On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 04:32:39 GMT, "Greg"
wrote:

To barge in, here is a topic just brought to my attention, although this
probably belongs in rec.boats.cruising...

I just finished the book Adrift, by Steven Callahan (76 days Lost at Sea),
and have to ask why anyone would buy an inflatable raft for emergencies.
Sure, safe at home, I can think of several, but after reading his account
and seeing how much better off he would have been with an "unsinkable" foam
and fiberglass dinghy, they seem to be a very poor choice.

Granted, his "real" sailboat was a homebuilt 21 footer and it went down in a
mighty empty piece of ocean (south-west of canaries), but after reading his
story, rubber rafts seem VERY undesirable - although a notch up from going
down with the ship, to be sure.

Any one else read the book or have thoughts on the matter?

I haven't read the book, but what would make an inflatable life raft
undesirable?

Compact, easy to store, designed to float to the surface, provide
shelter from the elements and are reasonably tough.

What's not to like?

Later,

Tom

K. Smith wrote:

Scott Gardner wrote:

OK I will start by introducing myself. My name is Scott and I have a 2003
MAXUM 3300 SE. I purchased this boat new at the end of the 2003 season
and
had it splashed for the very 1st time in April 2004. It has twin 5.7L
Merc.
350's rated at 250 HP each with Bravo 3 drives.It had every available
option
except a generator and the navigation electronics, which is fine for me
because Maxum uses Raymarine equipment and I prefer Garmin. So i had the
generator installed and added a Tracvision 4 in motion satellite tracking
system and a Garmin 3006C color chartplotter with the GDL-30 XM satellite
weather receiver.This thing is awesome. I can see live weather radar
on my
chartplotter in real time and get up to the minute weather forecasts.
I love
my boat and how I equipped it. I cruise on the Potomac River and
Chesapeake
Bay. How about everyone else? Where do you boat and what kind of boat
do you
have? I am new to this group but hope I will fit in. Scott.
"JimH" wrote in message
...

"Scott Gardner" wrote in message
news:C%qNd.104814$Jk5.60761@lakeread01...

This is a boat newsgroup not politics, so can we keep the discussion to
boats only please?



Lets go. You start.






34ft very old clinker hulled full cabin cruiser, 65Hp diesel power,
does 9-10 kts flat out & cruises 6-7 kts on 1 ltr/nautical mile. Most
of the home comforts, no installed genset but carry a petrol unit (2 KVA
way too noisy!!! wish it were one of those new Hondas:-))

The boat has been in the family a long time & is much loved by many,
family & strangers alike:-) But like all old friends; has some off days:-)

Mostly protected cruising waters with occasional coastal hops to new
grounds. The coastal runs are planned around the weather.



K

snip 'lie of the day'
Hey Karen,

How about you sink the 'lie of the day' in deep water?
Its not doing you any favours :-(

Personally I'd understand if you used it in threads that were allready
way OT in a non-boating direction or if you were directly responding to
the 'Real' H. Krause. Others may differ.

OnT content:

Boat's an Albacore as per sig. I also crew for various yachties.
Wrench on the club safety boat OBs and my own seagulls.
I do mostly day sailing and coastal cruising in Stingo. Camp ashore if I
have to but am 'soft' so prefer B&B :-)
Handicap racing mostly in the club Wayfarer right through the winter on
a fairly tricky tidal bit of the river Thames.

International Albacore site: http://www.albacore.org/

Boats of rec.boats: http://thebayguide.com/rec.boats/
unsolicited_plug
Maintained as a non-commercial service by Lee Yeaton of the 'Chesapeake
Bay Guide': http://www.thebayguide.com/
/unsolicited_plug

I strongly reccomend everyone here who actually floats a boat submits a
photo to the 'Boats of rec.boats' site.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:
'Stingo' Albacore #1554 - 15' Early 60's, Uffa Fox designed,
All varnished hot moulded wooden racing dinghy.

Just ignore the BS and try to keep your temper under control when you
see something particularly egregious. The only way to kill the
off-topic stuff is to ignore it.

