What lesson did you learn this boating season?

[CaptBob]

I went from a Cruisers 280 to my 360SS. At first, it did feel like a monster. However the 8.1's will move it, and doing things slow and with grace make it a thing of beauty. Sight line when backing in is a bit limited, I would just sight down port through the steps, and the swim platform, and bring that side in real close. The Admiral would watch the starboard and continually tell me I had plenty of room over there. One time a dockmate fell onto a swim platform and into the water a couple of slips down (lots of noise and noisy splashing) I shut her down real quick, thinking I had run over a kayak or something. I could always come in clean and neat as long as no one was watching. If someone was watching (or worse, helping) I turned into Capt Crunch!

We are on a downsizing trend. We want to be able to be more mobile and move the boat to other bodies of water. We have a fair amount of land locked lakes here in the middle Tennessee area. While I miss the big boat (Admiral had had her fill of cleaning it) we had a fairly good summer on a SeaRay SLX300. My lessons from the season, is to follow the mission plan, and don't let the emotions get in the way. While the 300 is a very pretty, really nice boat (twin 350, axius drives, head, 9K lbs) it is not a throw it on the trailer and let's pop over there kind of ride. We did burn up our lake (it will do 50+) and that was nice, but we are still looking on dropping another couple of feet. (probably 23 ish) Seems about right, we went up in increments, I suppose we can come down in increments also.

[Laserbait]

This was my first season as a boat owner, and the '88 36' Mariner is a great 1st timers boat! I was really lucky to have several friends that have a lot of boating experience, so I learned TONS of new things and got a lot of experience.

1: DON'T put absolute faith in the blackwater tank monitor! (I can't stress this enough! )
2: DO Make sure that all of the drains in the cockpit are clear!
3: When putting a RIB/dinghy on the swim platform, make sure the motor and gas can stay in the cockpit when underway!
4: The engine hatches are directional, make sure the gasket matches the mating surface, relates to #2!
5: Try and leave yourself enough room to maneuver, current and wind come out without warning - think several steps ahead!

[denpooch]

Joe I tip my hat to you. It is likely that you are one of the few boaters in this world who 'started out' with a 36 footer for your first. Very impressive my friend!

[RGrew176]

Still trying to think of something I learned this season. Maybe something will come to mind.