Calif Bill wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Calif Bill wrote:
"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On 18 Jan 2006 17:26:57 -0800, wrote:

http://yachtworld.com/core/listing/p...g_id=1457&url=
boring....

Maybe you could request an auxiliary motor like that fast super yacht. A
nice gas turbine.


I know a couple of inlets where you'd have a hard time coming in against
an outgoing tide and a westerly wind with that boat.


The inside passage to Alaska has some current rips that look like rapids
during tide change. they say the trawlers all line up to make it through at
slack tide. Want more power!

Actually, anybody with much time at all on our regional waters will try
to time their arrival for slack, or near abouts.
Here's why:

Most of those "rapids" result in moving a lot of water through a very
narrow passage. Imagine a 14-foot tide change (not uncommon here)
ebbing or flooding through a hundred yard wide, or less, opening. Even
*if* your boat has the power to run against the flow, it's ridiculous
to do so.

Example, Dodd Narrows. Maybe 40-50 yards wide, on average, with a bit
of turn involved. Rocks on both sides. There is a huge lumber mill just
north of Dodd, and there are log rafts running through there all the
time (at slack). With all the lumbering in the area, there is a
constant need to keep an eye out for drift. The guy who runs 18 knots
into the 6 knot current to net 12 knots thinks he's got the cat by the
pajamas.........until he gets an eyefull of the 2-foot diameter log,
dead ahead, sideways in the current, headed straight for his stem and
probably his props. No time or room to turn around...KER_CHUNK! Now
he's dead inthe water, drifting astern, out of control. No thanks. You
can separate the veterans from the greenhorns and the wannabe's around
here by watching which boats try to run one of these passes against a
serious flow. You can have all the power in the world at your command,
but the bottom line is that there's nobody steering that oncoming log.
Trawler boaters, like traditional seapeople everywhere, use tides,
currents, and often even wind to our advantage and plan our passages to
work *with* the forces of nature, rather than try to overpower them.

And, oh, yeah.... with 800 gallons of fuel this boat probably
approaches a 2000 mile range. Would last me about 2 years. :-) Some of
your "fast boats" burn half of that in a three day weekend runing maybe
200 total miles.