To all with BIG BOATS!??

[ylwjacket]

Charts aren't going to help you much when it comes to approaching these islands and such around here.

I personally won't approach the beach in my boat because I don't know these waters well enough to do so w/o costing a whole bunch of money.

The guy next to me has a 55' Sunseeker Sedan, and he is telling me to follow him in on some of these locations. He was shown the way in by someone else, etc, etc. I'm still too chicken to try it.

When I had the 185, there were times I'd trim up the outdrive, and nose in. With inboards, though, there's no chance I'm doing that.

You should have just beached and hung out on the boat over there at Passage Key. Never been there, but hear it can get interesting......

 

[ylwjacket]

deleted - double post somehow

 

[cr0ck1]

Crock,

The answer is not in technology, it's in seamanship. You don't have to follow marked channels and in many areas it is better not to.

your totally right.. thanks for the good advice!

 

[cr0ck1]

Charts aren't going to help you much when it comes to approaching these islands and such around here.

I personally won't approach the beach in my boat because I don't know these waters well enough to do so w/o costing a whole bunch of money.

The guy next to me has a 55' Sunseeker Sedan, and he is telling me to follow him in on some of these locations. He was shown the way in by someone else, etc, etc. I'm still too chicken to try it.

When I had the 185, there were times I'd trim up the outdrive, and nose in. With inboards, though, there's no chance I'm doing that.

You should have just beached and hung out on the boat over there at Passage Key. Never been there, but hear it can get interesting......

YES it is interersting.. and if you know about it you would know why me and my wife were there!

 

[ylwjacket]

Crock,

The answer is not in technology, it's in seamanship. You don't have to follow marked channels and in many areas it is better not to.

your totally right.. thanks for the good advice!

I have to respectufully disagree, at least for the Tampa Bay area.

It is very shallow around here. If you are out of the marked channel, w/o substantial local knowledge, you are going to hit bottom, no way around it.

We were coming in one night, right at dusk, and saw an open fisherman, only about 18 foot, crusing through, cutting the corner off a channel. He hit bottom so hard he and his mate flipped out of the boat. I beached my boat, and as I was getting out, he got up and said they were OK. He was going about 30 mph.

Very inadvisable around here w/o going very slowly to find your way.

 

[cr0ck1]

Crock,

The answer is not in technology, it's in seamanship. You don't have to follow marked channels and in many areas it is better not to.

your totally right.. thanks for the good advice!

I have to respectufully disagree, at least for the Tampa Bay area.

It is very shallow around here. If you are out of the marked channel, w/o substantial local knowledge, you are going to hit bottom, no way around it.

We were coming in one night, right at dusk, and saw an open fisherman, only about 18 foot, crusing through, cutting the corner off a channel. He hit bottom so hard he and his mate flipped out of the boat. I beached my boat, and as I was getting out, he got up and said they were OK. He was going about 30 mph.

Very inadvisable around here w/o going very slowly to find your way.

All i gotta say is the gulf of mexico needs to be fulled up with some more water.. you can be like in the middle of nowhere standing in 1ft deep water.. lol and no its not an island just a shallow area.

 

[Sundancer]

I taking a wild guess here, but some of the larger boats have inboards with a "tunnel" where the water hits the prop so they may not draw as much water as your boat. Even a larger boat with the sterndrive on each side of the V may not draw as much water as your boat with the sterndrive at the lowest point of the "V". Again, just speculation and some of the members here with the bigger boats can verify this. I'd love to check that guys props though!! :grin:

 

[ImpulseIII]

My 410 has tunnels but I still draw about 3 1/2 feet of water.

 

[cr0ck1]

I taking a wild guess here, but some of the larger boats have inboards with a "tunnel" where the water hits the prop so they may not draw as much water as your boat. Even a larger boat with the sterndrive on each side of the V may not draw as much water as your boat with the sterndrive at the lowest point of the "V". Again, just speculation and some of the members here with the bigger boats can verify this. I'd love to check that guys props though!! :grin:

well my props... the bottom fin has no paint on it at all.. and the propellar is perfect just some paint wore off.. where i boat its just sand mostly..

 

[ylwjacket]

i brushed a little paint off my 180's props.

a friend of mine hit a snadbar at speed in his boat (i think it was 200 bowrider), and knocked the outdrive off.

after it was repaired, he sold the boat, saying it was bad luck. he was cutting a corner off a channel inside caladesi when it happened.

