday, roughly seven hours after the break was announced. Sunday’s disruption was shorter; service was restored less than two hours later.

Hernon’s emails encouraged affected students to use Case Library, James C. Colgate Hall and the Reid Athletic Center for bathroom facilities, as well as Huntington Gymnasium for showers.

“As you see kind of cross-country, water infrastructure can be outdated, and so it does tend to break,” Hernon said on Friday afternoon. “This is might be one of those unfortunate cases but we don’t have a cause at this time.”

Senior Dassie Spivack, director of facility operations for 84 Broad St. (Delta Delta Delta), said she faced several inconveniences following Friday’s main break. After water that was already in the pipes before access was shut off ran out, residents of the Greek life house only had access to water stored in jugs.

“It was an issue of cleaning things up,” Spivack said. “In the beginning, we kind of forgot about it, so we were using regular plates but we couldn’t wash them, […] so we pretty quickly switched over to single-use paper plates and stuff like that.”

Delta Delta Delta shut down their in-house kitchen because they couldn’t sanitize surfaces. The students also lost access to their bathroom water, forcing them to shower in the apartments and townhouses nearby.

“Luckily it turned back on around 5 pm or 6 pm,” Spivack said, “but when it did turn back on it still wasn’t usable. It was still really brown, so it took another hour or so to even be usable after it turned back on.”

Elsa O’Brien, a sophomore living in the Creative Arts theme house on 100 Broad St., said that Sunday’s water main break posed the same issues as Friday’s.

“It’s basically identical [to Friday], I think,” O’Brien said. “I just really want an accessible, sustainable solution to all this. We all end up buying plastic water bottles when we get put in this position, especially since no one — including those repairing the break — knows how long the issue will last.”

This is not the first time Colgate students have been affected by water main breaks. A major water main on Broad St. broke in February which shut off water for Bryan Complex, 113 Broad Street and the townhouses and caused flooding. A boil water notice was also issued.

Hernon explained that although similarly, the most recent water disruptions were not as severe. The broken pipe in February was older and one of the biggest in the Village, he said, and its break was caused by freezing temperatures combined with strong water pressure.

“I don’t have a cause for this one, but I do think it’s something we see, unfortunately, on the emergency preparedness side of the house cross-country, these systems tend to go,” Hernon said, “so it’s on us to keep looking forward to being prepared to respond to them.”

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Roughly 300 students living on Broad St. between West Kendrick Ave. and College St. lost water access twice last week, first when a water main broke in front of 94 Broad St. on Friday, Sept. 9, and again two days later when a main broke near 66 Broad St. on Sunday, Sept. 11.

Both disruptions were announced by Joe Hernon — associate vice president for emergency management, campus safety, and environmental health and safety — in emails to the Colgate community. The Village of Hamilton initially notified the University of both breaks, and a boil water notice was not issued on either day.

Water service was restored by 6:15 pm on Friday, roughly seven hours after the break was announced. Sunday’s disruption was shorter; service was restored less than two hours later.

Hernon’s emails encouraged affected students to use Case Library, James C. Colgate Hall and the Reid Athletic Center for bathroom facilities, as well as Huntington Gymnasium for showers.

“As you see kind of cross-country, water infrastructure can be outdated, and so it does tend to break,” Hernon said on Friday afternoon. “This is might be one of those unfortunate cases but we don’t have a cause at this time.”

Senior Dassie Spivack, director of facility operations for 84 Broad St. (Delta Delta Delta), said she faced several inconveniences following Friday’s main break. After water that was already in the pipes before access was shut off ran out, residents of the Greek life house only had access to water stored in jugs.

“It was an issue of cleaning things up,” Spivack said. “In the beginning, we kind of forgot about it, so we were using regular plates but we couldn’t wash them, […] so we pretty quickly switched over to single-use paper plates and stuff like that.”

Delta Delta Delta shut down their in-house kitchen because they couldn’t sanitize surfaces. The students also lost access to their bathroom water, forcing them to shower in the apartments and townhouses nearby.

“Luckily it turned back on around 5 pm or 6 pm,” Spivack said, “but when it did turn back on it still wasn’t usable. It was still really brown, so it took another hour or so to even be usable after it turned back on.”

Elsa O’Brien, a sophomore living in the Creative Arts theme house on 100 Broad St., said that Sunday’s water main break posed the same issues as Friday’s.

“It’s basically identical [to Friday], I think,” O’Brien said. “I just really want an accessible, sustainable solution to all this. We all end up buying plastic water bottles when we get put in this position, especially since no one — including those repairing the break — knows how long the issue will last.”

This is not the first time Colgate students have been affected by water main breaks. A major water main on Broad St. broke in February which shut off water for Bryan Complex, 113 Broad Street and the townhouses and caused flooding. A boil water notice was also issued.