Trust me on that - I got sucked into a couple even thought I knew
better. It's hard not to do.
I agree 100%. Usually don't even read it but sometimes something will
catch my eye and occasionally I can't help myself. If everyone would
ignore the few they would probably get tired of talking to themselves.

Lets go. You start.
I'll be glad to jump in here. I have a 17' Cajun Bass boat which is
currently for sale (as is the lake house) as I'm going back to salt
water. I just bought a new SV2100CC Sea Pro with a 200 Yamaha which
was supposed to be ready for pickup last week but is now scheduled for
this week. I've equipped it so far with a hydraulic jack plate, Lenco
trim tabs, Sunbrella Bimini top, Lowrance X-18 GPS and Icon 402S
radio. To please SWMBO I added the 6' removable rear bench seat option
to accommodate all those people she expects to join us on our fishing
expeditions. Plan to add compass when I get the boat so I'll have a
better idea of space limitations (wanted Danforth Constellation but
was told the 5" was too big), dual batteries with switch, trolling
motor, probably wash down pump and maybe built in tackle boxes.
Looking forward to getting it but it's raining today so makes it a
little easier.

Oh, come on. After all these years, doesn't anybody get it yet? Rec.boats
is not just for talk about boats. Its for boaters to get together to talk
about whatever boaters talk about - and that could be anything. Here
you'll find the same conversations you might partake in at the dock, at a
raftup or especially around the yacht club bar in the winter. Lighten up,
plug in your sense of humor and enjoy!

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."



Scott Gardner wrote:

This is a boat newsgroup not politics, so can we keep the discussion to
boats only please?

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:24:26 GMT, (Tom)
wrote:


Lets go. You start.
I'll be glad to jump in here. I have a 17' Cajun Bass boat which is
currently for sale (as is the lake house) as I'm going back to salt
water. I just bought a new SV2100CC Sea Pro with a 200 Yamaha which
was supposed to be ready for pickup last week but is now scheduled for
this week. I've equipped it so far with a hydraulic jack plate, Lenco
trim tabs, Sunbrella Bimini top, Lowrance X-18 GPS and Icon 402S
radio. To please SWMBO I added the 6' removable rear bench seat option
to accommodate all those people she expects to join us on our fishing
expeditions. Plan to add compass when I get the boat so I'll have a
better idea of space limitations (wanted Danforth Constellation but
was told the 5" was too big), dual batteries with switch, trolling
motor, probably wash down pump and maybe built in tackle boxes.
Looking forward to getting it but it's raining today so makes it a
little easier.

Very nice, but I would echo Harry on the compass - get a good handleld
bearing compass and just a small console compass. As Harry said, you
will rely more on the GPS and depth finder, but it's nice to have a
backup that can accurately tell you North is that away. :)

Now, on to something that I find curious. Why the jackplate on a 21
foot bay boat?

I have a 20 foot 200 C Ranger

http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG

that has a good running solid performing FICHT which had a jackplate
on it when I purchased it. I got rid of it after about a month -
totally useless.. If you are looking for shallow water operations,
that's that the trolling motor is for - in particular if you have the
24 volt. You probably had a jackplate on that Cajun and that's
probably useful in that application, but on a bay boat?

And while I'm on the subject, don't buy a Motoguide Great White series
trolling motor. Mercury does not support Motoguide in any sense of
the word, they violate warranty terms and the new digital control
boards are prone to fail - it's a horrible design. Almost as bad as
the older switched design. Buy a MinnKota Riptide series instead.

Nice boat though.

Later,

Tom

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 04:32:39 GMT, "Greg"
wrote:

To barge in, here is a topic just brought to my attention, although this
probably belongs in rec.boats.cruising...

I just finished the book Adrift, by Steven Callahan (76 days Lost at Sea),
and have to ask why anyone would buy an inflatable raft for emergencies.
Sure, safe at home, I can think of several, but after reading his account
and seeing how much better off he would have been with an "unsinkable" foam
and fiberglass dinghy, they seem to be a very poor choice.

Granted, his "real" sailboat was a homebuilt 21 footer and it went down in a
mighty empty piece of ocean (south-west of canaries), but after reading his
story, rubber rafts seem VERY undesirable - although a notch up from going
down with the ship, to be sure.

