On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:03:57 -0700 (PDT), wf3h
wrote:

On Aug 28, 7:55*am, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:29:40 -0700 (PDT), wf3h
wrote:

Now that i'm getting back into boating, i was wondering what it is
that the folks here (yes, moonbats and conservatives alike) like about
boating.

There - I fixed it for you. *You can thank me later. *:)

i like the atmosphere of just cruising along on the water, seeing the
world from a perspective people on land don't see....the ability to
control the boat and decide where i want to go.....putting in at the
dock in the evening and watching the sun go down and the sunrise over
the water the next morning...

your views?

It's an interesting question. *I just enjoy getting out and doing
something - anything really. I'm not much of a "cruiser" as such
having a need for speed and Mrs. Wave is not much of a boater at all
with the exception of the pontoon boat which she seems to really enjoy
for some odd reason.

Sport is a big part of boating for me - in particular fishing which is
my avocation if you will, but I also enjoyed sail boat racing when I
was much younger. *I also used to water ski quite a bit and even owned
a Ski Nautique when Mrs. Wave and I were first married.

Still, when you get right down to it, the most fun for me, besides
catching a respectable size fish, is blasting along the surface of the
water at high speed. *With the exception of the pontoon boat, which
does well to make a full 15 knots with a 25 mph tail wind, the Grady
and Ranger will do 60/65 WOT and that's just fine with me. :)

As a side note, I did discover one thing about the pontoon that I
really like - it's a great platform for photography which is the other
avocation of mine.

Now if I could only figure out how to get it to go 60/65, I'd be in
seventh heaven.

nice summary. my old tollycraft (which i haven't even taken out of
the slip yet) does about 15kts max so i'm just going to loaf
along....and, since i'm on the NJ coast, rather than on the chesapeake
like the last time, i'll be feeling the air of the open ocean on my
face.

A good friend of mine has a Tollycraft docked in Niantic - one of the
only ones made with DD 671's normally aspirated or so I've been told.
I've been on the boat a number of times fishing with him - that's a
sweet boat. It's styling is a little dated, but dude, what a sweet
ride in heavy weather.

a few years ago i helped crew a sailboat from baltimore to block
island...spent 1 day and night 60 miles offshore....THAT was a
journey i'll never forget...

When I was in high school, I crewed the Marblehead to Bermuda race
three times. Being off shore on a racing sail boat is an absolute
blast - in particular if you get a chance to take the helm for a four
hour watch. Good times. It's very different being 100 miles off shore
in the dead of night running free at speed in a sail boat than doing
the same in a 50 foot Viking or Hatteras. It's very mystical - almost
ethereal in some ways.

I went to high school with the Hood kids, Mrs. Wave was good friends
with them also, and occasionally had the chance to crew 12 meter
America's Cup trial boats when Hood and North were testing sails. I
learned all kinds of neat stuff doing that, but I really latched on to
the tactical aspect of match racing - absoutely fascinating - to me
anyway. I always managed to get a spot close to the helm grinding so
I could over hear the tactical conversations. Eventually, I got to
assist the navigator on a trials race - handy thing having a
propensity for math in particular geometry. :)

Damn - now you got me to thinking about a sail boat again.

Mrs. Wave will LOVE this conversation when she gets home. :)