Is a dive boat useful?

[84CJ7]

There are pics in the link, more than I could post here.

As far as leaving the boat unattended I thought I might have read somewhere that your not actually supposed to leave a boat unattended in many areas, but other than that it just makes me nervous to leave it unguarded on the surface, mostly because I am paranoid but also because I'd like my sonar imager to still be there when I get back not to mention all the other stuff. Plus theres always the chance that somehow the anchor could come undone and id end up chasing the boat across the lake, which on the great lakes is a long way, or someone could be an *** hole as people often tend to be (like the people that slalom dive bouys in speed boats) and cut it loose just for the fun of it. In the tropics where you can see your boat from 100 feet its no big deal, but it most places around here its nice to be able to see your boat from the bottom in 30 feet of water. I know people that are still suprised when they leave their car unlocked and stuff is missing when they come back to it so I wouldn't be suprised to find many if not most people leave boats unattended.

 

[moneysavr]

We sometimes leave the boat on fair weather days with no top man, err do I do it all the time no, hate to see my boat join me on a great dive gone bad!
As it did to a group of divers on a local wreck Niagara the guys charter boat sank while they were on the dive!
Bad day, no one hurt!
Dive safe,
Brad

 

[drbill]

I find one to be useful only when I don't have to pay for the fuel, the slip or the maintenance! Mine sank over 30 years ago... on the second happiest day of my boat owning career.

 

[84CJ7]

It doesn't need a slip its light (1,200 dry weight (without motor I think but not sure) according to old brochure and definetely under 2,500 lbs with motor both 18 gallon tanks full 2 people and all the gear), not extremely tall, and narrower than a normal cruiser so it tows extremely well. A 90 hp outboard uses dick for fuel even at full throttle and I do all the maintainance myself (which normally only consists of greasing the 4 bearings airing up the tires and 4 spark plugs and a fuel filter a year)

I would never stop laughing if my boat joined me on a dive even with the mess it would be to recover it, not too bad though since its got big lifting eyes on the front and rear that I think could practically double as helicopter lifting points in a pinch, could probably pull it to the surface from those with floats then pump out, or take the 5 bolts (including steering bolt) fuel hose and battery wires off and lift the motor seperate, would take 5 mins to have it off and ready to lift.
DEFINETLY make sure my 900 gph auto bilge pump is working before diving and probably put the backup 900 gph one on a seperate float just in case. 1800 gph should handle anything short of getting holed by a collision.

After seeing all the arguements against dive boats and realizing that my boat has almost none of those bad features and pretty well all of the good ones plus the fact that I already own it and can maintain it myself, I think I just need to plan out a way to get in and out easy. A removable side ladder with those standoff feet to keep it off the big flat sides would work well, or I will consider rear platform options with the necessary steps to cross the spashwell and rear seat.
I may modify a downrigger crane so I can clip my bcd/tanks to it when I get to the boat and then reel them in when I get on board. Or add a little capacity and just reel in other divers complete.

 

[SwimJim]

It looks like you don't have enough room on the stern for a platform/ladder. Thats the best place, if it can be done. If your good with a welder you could fabricate a ladder to go over the side. Then you can make it strong enough to climb up wearing gear. You'll find a Christmas tree is most useful as you can climb them without removing fins. I dive out of my old Searay all the time with no topman. I'm not terribly concerned about some moron ripping it off, My big concern is mother nature throwing a fit, which she does from time to time. The biggest excitement I've had over the years was while doing a saftey stop. Appearently, some sailboat jockey mistook my rather large dive flag for a turning bouy. I saw his keel slicing through the water not fifty feet away from me. He was close enough to look down into my boat as he passed. I'm diving wrecks and I'll either tie off to the mooring if there is one, or use a wreck hook I made. My wreck hook has a rope on it and I tie that sucker in before continuing my dive. I've looked at that Hummingbird, looks like a nice unit. The only drawback is the 100ft max depth for side scan, bump that to 200 and I'd consider one. Even so, interesting unit.
Minneapolis/ ST Paul is a distance from big water. Perhaps there are some decent spring fed lakes in the area you could launch in and work out any bugs, and dive, before you hit the big water. With a few minor tweaks I think you'll have a great time with it. Good Luck

Jim

 

[matt_unique]

I learned the not so hard way about leaving a topside buddy. My buddy and I dropped in for a nice 45 minute dive. As usual, descended down the anchor line and made sure my hook was secure. After the dive we surfaced and started stowing gear. We were chatting about the dive, etc. When we both looked up we had drifted 100 yards in steady wind. If this happened when we were under, it would have been a hell of a swim at the very least. Assuming we could swim faster than the wind was blowing my boat.

Lesson learned, now I prefer to solo dive and keep someone topside if there is just two of us.

--Matt

 

[OceanSailor]

A removable christmas tree ladder or small platform at the stern will take care of any problems getting out of the water after a dive.

If diving solo, invest in a good heavy anchor with plenty of chain. Make sure the anchor is a good holder for the type of bottom you'll be anchoring in. I used to own a a 20 footer that with fuel and engine weighed in at around 4000lbs. I used a 28lb bruce anchor with 20 feet of chain and 300ft of rode. Sounds like overkill, but I routinely anchored at depths of 100 ft and never had the anchor drag or the boat get away from me. After the last dive, I would place a small lift bag at the anchor. That helped immensely when bringing the anchor up. My rule of thumb is 1lb for every foot LOA plus 2lbs for every 1000lbs displacement.

As for securing the boat while diving, I installed a battery isolator switch and fuel cutoff where it wasn't noticable. My electronics (depth sounder and radio) I locked in the cuddy cabin with a good lock. The keys to the switch and the boat went down with me.
Most boat thieves are opportunists. Place roadblocks in their path and they'll move on to easier pickings. Hope this helps.

Cap'n Ed

 

[Tortuga James]

We dive regurly from my 20' center console. I have a heavy duty throw ring with 4 caribeeners and float it off the back of the boat. When we surface, you clip your BC to ring, slip out and swim to the boat. It is a cut out transom with an outboard, so it is easy to throw your weights and fins in before climbing up the latter. We leave them floating out there until it is time to switch tanks and dive again.

I have a whole nuther post about the tank storage, the biggest headache of small boat diving. I built a leaning post/seat that holds 8 AL80's.

 

[NEWENGLANDCHARTERS]

The drawback of leaving the dive boat uattended is that the ******* lobsterman like to cut off the anchor line

 

[FredT]

One solution to the "unattended" thing is to find a young non-diving sun worshiper who will accept the responsibility of learning how to operate your boat in exchange for "free" boat trips. Smallish females are best as they don't take up much cargo capacity you'll need for gear, and often can be quite decorative too. Neices, neighbor's kids, youth group at church, Scout groups, etc. can be rider sources.

Be aware that this plan requires constant replacement and some "security in depth" as they will all eventually find either an irresistable interest in boys, which leaves you short an operator, or worse yet will want to learn to dive!

We used it for several years after a rather long swim due to a missing boat. It worked quite well for as long as we used the boat. The thing would not take 4 divers very well as it tended to overload with the 4th set of gear, but up to three divers and a stay aboard light rider worked well.

FT