Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
About a month ago, I had a conversation with the Managing Editor of a
national fishing magazine about boats. In particular boat reviews.

As a part of that conversation, I was invited to participate in a
series of boat tests that the magazine will be publishing as part of a
series starting sometime next year. There may even be a chance for
some of these tests to appear on TV - that's not a given, just a
possibility.

Anyway, I spent the day messing about with 5 boats, all small center
consoles as that's my particular area of interest. An extra added
bonus was a flats boat which was one style of boat I've never really
had the chance to wring out.

Had a good time, learned a lot, imparted some ideas I have concerning
visibility, storage access, seating, placement of instrumentation -
things like that.

The highlight of the day was the result of a couple of posts done here
on rec.boats. I was inspired by the MOB "rescue" post and one other
post that was related to it. Basically I wanted to know how, and if,
I could get into a boat if I fell out - unassisted. This was also
based on personal experience, so I had a pretty sound reason.

Stroke of genius that was. When I mentioned what I wanted to do to
the other participants, they looked at me like I was nuts. When I
explained my reasoning, all of a sudden the light bulbs went off and
all agreed that it would not only be fun, but a good idea.

I had brought my wet suit with me on the vague hope they would let me
do it. Discussion over, I suited up and with a boat standing by,
jumped overboard to see just how easy it was for a 6'3", 250 lbs,
partially crippled handsome fisherman to reenter the boat.

The results were interesting to say the least. I won't spoil
anything, but I will say that even with a bracket, it's not that easy
to get back into a boat without a boarding ladder of some sort and
even then, it could be questionable if the ladder isn't properly
placed and/or sturdy enough.

I had a blast doing it and hopefully I will be invited back to do some
more "oddball" testing.


The parker I just sold was impossible to board from the water sans a
boarding ladder. Such a ladder was attachable to the engine bracket, but
reaching that ladder from its spot on the transom was not an easy task.
Unless you got a break, you'd be SOL on that boat if you fell off and
there was no one aboard to give you a hand.

The new parker has a folding down boarding ladder permanently attached
to the exterior of the transom and is easy to use if you are already in
the water. It's not as fancy or elegant as the armstrong ladder on the
old boat, but it'll be there if I ever need it.

The thought of you in a rubber wet suit probably excites some of the
perverse "buoys" who show up here from time to time. :}