Okay, so here's my first "stupid question" since I don't know where to
go to get started with this.

I know very little about boating (except that I road around and drove
boats with people as a youngster)

My son is legally blind, but can see pretty well. Not good enough to
get a driver's license, but good enough that he enjoys flying planes
(no landing though) and boating. He does this normally under the
supervision of a sight specialist.

Well we decided that he'd like to do some boating this year since he's
17 and can't drive a car. So I bought him a old 75 starcraft (16') and
figured we'd go out on the lake a bit this summer and let him enjoy the
boating scene more than he gets to normally (summer school at blind
school takes them boating in the summer, but that's already over for
the summer due to shortened summer school/budget cuts).

Anyhow, assuming that we can figure out how to drive the dang boat,
where can I go to get more info about the entire process?

I know where to go for the "boating safety" test. And I can drive just
about anything if I have a few moments to figure out the controls and
get acquainted with how it behaves. What I'm more interested in is
something more simple that I haven't seen a good answer to - what do I
do with the boat when we want to go boating? In otherwords, are there
places to dock or park the boat on lakes run by the DNR? Do I have to
load and unload my boat everytime we want to out, or are there places
that I can store it on the water for a few days at a time? If there
are places like this, are they public property, or do I have to rent a
docking spot from a business (and if so, where to I find such a place)?

I'm not planning on taking our first outing over the busy 4th of July
weekend, but people were recommending that we put our boat out early if
we were going to go out this weekend - this sounds like there is a way
to unload the boat and leave it there. I didn't want to ask them
anymore stupid questions to these people though, so I figured you guys
could maybe point me in the right direction (and you can think I'm
stupid, but I don't have to see your faces and hang my head in shame
out of feeling so lame).

I live in Iowa, and would be looking for places like Red Rock dam or
something like that to take the boat to.

TIA for any advice you might have.

On 30 Jun 2005 07:26:24 -0700, wrote:

Okay, so here's my first "stupid question" since I don't know where to
go to get started with this.

I know very little about boating (except that I road around and drove
boats with people as a youngster)

My son is legally blind, but can see pretty well. Not good enough to
get a driver's license, but good enough that he enjoys flying planes
(no landing though) and boating. He does this normally under the
supervision of a sight specialist.

Well we decided that he'd like to do some boating this year since he's
17 and can't drive a car. So I bought him a old 75 starcraft (16') and
figured we'd go out on the lake a bit this summer and let him enjoy the
boating scene more than he gets to normally (summer school at blind
school takes them boating in the summer, but that's already over for
the summer due to shortened summer school/budget cuts).

Anyhow, assuming that we can figure out how to drive the dang boat,
where can I go to get more info about the entire process?

I know where to go for the "boating safety" test. And I can drive just
about anything if I have a few moments to figure out the controls and
get acquainted with how it behaves. What I'm more interested in is
something more simple that I haven't seen a good answer to - what do I
do with the boat when we want to go boating? In otherwords, are there
places to dock or park the boat on lakes run by the DNR? Do I have to
load and unload my boat everytime we want to out, or are there places
that I can store it on the water for a few days at a time? If there
are places like this, are they public property, or do I have to rent a
docking spot from a business (and if so, where to I find such a place)?

I'm not planning on taking our first outing over the busy 4th of July
weekend, but people were recommending that we put our boat out early if
we were going to go out this weekend - this sounds like there is a way
to unload the boat and leave it there. I didn't want to ask them
anymore stupid questions to these people though, so I figured you guys
could maybe point me in the right direction (and you can think I'm
stupid, but I don't have to see your faces and hang my head in shame
out of feeling so lame).

I live in Iowa, and would be looking for places like Red Rock dam or
something like that to take the boat to.

TIA for any advice you might have.

Go he
http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/RedRoc...recreation.htm

Give them a call to get more information about storing a boat. There are boat
ramps on the lake and you can get directions. I would advise going to one of the
boat ramps over the weekend to watch people load and unload their boats from
their trailers. You're bound to see some hilarious ****! Go around 1 or 2 pm in
the hopes that you'll catch people launching and some retrieving. Learn from
the mistakes you see.

Check with the local folks who run the facilities to see if they have overnight
docks. Some do, and some don't.

Good luck!
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

Thanks guys, I'll go with that (as soon as the holiday weekend is
over).

Never fear, the son won't be alone / unsupervised in the boat. He can
actually see, just not well (actually, he can see better than I can
without my glasses!, but his vision cannot be corrected.) At least
this seems a bit less dangerous than buying a plane for him to fly
(hopefully)