The good, the bad and the ugly.......and a question

C

cemiii

New member
The good: Moved my kicker from starboard to port from transom to a fixed bracket. Seems to make a huge difference in the boats attitude and lateral stability by equalizing load

The bad: .(I think it is more than a net offset to the awkwardness it has added to kicker throttle control.)

The ugly: Weekends on the Delta now that it's warm enough for the ski boats. Slow trolling on the kicker with two shallow running plugs Sat. near Rio Vista, a wake boat comes (not towing) right at me full tilt and steers 5 yards off my stern wrapping a quick 250 yards of 40# power pro around his prop and cutting off my two favorite lures. Almost broke the poles off in the holders and ended my fishing day. Pretty sure it ended his ski day as well. Thanks Shimano for smooth drags!

The question: If I were to run my 10 kicker near full and then run the 70 at the same time, would it give me any inkling of what an extra 10 hp would do for my boats performance? is this a dumb thing to try? I was averaging 24.3 on the 70hp (gps) average up and down river at slack tide.
 
cemiii":1s9zttic said:
The good: Moved my kicker from starboard to port from transom to a fixed bracket. Seems to make a huge difference in the boats attitude and lateral stability by equalizing load

The bad: .(I think it is more than a net offset to the awkwardness it has added to kicker throttle control.)

The ugly: Weekends on the Delta now that it's warm enough for the ski boats. Slow trolling on the kicker with two shallow running plugs Sat. near Rio Vista, a wake boat comes (not towing) right at me full tilt and steers 5 yards off my stern wrapping a quick 250 yards of 40# power pro around his prop and cutting off my two favorite lures. Almost broke the poles off in the holders and ended my fishing day. Pretty sure it ended his ski day as well. Thanks Shimano for smooth drags!

The question: If I were to run my 10 kicker near full and then run the 70 at the same time, would it give me any inkling of what an extra 10 hp would do for my boats performance? is this a dumb thing to try? I was averaging 24.3 on the 70hp (gps) average up and down river at slack tide.
Click to expand...

What it would likely do is overheat the kicker, impede water flow (cavitation) with air bubbles around the water intake. On the up side the other Boat will need some prop shaft, lower unit seal work in the near future:mrgreen: :beer
 
Thats why we always keep a casting rod handy........
The kicker thing wont work .
About 3-4 Oz of lead will deter them from getting too close . Practice makes perfect!
Marc
 
Hi folks,
We'd been sailing here locally (mostly) for abt 10 yrs, and always wondered why power boats had to come straight at us and maybe miss by 20-30 yds, when the river's 2-3 mi. wide. I always wanted to get a paintball gun and lettem know where they'd been.
:evil:
Probably some law against it.
 
gosh, and my wife was ticked at me for giving them the double number 1 sign! "There could have been children around!"

$40 bucks of tackle and a half day fishing time, still cheap compared to what woulda happened to me taking on two boatloads of drunken teenagers. And it gave me some unabated time to run a few gps sea trials.

Chris
 
About a half mile prior to the ski boat thing we were in 6.5 feet of water and noticed one of those giant 35-40'ish foot luxury cruisers with the molded fiberglass sweep wing radar arch (you know the ones that are probably 8' tall to the rub rail and probably had an on board hot tub) in about 100 yards from us. I commented to my wife that "he was probably running pretty shallow for such a big guy". As we got by him we saw the Captain......... standing in the water behind his transom. It was just above his knees.

Oh, it was only 2 more hours until low tide, a minus if I recall!

I guess those things don't come with depth finders?

Ah, weekends on the CA delta.

Chris
 
There exists a handy little tool known as a bird bomb gun. Its a small pot metal & hard plastic material starter pistol looking thing.Its original pourpose was agricultural pest control used at the landfill to chase off the seagulls. Uses a 22 cal blank to ignite & launch a projectile about 50 to 75 ft & exploding like an m80. Effective & satisfying ,I have found , on many occations,nautical & otherwise.We used to aquire them through farmer friends,feed stores,gun shows & FFL licence holders. I dont travel without mine. The wild nordic stallion is always thinking. Vern/C-dog
 
What Marc describes in fishing circles is termed a "heaver"--that is a hunk of lead weight, without hooks (usually) cast on another boat. "oh you just happened to be just where I was casting--sorry". It is less agressive than a firearm, which might get you into a heap of trouble (but so can a "heaver")......

I agree, the 10 hp will not give you any more speed, and some potential problems.
 
cemiii,

There was a great boat guy that used to write for Wooden Boat among other magazines that had similar experiences with Jet Skis. He found that a sling shot was the best response and easily hidden or explained when boarded. He said that there was little more satisfying than a direct hit to the south end of a north bound rider. Apparently it didnt take more than one hit to convince the rider that the horseflies and skeeters around that area were nasty little critters and best avoided.

Of course there is that tale of the old skiff owner that was swamped on a river back East by some lout in a mega-buck Bayliner type. Supposedly swam to shore, tore up the road in his beat-up truck until he got ahead of the lout and put a couple 10 gauge shotgun slugs into the hull of that Bayliner right below the waterline. Don't know if it's a true story but I'll admit that at times I hope it is. Would have enjoyed watching the almighty Captain figure out just where the heck all that water was coming from so dang fast!
 
Reminds me of a few years ago when my boys and I were casting buzz-bombs from shore for coho. Couple of fellows in an aluminum car topper rowed right out into the middle of our target area, pretended not to see us, and started fishing themselves. Perfectly legal what they were doing, but so was our continued casting. I soon placed a cast perfectly into the middle of their boat and it hit with a heckuva BANG!!! They were startled and moved on, and the whole interaction soured my appetite for fishing so we packed it in as well. I guess there's still a place for civility and self-restraint for all of us. Mike.
 
