ChrisF

x2 on the boat club. If you're new to boating, it's a great way to get experience on many different types of boats. I can almost guarentee you that how ever you think you'll use your boat, the reality will be entirely different. Logging some sea time with the club boats will give you and your family a chance to try different things and figure out what works for you. You could save yourself a lot of time and money by not getting into the wrong boat because what you thought you wanted wasn't what you really need. Having said all that, once you do figure out what you want and you find yourself wanting to get out on the water as much as possible, you'll probably decide the boat club is a bit of pain. It may depend on the club, but I found club membership required a lot of advance planning. The club I was in required 2 or 3 weeks advance notice to get out on the weekend. So it's not like you could just wake up on a Saturday, check the weather, and head out for the day if the weather was good.

Great shots. Thanks for sharing.

3500 GPH Rule? I've not heard of that before. Please elaborate.

Holey crap! Seriously? That seems a little excessive. For OUPV requirements, the CG makes a distinction between "Inland" (close to shore) and "Near-costal" (out to 100 nm). They define their own boundary line between the two, which varies in distance from shore by region, but in my area on the West coast of Florida, "Near-costal" waters are generally about 12 nm out. I don't recall if they have a different catagory for "way the heck off shore", but I suspect at that point you get out of the world of recreational boating and into the Masters License and the 200 nm line that Welder mentioned previously. Where ever the line is, it just surprises me that the recreational boating community hasn't developed some set of generally accepted practices for the extra gear and procedures that are prudent for venturing offshore. What's appropriate for different distances and situations seems to be largely based on tribal knowledge and the individual captain's tolerance for risk, and is learned over time based on trial and error. Trouble is, without some general guidelines to go by, inexperienced captains may be putting themselves and their passengers at higher risk than they understand as they push the limits of their own experience.

Well, never actually. Most of my trips are within 25 miles of shore, with some out to 30 a couple times per year. For me, I'm thinking the rent option is a good way to go for those few trips where I'm potentially out of VHF range. So maybe a good rule of thumb is out to 25 miles (generally within VHF range for a fixed-mount) no EPRIB required. Beyond 25 miles, rent or buy an EPRIB or get a PLB. As was mentioned previously, a PLB would definitely add an extra margin of safety for inshore (within 25 miles) trips for situations where the fix-mount VHF wasn't working.

Ok. So what would be your minimum equipment for a 50-mile near-shore trip? Again, assuming a boat and sea conditions appropriate for the trip.

Yep. I've not tested it, but I'd be surprised to get more than 2 or 3 miles from the handheld if you're in the water. The range for DSC might be better since it's a digital burst vs. voice transmission. Either way, it's probably not good. That's why I said I'd hope to raise a nearby boat or at least communicate with a resuce plane using the handheld vs. trying to reach shore. Agree on the PLB. It's just a matter of time and money...

Wow! That looks like quite a project. Will be interested to see how it goes. Keep us posted.

I was wondering if there is an accepted distance from land that constitutes "offshore". We all have our opinions on what we feel safe doing and I've read plenty of threads where people say they would never go offshore without one or more of the following: life jackets (shouldn't leave the dock w/o those...) a VHF twins a HH backup VHF an SSB radio a PLB an EPIRB a life raft a SAT phone a sea anchor For me personally, I've got twins and two VHF radios (one fixed mount and a waterproof handheld, both with GPS-enabled DSC). Of course I always let someone know where I'm going and about when I expect to be back. With that setup, I'm comfortable out to 30 miles, though 90% of my boating is within 20 nautical miles of shore. My thinking is that's generally within VHF range of shore for my fixed-mount and if I end up in the drink without getting off a mayday or have some type of electrical failure, I could likely raise a nearby boat or a rescue plane on the handheld. I know it's always better to have more safety equipment than less, but assuming safe sea conditions for the boat, is there a point beyond which generally accepted practice says you should have additional equipment (e.g. EPIRB, life raft, etc.)? What would be your priorities for a 50 mile trip? How about 100 miles?

x2 on the video work. Nicely done!

I went through a bunch of LED lights until I made the following changes: 1) Be careful not to torque down the mounting screws too tightly. It's very easy put a crack in the plastic housing that will let water in and short out your light. 2) Don't use crimp connectors on the wires. Water can get into the crimp, and run through the wire, and short out your lights. I now sodder the wires together, cover with shrink wrap tubing, and then seal with some electrical tape. This seems to do a much better job of keeping the water out. 3) Stop buying lights from West Marine. They're crap. I've had very good luck with Optronics. They're more expensive, but they seem to last longer. I've been running on the same set of lights for over 3 years now with no issues.

Much better. Thanks.

I'm not really a fan of the new color scheme.

You know, I searched all over the SIM site and somehow managed to miss that page. Thanks for reposting the link so others can benefit.

