Bedtime reading

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bobberboy

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Even though I've fished most of my life I am a relative novice boat owner and operator. I owned a 12' boat with my older brother in the early 70's. As he was my older brother and he owned the motor (a Martin [10hp ?] - no recoil rope starter) I didn't get to operate the boat. Then I fished for years with my younger brother in his boat but I only bought my own boat about five years ago. I have a lot to learn. In addition to the above I am also a reluctant mechanic. I've been avoiding a start on an outboard rebuild mostly because I just don't want to do it. Like with computers, I don't want to know how they work, I just want it to work. I'm really interested in building and modifying the boat but not so much with the motor.

In my effort to get over myself and at the urging of one of the members here I got a Seloc repair manual for the motor I am (avoiding) working on. Last night I took it to bed and started reading from page 1. The first chapter is devoted to the operation and safety of boats. There was a lot of basic info that might help answer many of the questions new boaters post here on tinboats. Everything from terminology to descriptions of the different classes of PFD's was covered. The manual is filled with specifics that I will need in time but it was a good beginning to just start at the beginning.

There are a lot of you on this site with years of experience on the water. I would imagine especially those of you who are coastal or off-shore fishermen know all this stuff well but the places I fish are never out of sight of land and sometimes not even out of sight of the landing. I rarely even see a buoy on the lakes I fish. Just the proper mounting of a compass was news to me. Anyway, it was good to start from page 1 because it reminded me of how much I don't know and how much I have to learn. Even after years of having been in boats it's different when you begin to operate one.
 
I wouldnt worry about not knowing, you're going the right way about it by reading up.

Being within sight of land is no guarantee nothing will happen.

Less than a foot of water can drown you and being with "swimming distance" of shore doesn't mean you will get there.

I'm search and rescue and you would be shocked how many times we pull bodies out of shallow inland lakes....
 
It also never hurts to carry extras of things you might need for just in case. Last winter my dad & me took a mid winter fishing trip for a few hours on a nice Sunday afternoon. We went down lake, fished a few spots for a few hours & decided to go in. On the way back the low oil alarm went off, we stopped & the tank in the battery compartment was empty so we pulled the cowl off & there was less than half a quart left, not nearly enough to get us back to the ramp. There was a small marina nearby but being it was during the holidays it wasn't open & no one was there. So that left us with only one option use the trolling motor to go the 8 miles back to were we launched. There wasn't another boat on the water but us. We made it back at the slow pace of 2.5mph with our Fortrex 101. I believe if wasn't for that powerful trolling motor we would have been in a real bind. We hadn't used the boat since that august & we normally carry an extra gallon of two stroke oil for that very reason but since it had been so long we had just forgot to check + we went fishing on a whim to just get out of the house that day. Always wear your pfd & kill switch while running. I always like to carry extra clothes in the late fall through early spring. Hypothermia can set in real quick & it is best to get out of wet clothes & into dry ones ASAP because the cold water wicks away you body heat super fast. Also get to know the body of water that you fish or run. I come from the land of north east Texas timbered reservoirs where nothing was cut & lanes weren't marked, here learning a new lake is just not learning how to fish it but how to navigate it & with low water conditions it a whole new ball game. Sorry for the length just trying to provide a little insight into what can happen.
 

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