Hernon explained that although similarly, the most recent water disruptions were not as severe. The broken pipe in February was older and one of the biggest in the Village, he said, and its break was caused by freezing temperatures combined with strong water pressure.

“I don’t have a cause for this one, but I do think it’s something we see, unfortunately, on the emergency preparedness side of the house cross-country, these systems tend to go,” Hernon said, “so it’s on us to keep looking forward to being prepared to respond to them.”

The post Water Fundamental Break Limits Broad Road Plumbing Entry – The Colgate Maroon-Information appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

• Marin’s Henry Vare winging it on the San Francisco Bay. Vare and Morgan Headington are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

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  Redwood High sophomore Morgan Headington wings foils around the buoys on the San Francisco Bay. Headington and Henry Vare are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

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  Marin’s Henry Vare makes wing foiling look easy on the San Francisco Bay. Vare and Morgan Headington are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

The infamous SailGP event hits San Francisco Bay this weekend showcasing the world’s best foiling sailors on the F50 foiling catamaran. The event, now in its second season, continues to create drama and magic on the water in the world’s best sailing venues for a winner-takes-all-prize.

The F50 is a further iteration from the AC 50 launched early in 2017 for use in the 35th America’s Cup in 2017 in Bermuda and has been a boost to the huge and growing interest in foiling watersports anywhere there is breeze and water. Perfect for kids like Marin groms Henry Vare (13) and Morgan Headington (15) who thrive on fast and exciting.

The pair will be flying high on the Bay along with six other youth wing foilers when they participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, with a practice session for all fleets on Friday afternoon.

Henry’s dad, Michael Vare, spearheaded the opportunity for the youngsters, reaching out to SailGP Inspire, the League’s community outreach program, to coordinate a youth event as part of the San Francisco SailGP stopover. He said the kids are ecstatic to be involved in such a high-profile event doing something they love and excel at. As part of the program, the kids will meet with the SailGP teams and be a big part of the action this weekend.

“The kids put together their bios including their favorite tricks and who they ride for, so they’re very excited,” Vare said. “SailGP Inspire will provide them with bright colored jerseys, they’ll have numbers on their wings and there will be commentary shoreside about this growing sport of wing foiling,”.

Vare and Headington followed their dads into wing foiling some 2 1/2 years ago and now the dads are taking a bit of a back seat as the kids’ passion for wing foiling grows. But that’s okay, says Geoff Headington, a long-time competitive water sports enthusiast, who loves being out on the water with his son.

“I feel like it takes some of the pressure off me from a competitive standpoint,” Headington laughed. “It makes me happy to support him and make sure he’s on the right gear, watch him go and give him tips and instructions, I’m becoming more of a coach than a competitor. I get a lot of joy seeing Morgan improve.”

The boys dialed in some pre-event training when they raced a wing foil regatta several weekends ago on the Bay, the first ever to be raced in the US and hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club. They’re stoked for this weekend.

“I’m really excited to have the great opportunity to race between the F50 races because of the novelty that it has,” Morgan, a sophomore at Redwood High said. “Some of my sailing idols are skippers of these boats and being able to sail alongside them, especially in the same event, is awesome. I’m also excited for the freestyle exhibition because that style of winging is my favorite part of the sport and its super fun to try tricks, even if you fly uncontrollably through the air and bellyflop into the water.

“I’ve been working on my 360 spins for the freestyle event, as well as tactics and mechanics for the slalom racing. For the racing I’ve been practicing speed gybes and my VMG (velocity made good) angle downwind.

Henry, an eighth grader at Del Mar Middle School, was a regular at the St Francis Yacht Club wing foiling race events last year and at just 12 years old placed 3rd overall at the end of the season. He’s been an inspiration for both his peers and adults wanting to get into the sport and is psyched for this weekend.

“I am really looking forward to performing in front of an audience!” Henry said. “I’ve been practicing my racing skills and freestyle tricks leading up to the event.”

Supporting activities that are on the pathway for the next generation of sailing athletes to become inspired and involved in SailGP is as important to the event as staying at the leading edge of technology which ultimately benefits the kind of foiling watersports, like winging, that we regularly see on San Francisco Bay.

“The F50 is constantly being updated, with new wingsails in Season 2 and new T foils being built now,” Russell Coutts, co-founder of the SailGP circuit said. “With the new foils (expected in October) they are predicted to exceed 55 knots of boat speed. The new wings are modular which allow us to use a smaller (faster) configuration in strong winds. The next development will be new rudders. We are also increasing the ‘righting moment’ by making adjustments to the rudder settings which will also make the boats faster.”

Coutts continued, “The F50 is a very good boat for what we are doing because they can now sail both in very efficiently light winds and very strong winds which opens a lot of additional venue possibilities. They are also transported in containers which is essential for this League.”

Catch the foiling action from Crissy Field or the City Front this weekend, info at: https://sailgp.com/races/22/united-states-sail-grand-prix-san-francisco/overview/

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