Hotspot posted a link to them in this post back in April of last year, but the link apparently doesn't work anymore. I think Andy of Shipyard Island Marine (SIM) used to have a link on his site as well, but I don't see it up there anymore. Not sure if there's a backstory behind all that or what... Either way, the intstructions are great and fortunately for me, I downloaded a copy, so if you're interested PM me your e-mail address and I'll send them. Hotspot or Andy, please just let me know if you object.

I only have about 400 hours on them. They're running great. No major issues, but have had a few minor things come up. I had trouble with an overheat after a long (3+ hour) cruise. Happened once a few years ago, but hasn't shown up since. I also had to replace the fuel filter element cups this year because they had swolen due to ethanol absorption. Other than that, I've done nothing but normal routine mainentance. I WISH I could be out on the water enough to rack up 2K hours...

I just wanted to say THANKS to Hotspot and Andy for the Yamaha maintenance tips they posted a while back. Thanks to you guys I was able to change out the impellers on my two Yamaha 150 HPDIs this weekend. I'm pretty green when in comes to working on boat motors, but the instructions you provided were damn near idiot proof. You saved me a bunch of money. All parts were purchased from SIM of course ....

EyeMagine Eyeglass Cleaner Any lense cleaner safe for lenses with anti-reflective coatings should work. Just google "lense cleaner" and anti-reflective and you'll get a ton of hits.

I think I'd be more inclined to use a cleaner designed for cleaning eye glasses; one that's approved safe for anti-reflective coatings. Come to think of it, that's exactly what I use and it works great

Rentz Truck and Tailer Rental in Clearwater Florida. They were easy to work with, took good care of my boat, and I'm very happy with the results. I was skeptical about the dust cap thing, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Absolutely no problems pulling the boat across the state a few weeks ago. Time will tell I guess.

Yes, they were hydraulic surge drum brakes. Trailer is a dual-axle Magic Tilt. I replaced them with set of Kodiak disc brakes. I went with the all stainless kit (Rotors, calipers, and mounting brakets), which is expensive (like, 3 times as much as their non-stainless kit), but they're supposed to hold up extremely well in salt water. We'll see.... I also replaced all four hubs and my master cylinder was shot so I replaced that too. It's just as well they replaced the master cylinder because master cylinders designed for drum brakes have this little thimble diaphram thingy in them that keeps a slight amount of pressure in the line. This is good for drums, but not for discs. If you leave it that way, the pads will always have a slight pressure against the rotors and the wheels will not turn freely. What they typically do is punch a hole in the diaphram thingy when they do the conversion from drums to discs so this doesn't cause a problem. Since I was replacing the master cylinder anyway, they just purchased a cylinder designed for disc brake use (exact same part, just without the thimble diaphram), so no punchout was necessary. I only put brakes on one of the two axles. Apparently there's a law in FL that new dual axle trailers in that weight class must be sold with brakes on all axles, but since mine was just an upgrade to an existing trailer sold prior to the law, I was grandfathered in. As I said in my OP, I couldn't be happier with the stopping performance. Even with the discs on one axle, the truck/boat combo stops almost as good as the truck by itself. I still can't keep the grin off my face every time I pull the boat. I see no reason there should be any difference in stopping performance between the stainless and non-stainless (SCAD) kits. So if you don't have the cash, go for the SCADs. For the price, you could probably replace them a couple of times and still come out about even. It's just a little more of a hassel.

I've decided to stick with the dust caps and see how it goes. I'm pulling the trailer across Flordia (Tampa to Florida City) at the end of this week. I'll be checking the hub temps when I stop for gas. Hopefully I can avoid any drama.

I did. They're sitting in my garage. I'm trying to figure out if I should just pop the caps off and put them back on. At least one of them probably needs to be replaced because it's pretty rusted up. Don't know. I'm leaning towards just putting the bearing buddies back on. I've got plans for a local trip this weekend, then a 5-hour trip the following weekend and no time to mess with the trailer between now and then, so I'll probably just wait and replace them after my trips. Hopefully there's enough greese in there to get me though.

Just to clarify, the "sealed caps" I have now are just plain old dust caps.

I just converted my the drum brakes on my twin axle trailer to Kodiak discs. Huge improvement. I still can't believe how much better they stop the trailer. I do have a question though. I replaced all four hubs as well since the old ones were about 3 years old and getting pretty rusty. The shop that did the work removed my buddy bearings and replaced them with a sealed caps. They claim that sealed is a better way to go: 1) because many customers end up blowing out the seals by putting too much grease in, and 2) with the buddy bearings you tend to accumulate old grease and you're actually better off just pulling the hub once a year and repacking the bearings with fresh grease. Is this BS? I trailer my boat every time I launch it and take at least 2 long (4 - 5 hour) trips per year. I'm pretty meticulous about keeping the hubs greased up and am comfortable doing so without blowing out seals. I'm really worried that with the totally sealed caps, I'll end up burning out a hub due to insufficient grease. Can I really wait a year before repacking?