Boat
- Thread starter Scuba65
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matt_unique
Guest
You must be excited. Did you buy brand new or used? Where do you plan to cruise this weekend? I will be out this weekend as well. Right now the plan is for Sat but I am considering spending Sat night on the boat and meeting other guests for Sun.
If you are planning to explore the Salem Harbor area you would want to launch your boat at Winter Island (http://www.salemweb.com/winterisland/). It's $5 to launch with a good ramp with plenty of parking for your truck/trailer. A nice/easy/short cruise for you would be over to "Cocktail Cove". Cocktail Cove is on the Manchester side of Great Misery Island (check your nautical chart for a reference). It is usually crowded on a nice summer day. Although last weekend it was not very crowded and the weather was perfect. There are many moorings in Cocktail Cove and you can pull up and use one for the day. You can also take a dinghy to shore (if you have one onboard or in tow) to walk around the island. It's a beautiful island with nicely maintained walking trails. It costs $5 to step foot on the island but it's worth it and Trustees of Reservations does a great job taking care of the islands. (http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/323_misery_islands.cfm)
What do you have for boat gear so far? If you are not already familiar with the following website it will be your singlemost useful source of information: http://pub12.ezboard.com/bbocweb It's the website for the Bayliner Owners Club.
Perhaps we can meet up this weekend on the water. I plan to dive Sat morning then spend the afternoon at Cocktail Cove with two dive buddies. I would be happy to help you guys if I can, I'm a USCG licensed captain, etc.
I installed a stainless steel X-mas tree dive ladder on my boat weekend before last and I love it. Your boat has the same 1/2 swim platform as mine. For the last 4 years I would roll out of my rig on the surface, tie to a trail line, climb aboard, hoist the gear up onto the platform, then over the transom. I dive doubles and all that so it's a real back breaker. It is sooooo nice to be able to climb right out of the water and into the boat with gear on my back. I still hand up deco bottles and weight and anything else I can remove. One of those things I wish I installed a long time ago. Weekend before last on the U853 I had a 240lb buddy with double steels walk out on this ladder no problem. It's rated for 400lbs.
--Matt
If you are planning to explore the Salem Harbor area you would want to launch your boat at Winter Island (http://www.salemweb.com/winterisland/). It's $5 to launch with a good ramp with plenty of parking for your truck/trailer. A nice/easy/short cruise for you would be over to "Cocktail Cove". Cocktail Cove is on the Manchester side of Great Misery Island (check your nautical chart for a reference). It is usually crowded on a nice summer day. Although last weekend it was not very crowded and the weather was perfect. There are many moorings in Cocktail Cove and you can pull up and use one for the day. You can also take a dinghy to shore (if you have one onboard or in tow) to walk around the island. It's a beautiful island with nicely maintained walking trails. It costs $5 to step foot on the island but it's worth it and Trustees of Reservations does a great job taking care of the islands. (http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/323_misery_islands.cfm)
What do you have for boat gear so far? If you are not already familiar with the following website it will be your singlemost useful source of information: http://pub12.ezboard.com/bbocweb It's the website for the Bayliner Owners Club.
Perhaps we can meet up this weekend on the water. I plan to dive Sat morning then spend the afternoon at Cocktail Cove with two dive buddies. I would be happy to help you guys if I can, I'm a USCG licensed captain, etc.
I installed a stainless steel X-mas tree dive ladder on my boat weekend before last and I love it. Your boat has the same 1/2 swim platform as mine. For the last 4 years I would roll out of my rig on the surface, tie to a trail line, climb aboard, hoist the gear up onto the platform, then over the transom. I dive doubles and all that so it's a real back breaker. It is sooooo nice to be able to climb right out of the water and into the boat with gear on my back. I still hand up deco bottles and weight and anything else I can remove. One of those things I wish I installed a long time ago. Weekend before last on the U853 I had a 240lb buddy with double steels walk out on this ladder no problem. It's rated for 400lbs.
--Matt
We bought use...it's in pretty much in mint conditions..only used in a lake so that's a plus and it has a brand new engine in it a warranty still for 2 more yrs. hubby liked that idea. Our plan so far is to be out all this weekend since it's going to be like in the 90's. We still don't know where we are going to launch it from...hubby said Winthrop but maybe i can get him to do it in Salem where you mentioned it, and go to the place you just mentioned...he wants to do some lobstering etc. and i want to eat them. I really don't dive around here since it's too cold for me and yes, i'm a weenie to NE water..i'm a caribbean diver...I must admit it now. If necessary i will dive around here. so, will see. That place Cocktail Cove sounds like a fun nice place to hang at. Now where do we pick up the nautical charts from??? we just want to make sure we have everything we need for this weekend. on the boat will have a VHF radio/depth finder. in a couple of weeks we are planning on getting a GPS for it. as of now we are broke after this ...special with all the other stuff ...registration etc. boy it's very expensive owning a boat. it should be tons of fun though. Well, maybe we can meet up at that place then this weekend....i'm pretty sure i can get hubby to go there instead and any help will be great since you're more a pro at this boat stuff than us right now. what else do you think we should have for this weekend????? Hey, that xmas tree ladder is what hubby wants for it...he said it will be easier to get out of the water with the geat on. he also uses doubles. i believe the swim platform on it is actually very wide...I think it's like a 1 1/2 foot wide something like that. so, any help would be great. thanks so much
matt_unique
Guest
Gotcha.
If you're thinking Winthrop I assume you live South Shore then. If you do decide to head up to Salem it's a nice area to boat. Does your boat come with a canvas top of any kind?
