Even though I've fished most of my life I am a relative novice boat owner and operator. I owned a 12' boat with my older brother in the early 70's. As he was my older brother and he owned the motor (a Martin [10hp ?] - no recoil rope starter) I didn't get to operate the boat. Then I fished for years with my younger brother in his boat but I only bought my own boat about five years ago. I have a lot to learn. In addition to the above I am also a reluctant mechanic. I've been avoiding a start on an outboard rebuild mostly because I just don't want to do it. Like with computers, I don't want to know how they work, I just want it to work. I'm really interested in building and modifying the boat but not so much with the motor.
In my effort to get over myself and at the urging of one of the members here I got a Seloc repair manual for the motor I am (avoiding) working on. Last night I took it to bed and started reading from page 1. The first chapter is devoted to the operation and safety of boats. There was a lot of basic info that might help answer many of the questions new boaters post here on tinboats. Everything from terminology to descriptions of the different classes of PFD's was covered. The manual is filled with specifics that I will need in time but it was a good beginning to just start at the beginning.
There are a lot of you on this site with years of experience on the water. I would imagine especially those of you who are coastal or off-shore fishermen know all this stuff well but the places I fish are never out of sight of land and sometimes not even out of sight of the landing. I rarely even see a buoy on the lakes I fish. Just the proper mounting of a compass was news to me. Anyway, it was good to start from page 1 because it reminded me of how much I don't know and how much I have to learn. Even after years of having been in boats it's different when you begin to operate one.
In my effort to get over myself and at the urging of one of the members here I got a Seloc repair manual for the motor I am (avoiding) working on. Last night I took it to bed and started reading from page 1. The first chapter is devoted to the operation and safety of boats. There was a lot of basic info that might help answer many of the questions new boaters post here on tinboats. Everything from terminology to descriptions of the different classes of PFD's was covered. The manual is filled with specifics that I will need in time but it was a good beginning to just start at the beginning.
There are a lot of you on this site with years of experience on the water. I would imagine especially those of you who are coastal or off-shore fishermen know all this stuff well but the places I fish are never out of sight of land and sometimes not even out of sight of the landing. I rarely even see a buoy on the lakes I fish. Just the proper mounting of a compass was news to me. Anyway, it was good to start from page 1 because it reminded me of how much I don't know and how much I have to learn. Even after years of having been in boats it's different when you begin to operate one.