Any one else read the book or have thoughts on the matter?

Not only did I read it, it was my firm who edited it. Great book, a
very nice read.

When I did my solo trans-atlantic, I had a large rubber raft on board.
Now I wish I didnt have it. In retrospect, it took up a lot of room,
which I could have made better use of.

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 16:52:46 GMT, Harry Krause
wrote:

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 04:32:39 GMT, "Greg"
wrote:

To barge in, here is a topic just brought to my attention, although this
probably belongs in rec.boats.cruising...

I just finished the book Adrift, by Steven Callahan (76 days Lost at Sea),
and have to ask why anyone would buy an inflatable raft for emergencies.
Sure, safe at home, I can think of several, but after reading his account
and seeing how much better off he would have been with an "unsinkable" foam
and fiberglass dinghy, they seem to be a very poor choice.

Granted, his "real" sailboat was a homebuilt 21 footer and it went down in a
mighty empty piece of ocean (south-west of canaries), but after reading his
story, rubber rafts seem VERY undesirable - although a notch up from going
down with the ship, to be sure.

Any one else read the book or have thoughts on the matter?

Not only did I read it, it was my firm who edited it. Great book, a
very nice read.

When I did my solo trans-atlantic, I had a large rubber raft on board.
Now I wish I didnt have it. In retrospect, it took up a lot of room,
which I could have made better use of.

Enough is enough. It stopped being funny about 15 posts ago.

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:


I haven't read the book, but what would make an inflatable life raft
undesirable?

Compact, easy to store, designed to float to the surface, provide
shelter from the elements and are reasonably tough.

What's not to like?

Part of the problem was caused by his extended stay, obviously.
But the waves really pounded him, at times even folding the raft. It
took on water pretty easy, which led to sal****er sores/ulcers. He had
to daily reinflate the raft, which once hunger set in, became a more
critical issue.
The canopy waterproofing wore off - more water. A fish he speared
ripped the bottom tube, which he was able to patch and reinflate. And
the worst was the fish biting and sharks hitting him thru the bottom.
He was pretty much in constant fear of a shark biting thru the raft -
especially when the bottom tube was punctured and his feet extended an
obvious distance below the raft.
Again, some of this was definitely due to the 76 days before rescue
(1800 miles later near Guadeloupe).
But I could see the wildwife and swamping by waves a serious issue for
shorter stays. This was in 1982. Maybe current rafts do a better job?

I recommend the book, very good read.


Later,

Tom

Hurtwit wrote:

Do you have to fight with everyone Chuck?

****************************************

What fight?

I simply marveled that we would have two guys named Bill Kiene in
rec.boats. One of them condemns political posting on the same day the
other one makes disparaging remarks about liberal democrats elsewhere
on the site. How is that a fight? Check it out..it's a fact. Obviously
we have two Bill Kiene's, or a flip flopping hypocrite that would put a
lot of others to shame. I prefer to believe, as I posted, that there
are two of them. That's not a fight.

I only fight with a guy who spent his first 6-8 months posting under
the name Dennis Compton, and being so obnoxious that 90% of the group
was ticked off at that person for his behavior.
When the prick had his fill of annoying everybody, he then posted that
he had been lying all along, he didn't really own a boat, and that he
was a graduate student at some college someplace where he had been
assigned, (as a class project), to get on usenet, be disruptive as
hell, and make notes about the reactions of his unwitting subjects. Of
course, the second lie was the actual lie......no college course, no
graduate student, just a frustrated old middle aged failure with some
emotional issues and a Bayliner for sale. Not all that long ago, the
same guy posted that the only reason he frequents rec.boats is to have
fun by stirring up trouble, and that he reserves his extensive
knowledge about boating, (never in evidence here), for the "real"
boating groups he frequents when he's not stirring up trouble in
rec.boats.

Funny thing is, I'd ignore the loser completely if he didn't follow me
around like a goofy little puppy dog. He has some sick emotional need
to get abused every day, and we liberals do believe in helping the
needy. :-)

If you run into this guy someplace, tell him what I said. Thanks.