When I lived in Utah I got a CCW permit. The training required to get the permit (minimal as it was) made me realize that if I were carrying and got into an altercation I would be held to a higher standard than the other guy. Further, it encouraged me to avoid potential "road rage" situations even if it might look like I were being wimpy. There are just too many kooks out there to justify confrontation for anything less than a bodily-harm situation.

Warren
 
What's wrong with firing a flare if you feel you are in danger? :wink Both of my boats have a loaded flare pistol alongside the helm station. :smiled
Jack
 
Years ago ,sitting on the river beach fishing, a skier thought i needed to be hosed down. The next time by,I tried to bounce a rock off his head.There were no more incedence.My aeriel pyrotechnics are meant to get ones attention & hasnt failed me yet. The less crap you take, the less your asked to take. Vern/C-Dog ps. if everyone had a ccp, the world would be a better place.People would be much nicer after the first few years.
 
30 years ago, a few years after I moved to CA, I was driving home in my Pickup truck from a deer-hunting weekend. I was in the passenger seat holding our 6-month-old daughter in my arms (I don’t recall the seat belt laws back then). My handgun and rifle were in the back seat behind me. My wife was driving. Traffic was heavy and my wife was passing occasionally when it was safe to do so. We finally came to a stoplight. A young guy with a beard, that looked like he was from the movie “Deliverance” jumped out of a truck behind us with 3 guys in it, probably also hunters, and ran up and yanked my wife’s door handle. It was locked. He then ran around to my side and yanked again. Mine was also locked. He signaled me to roll down the window. Thinking maybe there was something really seriously wrong with my truck or whatever, I rolled down the window and stuck my head out to see what was up. The force of his fist broke my nose and splattered blood all over the car and the baby in my arms.

For a split second I thought about grabbing my handgun and attempting a citizen’s arrest. Instead, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote down the license and description of the vehicle. We proceeded directly to the police department in the town of Manteca and they took a report, photographed my face, the baby’s cloths and interviewed my wife separately and I went on my way not expecting very much as they tried desperately to get me to just drop it.

About a week later Manteca PD called me and told me they traced the plate to a San Jose guy, who rolled over on his friend when police faced him. I was called out to pick out his picture from a drivers license line up. Tiny pictures, many years younger, none with beards, could dang near have all been brothers but I didn’t forget that face. I had to work, but my wife actually went to the trial for a charge of misdemeanor battery.

The guy pleaded no contest and offered this story. They (not the driver of course) had had a few beers and were going home when our truck passed them and tried to deliberately run them off the road. Then the two of us, that they envisioned were both guys, laughed and taunted them for miles, so they plotted what they were going to do when they caught us and at the light they executed.

The judge said flat out that he did not believe that a woman driver with her baby in the car and her husband would ever have taunted 3 guys in a pick up, and even if we had he had no legitimate right to do what he did. The judge offered the accused the choice of 1 week in jail, or 4 consecutive weekends, which he recommended against, because he said, “you wouldn’t believe the crazies we get in here on the weekends. Since he had no job, he chose the week. Plus 6 months probation.

For the longest time I was bitter that the punishment didn’t fit the crime, but at least some justice prevailed at a time I believed little existed.

To this day I have nightmares as to what might have happened had I reached for a gun or gotten out of the vehicle to confront the 3 of them. My next two daughters and granddaughter may never have been born and my views of the SF Bay might still be coming from San Q. instead of a C-Dory. In all situations, let cool prevail. Don't let even an unluckily cast 3 ounce lead weight cost you your grandchildren.Sorry to be long winded. Chris
 
I appreciate that reply ! I actually am in the same camp, as far as cool goes [maybe not experiences, I have been lucky ]. It is fun to fantasize about what you could do to stop the manifestations of ignorance and sociopath's type behavior ,having just the right flare gun,CCW training or paint ball setup ,slingshot,or "Heaver "[thanks Bob !]or whatever to you seems like a well prepared stance .Its better to understand the futility of retaliation, and create the least disturbance for effective diffusion while accepting that everyone is not as rational as you .I confess I have not cast onto others , but I have sure as hell wanted to !
Marc
 
What Marc said!!! I possess a CCW permit and have for many years. Recently because of the rash of crime I took my 40 year old daughter to get her CCW permit and attended the course myself along with her as a refresher to the current laws. I quickly learned the people taking the course were pretty dangerous in their own right. It's unbelievably easy to get a CCW in Florida (even if you live out of state). I think the least amount of force rquired to protect yourself in a dangerous situation is the way to go and especially like the idea of the flare gun. Just a couple days ago we had a jet ski and ski boat collide head on a kill the jet skier. His girlfriend passanger is still in ICU and maynot survive. These jet skis in my opinion are lethal weapons in the wrong hands. Maybe in a way this increase in fuel prices may become a blessing with less of these things in the water? Unfortunatley I can't see how this rise in fatal accidents won't eventually lead up to vessel licensing especially in the heavily populated states.

P.S. Has anyone ever considered a potato gun loaded with manure? 8)
 
Chris: you showed remarkable restraint in that situation. I likely would have shot the fellow dead, or been shot myself in the process of fumbling with the handgun. Best case would've been a kiddo witnessing a shooting. Your net result is about the best outcome given the insane behavior of the other guy. To have a handgun available and choose not to use it against an assault shows tremendous strength of character on your part. Best wishes, Mike.
 
Hi Chris, Mark, Marvin, et al,
What you guys said is on the target. In life we need to remember the simple rule of this forum, "just be nice", no matter what's happening around or to us. It works just great here.
I'm sorry I escalated things with my paintball gun thoughts, but it was in the line of what we'd fantasized doing, not what we all know we should be doing.
Maybe we just should end this thread.
 
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