RG wrote:

majority of RG's excellent post snipped

:Best. You would be wise to follow his footsteps in this situation.

I had already decided it was best to follow my dad's footsteps, my
prior experience, and others' advice, and made the time to swap props,
but none the less, thank you very much RG, for your very informative
and easy to understand explanation and advice. As it turns out, I am
not going boating/fishing this weekend after all due to the uncertain
weekend weather forecast for Northern California. Oh well, maybe next
weekend!

Thanks again and thanks to you as well, Gould 0738, for your replies.

Bob