You can get the necessary harbor charts at West Marine (as well as other online sources) but you would want to make sure you have the correct chart in the boat for this weekend. You also need to make sure you have all the necessary USCG mandated safety equipment. They or the Harbor Master may approach your boat to conduct spot safety checks. The following link will help you with that: http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/reqequip.htm
Boat ownership is expensive (even little boats) but I think it's worthwhile for the experience. I would suggest GPS as your next equipment priority (assuming you have all the necessary USCG equipment). You can get handhelds for $100. I use a $200 handheld GPS with a built-in marine database. It is one of the most important safety devices you can have for a boat in the ocean. With my next boat I will have 2 in case one fails for any reason. Fog can sometimes roll in quickly. If you are boating sans GPS you need to make sure you have very current weather reports and watch the weather. This is my primary source for marine weather information: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/east/boxmz.htm Check this before you leave the house on the day you plan to boat to get the latest info. You can also get this info on your VHF radio weather channels (weather channels 1, 2, or 3 for our area).
What I meant by half swim platform is that the platform is only on one side of the engine (right side). A full swim platform extends the entire lenth of the transom. I bought my ladder and mounting bracket online through boaters world. They offered the best prices from my research with free shipping. I had all this stuff delivered in 3 days of my order. I had two thin stainless steel backing plates made to help distribute the load over the swim platorm. The swim platform can handle the weight but they are polymer so it helps to use larger backing plates to distribute the load a bit better. I used 18 gauge stainless steel plates (13" X 13"). One plate on top and one on the bottom of the platform. I then mounted the bracket shown below on top of these plates.
http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/...&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=13140812
http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/...1&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=3967306
--Matt
If you're thinking Winthrop I assume you live South Shore then. If you do decide to head up to Salem it's a nice area to boat. Does your boat come with a canvas top of any kind?
You can get the necessary harbor charts at West Marine (as well as other online sources) but you would want to make sure you have the correct chart in the boat for this weekend. You also need to make sure you have all the necessary USCG mandated safety equipment. They or the Harbor Master may approach your boat to conduct spot safety checks. The following link will help you with that: http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/reqequip.htm
Boat ownership is expensive (even little boats) but I think it's worthwhile for the experience. I would suggest GPS as your next equipment priority (assuming you have all the necessary USCG equipment). You can get handhelds for $100. I use a $200 handheld GPS with a built-in marine database. It is one of the most important safety devices you can have for a boat in the ocean. With my next boat I will have 2 in case one fails for any reason. Fog can sometimes roll in quickly. If you are boating sans GPS you need to make sure you have very current weather reports and watch the weather. This is my primary source for marine weather information: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/east/boxmz.htm Check this before you leave the house on the day you plan to boat to get the latest info. You can also get this info on your VHF radio weather channels (weather channels 1, 2, or 3 for our area).
What I meant by half swim platform is that the platform is only on one side of the engine (right side). A full swim platform extends the entire lenth of the transom. I bought my ladder and mounting bracket online through boaters world. They offered the best prices from my research with free shipping. I had all this stuff delivered in 3 days of my order. I had two thin stainless steel backing plates made to help distribute the load over the swim platorm. The swim platform can handle the weight but they are polymer so it helps to use larger backing plates to distribute the load a bit better. I used 18 gauge stainless steel plates (13" X 13"). One plate on top and one on the bottom of the platform. I then mounted the bracket shown below on top of these plates.
http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/...&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=13140812
http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/...1&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=3967306
--Matt
No we live in the Northshore.....but for some reason hubby said Winthrop! yes, we have a canvas on it...for the sun. Ok..will get the right charts for this weekend...that is no problem since i'm taking Friday off to do a bunch of things for this weekend. hubby was picking up the VHF radio today..so, that will be all set. the GPS will be within 2 weeks. got it...the swim platform on this one is all across the back and it's about 1 1/2 wide which is good. now your's is not like that i assume? I'll check that webpage to see what else will need to be safe.
matt_unique
Guest
Gotcha - that is great you have a full swim platform! Mine is smaller covering about 1/3 of the width of my boat. The mounting hardware and dive ladder I suggested would be the same for your boat/platform.
I like the waterproof Maptech folding charts. I would need to check the number on my chart to give you the exact number. If you go to West Marine (there is one off Exit 36 in Woburn for example) they should have these charts for you. Make sure the chart you select specifically includes detail for Salem Harbor to include buoy numbers (in the harbor) and water depths and all that. The chart I use for Salem Harbor has a detailed insert that covers all of Salem and Beverly harbor. On the other side is a larger scale for cruising out past the islands.
--Matt
I like the waterproof Maptech folding charts. I would need to check the number on my chart to give you the exact number. If you go to West Marine (there is one off Exit 36 in Woburn for example) they should have these charts for you. Make sure the chart you select specifically includes detail for Salem Harbor to include buoy numbers (in the harbor) and water depths and all that. The chart I use for Salem Harbor has a detailed insert that covers all of Salem and Beverly harbor. On the other side is a larger scale for cruising out past the islands.
--Matt
jchaplain
Contributor
Winthrop IS on the North Shore...not the south shore!...over near Revere.
Its a great place to launch, but there is no dock there which makes it harder to launch a larger boat and it does get crowded there at peak times.
John C.
Its a great place to launch, but there is no dock there which makes it harder to launch a larger boat and it does get crowded there at peak times.
John C.
Scuba65:
I just received an email from West Marine that from 6/9 to 6/19 they are taking an additional 15% off all marine electronics. It might be worth checking out for GPS and any other items you might need now.
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