Complete Guide to being a Boat Captain

[TANSTAAFL]

Sounds like some great times. Tough to hear about your Dad and grandfather. I try to make an effort to spend time with my dad and son for those reasons. Wish boats were still affordable!

I do wish I'd asked them more questions, more about the times they went through as compared to today. One thing about parents and grandparents, they will always tell you their true feelings and observations (assuming a decent relationship with them and not a dis-functional environment.) The older one gets the more one realizes what wisdom parents and grandparents have/had to offer. A bit out of the scope of your original post, but boats, RV's, camping, hunting, vacations are all things families share that bring them closer together.

As for the clowns in the videos, you can always tell a new boat owner.

 

[GnometownHero]

A friend of mine pilots a offshore drilling support boat. Last I heard his Captain's license was 200 ton. He makes serious $ for that work.
He took me fishing in his dad's fishing boat on the White River arm of Beaver Lake Arkansas. Busy morning at the ramp and river current fairly strong.
I will say it, being a 200 ton roustabout ship pilot absolutely does not qualify you to run a 18ft fishing boat on a river. I sat in the front seat defending myself from snags and branches more than I fished that day. Fortunately we got the boat loaded easy because the ramp was wide enough, when backing the trailer I got the rear of the trailer in an angle where he could motor on the trailer easily heading into the current.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

A friend of mine pilots a offshore drilling support boat. Last I heard his Captain's license was 200 ton. He makes serious $ for that work.
He took me fishing in his dad's fishing boat on the White River arm of Beaver Lake Arkansas. Busy morning at the ramp and river current fairly strong.
I will say it, being a 200 ton roustabout ship pilot absolutely does not qualify you to run a 18ft fishing boat on a river. I sat in the front seat defending myself from snags and branches more than I fished that day. Fortunately we got the boat loaded easy because the ramp was wide enough, when backing the trailer I got the rear of the trailer in an angle where he could motor on the trailer easily heading into the current.

Even experts have issues. Rivers with currents and underwater hazards the worst, even with depth sounders. Outboards help, so do Inboard Outboards (IO's). Twin engines and props by far the best for maneuverability and safety. It is rare that both engines get shut down or both props damaged.
Boating can be great fun.

 

[L.C.]

Had an old man tell me along time ago, A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.

 

[wolfman1]

Ironic I ended up in Oklahoma.

Where catfish is considered seafood.

Oh, for some fresh Red Snapper.

 

[wolfman1]

Had an old man tell me along time ago, A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.

B(reak)
O(ut)
A(nother)
T(housand)

 

[C_Hallbert]

When I was 12, I purchased my first boat with money I’d saved from mowing lawns, shoveling snow and $100 I received from my Grandma for Christmas. We lived about 6 miles north from my Uncle Eddie’s small slip on a canal in Seaford, L.I., NY. He let me keep it tied there. It was a 12 foot, Strip Built, Wolverine Runabout with a 1951 (1 1/2) hp Johnson SeaHorse Outboard. That Spring, before we put it in the water, I sanded, removed rotten wood, packed cracks with oakum, painted and coated the underside of the hull with copper based anti-foaling paint. Our parents allowed me to take my 7 y.o. brother out on the Great South Bay from dawn to dusk as often as convenient for them to drop us off and pick us up. We were both excellent swimmers. At 13 y.o. I took the U.S. Coast Guard Power Squadron Seamanship and Small Boat Handling Course….and I passed it without assistance. The toughest part was Navigation where you had to plot a coarse to Iceland compensating for Gulf Stream Drift with annotations designating Bearing and resulting vector of the True Course. This was plotted on a Universal Transverse Polyconic Mercator Projection Map which resulted in a curved line because of the contracting Longitude Lines as the course tracked into the higher Latitudes. Fuel consumption and drag from wind and current had to be figured in as well as speed to calculate the actual speed of travel to predict time and fuel requirements for the voyage. This is called Dead Reckoning. Some of the grown men didn’t pass. The certificate from this course has provided me with discounted Boating Insurance Policies during my entire life. Together with the many years of boat ownership (only time without one was during my military service), it made insuring my high power boats a simple process also at a discounted rate. I recommend these courses for everyone at the helm of a powerboat on the water. I seem to remember that they may have dumbed down this course the navigational aspects of the rudimentary safe boat handling courses; and now offer special courses for long distance cruising. I found much of the navigation process to be very similar to General Aviation Ground School. But I warn you, the unique attributes of handling sailboats was not included. Heck, I capsized a 16 Foot Sloop in Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan…… , but that’s another story.