Blog 2018

I was asked that if a boat has a capacity plate, Does that mean the U.S. Coast Guard certified that my boat is safe?

Neither the U.S. Coast Guard nor any other federal agency certifies boats.

In fact, there are only a few federal laws governing boat-building, including flotation requirements for powerboats under 20 feet, passenger- and weight-capacity labels, and fuel-system safety. Manufacturers self-certify that their boats meet these legal standards.

The Coast Guard does, however, have a factory-visit program that audits boat-builders periodically for spot checks and tests a few dozen boats for flotation compliance every year.

A comprehensive list of voluntary standards has been written by the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC). Boat-builders who are members of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and build to ABYC standards will have an NMMA-certification label in plain view on most boats built after 2007.

To be sure a boat is safe, a good survey by a competent independent surveyor is advisable.

CANDLE BURNING AT BOTH ENDS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON?

Why do so many people get burnt out in the days leading up to the holidays?

Maybe it’s the realization of having to write to everyone you seemingly have ever known. So you sit staring at a pile of countless Christmas cards, that cost a fortune in printing and postage, and realizing that you don’t even have everyone’s addresses, or least not the correct ones. .

Or maybe it’s the present buying, the wrapping, the decorating, the cooking, and everything else. The returns, the fifty different scents in the room at once.

Maybe it’s the expectation of living up to the memories of past Christmas. And maybe just maybe, this is the problem with Christmas for so many people.  For many, the heart has gone out of Christmas, which, as everyone keeps repeating, looks like a shopping fest rather than a holy day. Yet we are seemingly driven to fulfill the requirements because of our beliefs or fantasies about what other people feel or expect.

Normally, if your heart has gone out of a situation, you stop. This way you avoid a burnout

But this is more difficult than it seems when it comes to Christmas. Christmas is all around us and bred inside us, and we don’t believe we can break the rules, change the rules, revise, or give it all up. We might not mind but others will. So we soldier on, push ourselves, and hope we will recover by New Year.

If you are feeling great about Christmas, great!! If not, take a deep breath, exhale. Think about what’s really important, then go ahead and enjoy what you are doing, and do as much as you enjoy even if it looks over the top.

The world won’t fall apart, and yes they probably don’t want that fruit cake anyway. Who knows, you may even find the joy that a festive season is meant to be about.

Merry Christmas!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

The Scoop On Scope

Scope is often defined as the ratio of the length of deployed anchor rode to the depth of the water.

Wrong!

Scope calculations must be based on the vertical distance not from the sea bottom to the surface of the water, but from the sea bottom to the bow chock or roller where the anchor rode comes aboard.

For example, if you let out 30 feet of anchor rode in six feet of water, you may think you have a 5:1 scope, but if your bow roller is four feet above the waterline, your scope is actually 3:1.

Scope is required to keep the pull on the anchor horizontal. The more upward pull on the anchor, the more likely it is to break free. Minimum scope for secure anchoring is 5:1. Seven-to-one is better where you have the room. A length of chain between the line and the anchor (at least 20 feet) also helps to keep the pull horizontal.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the official start of the holiday shopping season. Traditionally, it is the day on which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are in the black. On Black Friday, a variety of products (electronics, apparel, toys, etc.) are available at their lowest prices of the year. Limited-quantity doorbusters draw crowds of shoppers to stores at special early hours. This year, many retailers are opening their doors on Thanksgiving night and online sales will begin as early as Thanksgiving morning. That means an extra day of opportunities!

Black Friday Myths  

Black Friday Sales Begin on Black Friday

Black Friday is now a full season. Sure, Black Friday proper is the main attraction, but stores have increasingly started to release deals in waves. Bargains can be found early in the week of Thanksgiving and run all the way through the weekend. The bottom line is, if you're doing all your deal-hunting exclusively on Black Friday, then you're missing out.

You're Missing Out if You Only Shop Online

Companies advertise door busters in order to attract customers to their brick-and-mortar stores. But in recent years, as competition has escalated among rival retailers, those eye-catching deals have steadily moved online as well.

The reason is simple. Traditional retailers like WALMART, TARGET and BEST BUY know that online retailers like AMAZON will match their best prices on in-store deals. Thus it only makes sense to offer the same deals online, to remain competitive. The goal is to beat Amazon, but the real winners are deal-hunters.

Black Friday Shopping is Dangerous

We've all seen the footage. Hordes of crazed holiday shoppers stampede into a store at four in the morning, trampling anyone and everyone in the way. It makes for a morbidly fascinating spectacle, a case study for shoppers as social Darwinists, played out on live TV.

But the truth is that those sorts of incidents are actually extremely rare. We just happen to see the worst on the news because it translates into great TV. While you should be aware of the potential for chaos during your in-store shopping, know that it's unlikely to reach aggressive proportions.

All Black Friday Deals Are Amazing

Shopping 101. Remember, retailers are in business to make a buck, and they can't do that if they lose money — or even make too small a profit — on every deal.

Some deals are great, but others are filler. The great ones are there to lure you into buying more stuff, ideally at a healthy markup. So do your research and uncover the truth about those "rock bottom" prices before you buy.

Online Shopping is Always Easier

As anyone who's lived through Black Friday knows, the online experience isn't always stress-free. Technology isn't perfect. Websites can crash or even fail. And when everything works properly, some deals will simply sell out before you can place your order. The latter is a common complaint for flash sales from Amazon, for example. But at least you're still shopping from home!

Fire and explosion make up a relatively small percentage of all claims, but the average payout per claim ranks high. That's because, like theft, fire or explosion all too often results in the total loss of the boat.

Faulty wiring causes most fires; most explosions result from fueling issues. Inspect your boat regularly for chafing wires that aren't properly supported, and for corrosion of AC shore-power inlets. If you can smell gas, something's really wrong. Get everyone off the boat and have it checked immediately.

Finally, make sure you have the proper number and type of working fire extinguishers aboard.

Ninety percent of stolen boats are taken while on their trailers.

The most commonly stolen boat type was a runabout, less than 26 feet, on a trailer, with one or more outboards.

Surprisingly, only about 15 percent of owners whose boats were stolen said their boat had any kind of lock installed. Many said they didn't think they needed locks because where they kept their boats seemed safe, but that thinking is often misguided.

Your best tool for foiling the bad guys is frustration.

Thieves are lazy, and anything you can do to increase the time or difficulty it takes to steal your boat will discourage theft.

The first rule of boating: Keep the water out!

When that simple rule gets violated, the boat often ends up a total loss. In many cases, the dollars paid out for sinking claims exceeded the payouts from hurricane claims, even though they generate several times more claims.

Water most often finds its way in through those pesky holes below the waterline. Many underwater holes have a way to keep them closed when they're not needed — seacocks. But seacocks must often remain open, so it falls to lesser fittings like hoses and clamps to keep the water out. Check, squeeze, and tug on all fittings below the waterline at least once a season.

Other causes for sinking include leaking stuffing boxes and clogged scuppers.

On November 11, 1919, U.S. President WOODROW WILSON issued a message to his countrymen on the first Armistice Day, in which he expressed what he felt the day meant to Americans:

ADDRESS TO FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN

The White House, November 11, 1919.

A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.

With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.

Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.

To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.

WOODROW WILSON