 

[Morpheus]

seems to me the word of the day is GO SLOW IN UNKNOWN WATER!

When I get into water I don't know and the Depth Finder is showing only 3-4ft of water I STOP turn around and go back. My sales person says everyone gets stuck atleast once. I plan on proving him wrong.

Sounds like you definitly need to get your depth finder working better so you can always tell how deep the water is.

 

[ylwjacket]

My sales person says everyone gets stuck atleast once. I plan on proving him wrong.

he's right - just go with it. no sense fighting it - it's bigger than us all, and catches us all sooner or later.

might as well get it over with. i plowed in pretty good on my 185 the first time out. just to be sure, i hit bottom 3 or 4 times before i was a mile away from the ramp.

clear travels after that.

 

[fwebster]

If you really use your boat, finding the bottom isn't a matter of "if" but "when".

 

[cr0ck1]

i brushed a little paint off my 180's props.

a friend of mine hit a snadbar at speed in his boat (i think it was 200 bowrider), and knocked the outdrive off.

after it was repaired, he sold the boat, saying it was bad luck. he was cutting a corner off a channel inside caladesi when it happened.

wow that must suck.. knocked off the outdrive? wow.. how much did that cost to fix.. the guy down the street from me bought a new 25 ft boat and the first day did the same thing.. he just had no experience with makers.

 

[AndersonAcres]

I'd like to echo the warning about coastal boating after storms. It's incredible how the bottom can change and how quickly.

After one storm, we couldn't get within 200 feet of where we'd been just a week before.

 

[mikestein]

This is a timely thread for me considering I'm taking my 185 to the coast for the first time tomorrow. I plan on going slow, and pretty much staying in the ICW. But I have to tell you, sandbars don't sound like they're any fun, but nothing beats hitting ROCKS. That is a sinking feeling. I have only done it a few times, and never with any real damage, but the sound alone is enough to make you cringe. :smt013

 

[cr0ck1]

This is a timely thread for me considering I'm taking my 185 to the coast for the first time tomorrow. I plan on going slow, and pretty much staying in the ICW. But I have to tell you, sandbars don't sound like they're any fun, but nothing beats hitting ROCKS. That is a sinking feeling. I have only done it a few times, and never with any real damage, but the sound alone is enough to make you cringe. :smt013

Well in the gulf its just all sand... stay in the marker lanes.. and when you get comfortable with an area come out of the marker.. dont be afraid to circle around before you enter an area... and have a laminated map... its the best thing. and DO NOT cut cornors and jump out of a lane to make the trip faster.. the makers are there for a reason!! i learned the hard way...

 

[tphinney]

ditto on morpheus - get you depth sounder fixed or have a thru hull one put in.

I live by mine and use it as a judge for where I should and shouldn't go.

and like everyone else I've also ended up grounded; but here's the worst of it. I ran aground in the entrance to my own channel going into my neighborhood on my 220SD. I didn't realize that we where in an extreme low tide and before I knew it I was stuck hard "At Night".

I useded my anchor to pull my self off; but boy was I sweating it cause if I failed I would have had to wait 5 to 10 hours to get off.

so don't sweat it cr0ck, once you've done it you'll be more vigilant.

 

[cr0ck1]

ditto on morpheus - get you depth sounder fixed or have a thru hull one put in.

I live by mine and use it as a judge for where I should and shouldn't go.

and like everyone else I've also ended up grounded; but here's the worst of it. I ran aground in the entrance to my own channel going into my neighborhood on my 220SD. I didn't realize that we where in an extreme low tide and before I knew it I was stuck hard "At Night".

I useded my anchor to pull my self off; but boy was I sweating it cause if I failed I would have had to wait 5 to 10 hours to get off.

so don't sweat it cr0ck, once you've done it you'll be more vigilant.

yea the tide was also low... but the way i see it is like this... a depth finder will not keep you away from the shallows it will only tell you that you are in shallow water and by the time you read it you hear the prop scrape!... :thumbsup:

 

[mrtopknight]

The card on my GPS Chartplotter has depth contours based on mean low tide, but even with that you can still get into trouble in a unknown area.

You typically dont go from 10'-2' in a couple of seconds so speed is key. Go slow, feel it out, read the water color and chop speed. If a chop is present it is typically at a faster rate in shallow water.

I have ran aground "soft" before when exploring outside the channel (everyone has), but the true damage is done at faster speeds and not just to your boat but you or someone else could get hurt.