Early on in my boat-testing career, I learned the hard way about what can happen when boating in unfamiliar waters. The boat company set up our test out of a beautiful Southwest Florida resort adjacent to Pine Island Sound. As I boarded the shiny new 30-foot cruiser and set to throw the lines, I asked the company rep where we should go to run the boat.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I’m from Wisconsin.”
A dockhand happened to overhear and said that whatever we do, don’t veer outside the marked channels. So we idled out and then started collecting performance data between the safety of the red and green channel markers. All went well until we started running at speed in a stretch of water where the channel markers seemed at least a half-mile apart. I decided to try a hard-over turn at speed—standard testing procedure—and wandered outside the designated channel by about 20 feet. Sure enough, we both heard and felt the whump of the bow slamming into soft sand, then the boat stopped moving. What was supposed to be a two-hour boat test turned into a six-hour one as we waited for the tide to rise.
Lesson learned.
When boating in unfamiliar waters, there are steps you can take to ensure that you don’t wind up high and dry—or worse.
Seek Out Local Knowledge
Unlike that boat test decades ago, a GPS and chart plotter now come standard on all but the simplest of boats. Make sure to update chart-plotter software to include whatever new waters you might be visiting, and also purchase a paper chart as a backup.
read more at boatingmag.com.
