do boaters help boaters?

[avenger79]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

Thats the farther south you go in Illinois, or the farther north you go in Wisconsin.

100 miles either side of that state line is no fun for boating.

here in may lie the problem. I am from (originally) as far "up north" as you can get in Wis. (Superior) I now live within that 100 mile from the border.

 

[avenger79]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

well guys it's good to hear good stories. I'm sure it's like other ventures the farther in you get the better it is.

seems like the bad apples are the first to show themselves in most things.

 

[rdecheno]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

im a 58 year old trapper who has been around boats all my life one time i could not get my very reliable 15 yamaha to start i was one a remote lake ten miles from nearest road i pulled on that sucker untill i had blisters changed plugs blew gas line changed gas nothing was working as i was sitting there scraching my head two teens came paddling by in a canoe they came over and offered help i stubburnly said i was ok and id get her going in a bit as they started paddling away one boy politely said it might help if i connected the cruiseaday. now that was embarassing

 

[EsoxRanger]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

I grew up boating on the Great Lakes and connecting waters in small boats. I can't count the number of times I towed people to the closest Harbor Of Refuge. MI has 80 of them on it's coast. In the busier areas it's never more than 10 miles. Got towed 8 miles one day about 30 years ago after I.........ran out of gas. How embarrassing.
The furthest I ever towed someone was about 20 miles, they were in a small boat that just wouldn't go, and we had some very unstable mid August T-storm weather in the offing, you could just tell it was going to pop in the afternoon. So I decided to take them back to where their trailer was. It did indeed storm, as I headed my Starcraft 176 Superfisher, back towards my port which was 9 miles the other direction from where the tow started. We made it.
Just last fall I towed a couple in a 12 or 14' rowboat 6 miles on a very busy Lake St Clair. For those familiar with the area, we started just N of the Middle Channel and I towed them to the launch on the Clinton River. The worse thing was as we neared the Clinton, all those dipsticks in their 36' cruisers blowing by this poor rowboat, throwing 4' wakes while passing us 50' away, even closer in the Clinton channel. Where is the sheriff or coasties when you need them? This couple told me we were the 4th boat to stop, and the only one that would tow them. Unbelievable. Things just aren't like they used to be.
I will probably catch flak for this, but in my experience fishermen are much more courteous on the water, and at the dock, the ones who will grab your lines for you etc. The younger pleasure boat crowd are generally clueless.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

im a 58 year old trapper who has been around boats all my life one time i could not get my very reliable 15 yamaha to start i was one a remote lake ten miles from nearest road i pulled on that sucker untill i had blisters changed plugs blew gas line changed gas nothing was working as i was sitting there scraching my head two teens came paddling by in a canoe they came over and offered help i stubburnly said i was ok and id get her going in a bit as they started paddling away one boy politely said it might help if i connected the cruiseaday. now that was embarassing

High and welcome aboard to iboats rdecheno. Just a question I have never heard the term cruiseaday is that the same as a lanyard?

 

[EsoxRanger]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

High and welcome aboard to iboats rdecheno. Just a question I have never heard the term cruiseaday is that the same as a lanyard?

Cruiseaday was the external fuel tank for Evinrudes in the 50's and 60's.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

Cruiseaday was the external fuel tank for Evinrudes in the 50's and 60's.

Glad someone asked, as I was going to... I was clueless on that one.........

 

[i386]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

Take a look at the tow harness that I am using in this photo. It is in my boat at all times. In that fact, you will find the answer to your question.

???

I had to look closely. At first I thought you were towing a grizzly bear.



I will help people on the lake or at the ramp. Have gave many a jump start to strangers. Wouldn't think of taking a dime from them. At the same time, I hate asking for help, but I will if it's my only option.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

Nope - just a Katrina Orphan.

That buoy had been sitting at the edge of a canal out in the marsh, since The Storm. Its a foam marker and was pretty beat up. It still had a length of chain attached to it, so the weight of that was holding it in place, in the canal where I found it. I had reported it several times, but apparently the USCG guys couldn't find it.

I do a lot of stuff for The Guard anyway, so I coordinated the effort with them and retrieved it. I towed it a little under 20 miles to their Aids to Navigation station. You can only go a few miles per hour towing one of those things, so I made the trip over two days, tying the buoy to a green day marker on the ICW, in between.



???

 

[jollymon]

Re: do boaters help boaters?

How can you not stop and help some one with a problem. I have been known to come off plane, and turn around when it looks like someone needs help. Sometimes my wife thinks I am nuts, but then again I probably am.

I have towed a stranded boater, more then once, stop to jump start someone, anchored in the middle of the river, but my al time favorite, was this past summer.

Heading out of our creek into the main river, is a sandbar. At high tide you have about 3 feet of water over it, at low tide you have several hundred feet of sand! I was heading out for a short cruise to go get ice cream after dinner, and I see a boat stuck in the middle of the sand bar with the tide going out.

On the boat were two guys, a women and a child. I pull up to the sand bar, and ask if they are alright (knowing full well it was not pretty!- we have a lot of people do that on a weekend during the day planning to hang all day, but not a 6pm on a week night!) It was a couple thier son and the husbands brother. The wife and son were terrified being stuck in the river, dark coming and not know what to do or who to call. I offered to take the wife and son, off the sand bar, and told the brothers that around 11pm, there would be enough water for the to motor off. The wife wanted to go home and come back for them then.

I got them on my boat took the wife and son for a noce boat ride, got ice cream then took them back to the boat ramp. Then I told them I would be back at 11 to help them load the boat. Well I ended up towing their boat to the ramp, it would not start! What a night!