{"id":248,"date":"2012-10-13T04:33:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T08:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/?p=248"},"modified":"2015-07-12T14:11:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T18:11:13","slug":"what-can-you-do-with-a-little-powerboat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/what-can-you-do-with-a-little-powerboat\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can You Do With A Little Powerboat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0010First published in several Maryland newspapers, 10\/14\/88 \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e<\/span><\/p>\n

What can you do with a little powerboat? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u0004\u000e\u0003by \u0004\u000e\bTom Dove<\/span><\/p>\n

Most shoppers at the United States Powerboat Show this \u0004\u001cweekend will be looking enviously at the big yachts afloat at the \u0004\u001cAnnapolis City Dock and ignoring the many small runabouts on \u0004\u001ctrailers ashore. After all, what can you do with a little powerboat? \u0004\u001c\u0010<\/span><\/p>\n

Lots of things.\u0004\u001c Half a million new boats were sold last year, according to the \u0004\u001cNational Marine Manufacturers Association, and about 100,000 of \u0004\u001cthose were bought by people new to boating. Most of these new \u0004\u001cboaters probably bought small vessels between 14 and 18 feet in \u0004\u001c\u0007length.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Fishermen generally know how they will use their vessels and \u0004\u001cchoose their boats with the same care they use in picking a new \u0004\u001crod, reel or lure, but other newcomers often buy a boat with only \u0004\u001c\u001ea vague idea of its potential.\u0005\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

The family’s first boat is often used heavily for the first \u0004\u001cseason or two as Mom, Dad and the kids buzz around rivers, creeks \u0004\u001cand lakes, enjoying the fresh air and seeing waterfront places from \u0004\u001ca new perspective. Interest may then wane and the boat is used \u0004\u001cless and less each year thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

It shouldn’t be that way. \u0004\u001cSmall boats are perfectly suited to water skiing, day cruising \u0004\u001cand even extended trips for adventurous folks. A boat trailer \u0004\u001cexpands the possibilities even more.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Water skiing and tubing can revitalize a small-boater’s \u0004\u001cinterest in using the family runabout. Both are simple sports to \u0004\u001center and water skiing can provide years of new experiences as the \u0004\u001c\u0016skiier grows in skill.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Tubing is a simple version of skiing which gives a thrilling \u0004\u001cride. The tube rider lies across a specially constructed float shaped \u0004\u001clike a car inner tube with handles which is pulled by a long \u0004\u001cpolypropylene rope attached to a powerboat.\u0004\u001c The tube begins to plane across the surface of the water about \u0004\u001cthe same time the tow boat does and the rider gets an exciting \u0004\u001ctrip skimming across the water at twenty knots. The tuber can \u0004\u001ccontrol the direction of the tube and cross the tow boat’s wake by \u0004\u001cleaning to one side or the other.\u0004\u001c The sensation of speed in tubing is greater than it is in water \u0004\u001cskiing as the tuber’s face is only a few inches above the surface, \u0005but the rider is unlikely to be hurt in a fall.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Small-boat skippers can cruise, too. In fact, with a bit of \u0004\u001cplanning, they may be more comfortable than the crews of big \u0004\u001c\u0007yachts.\u0004\u001c There are many motels, hotels and bed & breakfast houses on \u0004\u001cthe Chesapeake waterfront. What could be a better combination of \u0004\u001cfresh air and excitement with comfortable accomodations at night \u0004\u001cthan cruising from one waterfront hotel to another by fast \u0004\u001crunabout? While the yachts ride at anchor and cook dinner on \u0004\u001ctwo-burner stoves, you can relax in a nice restaurant after a swim \u0004\u001cin the pool and then retire to a cool, pleasant room.\u0004\u001c\u00a0Plan on running for only a few hours each day and on \u0004\u001cwatching the weather carefully. At twenty knots, your cruising \u0004\u001c\u0019range will be impressive.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

If the thousands of miles of Chesapeake shoreline begin to bore \u0004\u001cyou, drop your runabout on a trailer and head to Long Island \u0004\u001cSound, New England, or Maine and explore there.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you want a real adventure in comfort and safety? Take \u0004\u001cyour little boat down the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida, \u0004\u001cstopping at hotels ashore or camping out along the way. If you \u0004\u001ccan stretch out to sleep, you can spread bedding and stay aboard \u0004\u001c occasionally.\u0004\u001c With a portable boat stove (NOT fueled by gasoline, unless you \u0005\u001cwant to make a trip by air, too), you can camp aboard with \u0004\u001cnearly complete self-sufficiency.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

You could even cruise through the Midwest via the Mississippi \u0004\u001cRiver system. Trailer your small boat to Wheeling, West Virginia \u0004\u001cor some other town on the Ohio River and launch it there.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Once in the Ohio River, you are floating in the arteries of the \u0004\u001c\u0012heart of the U.S. \u0004\u001c You can go to the Mississippi, then north to Chicago and the \u0004\u001cGreat Lakes, south to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico or west \u0004\u001c\u001aas far as Oklahoma City. \u0004 You can float among the waterways of the Tennessee hills \u0004\u001cand take the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway south to Mobile.\u0004\u001c Once at the Gulf, you can turn east and explore Florida or \u0004\u001cwest and travel to Texas on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Little trailerable powerboats have no horizons. Who needs a \u0004\u001cbig yacht?<\/span><\/p>\n

— The End —<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/span> In many parts of the world, little powerboats do everything. Here’s a farmer taking his sheep to pasture in the south of Turkey.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0010First published in several Maryland newspapers, 10\/14\/88 \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e What can you do with a little powerboat? \u0004\u000e\u0003by \u0004\u000e\bTom Dove Most shoppers at the United States Powerboat Show this \u0004\u001cweekend will be looking enviously at the big yachts afloat at the \u0004\u001cAnnapolis City Dock and ignoring the many small runabouts Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}