Some comments interspersed:

Joe wrote:


We always in a channel had another person on lookout, but keep in
mind he also had the duty of engineroom walkthrus. If you have ever
ran the mississippi this time of the year you would know what Im
talking about.

Been there done that.

You can have your deckhands face buried into another
radar, that the only way he is going to help lookout. To be looking
out the windows was a waste of time, the fog is that thick, your lucky
if you can see your bow.

I'm not a proponent of total immersion in the radar hood, though at
times it's necessary. I have always preferred to pull back, at times and
rest my eyes and attention .... sometimes, you might be able to see more
than you expect .... it's a total awareness thingy.

Donal is insane if he thinks it will help to
put a man on the bow of a crewboat doing 20 knots, I wouldent even
suggest that on a clear day in a channel, just incase you run aground
or hit a submerged object. At 20+ knts your not going to hear much
besides your own boat.

It may or may not, but here, the safety issue for the crew, is
paramount, and the communications issue, important.

And if he's yelling at something he see's it to late to do much about
it.

G Mebbe ... depends on whether you've also seen it and/or hit it.

The fact is Donal hasent a clue what a professional mariner can
accomplish with the proper tools. He thinks it best to put a person on
the bow because he does on a quiet sailboat doing 2 knots. Thats safe
to him because it will help him. On a crewboat your risking your crews
life doing something so stupid. 100 tons of aluminum going 20 knots
with a 180 pound kid on the bow...........in the fog...........

Id rather have him strapped in the wheelhouse learning how to use a
curser and ID targets.

Donal can not understand how someone could navigate a river or
channel at 20 + knot safely with radars as your only eyes. Donal has
no real pratical skills using a radar, or pratical skills at radar
plotting.

Now, let's be honest Joe G how often do you perform an actual "plot",
under these conditions with the equipment you have?

Rivers and canals are the best place to do this. With flat water you
can tune a radar to see the wake off a canoe. The outline of the banks
can be as familiar as seeing it in the day. Tanks on the banks,
Hunting shacks, channel markers, islands, bouys, docks, tree clumps,
logs and even seagrass clumps can be tuned in to a crystal clear
picture if you know what your looking at, and know how to use the
tool.

Would he argue so strongly if I said the wheelhouse was equiped with
FLIR?

BG I'm waiting for them to come up with a lightweight, portable,
inexpensive unit, that I can carry with me.

otn