Boating on the Water

It all started two (2) days ago when a friend of mine ask me to look on the internet and find him a boat.  He had just sold his boat and wanted to replace it with a fishing boat.  I got on the internet and found this boat and told him to go look at it to make sure it was what he wanted for him and his family.  My friend is what you would say “over-weight”, so it is very important that he purchase a boat that will safely withstand his weight.  He heads out to the gentleman’s house to look at the boat.  He decides to purchase it.  He comes home and we spoke and he wanted me to go fishing with him.  Naturally I want to see the boat prior to making that decision on whether or not I will go out in the deep blue water.  He arrives at around 12:30 P.M. today.  He’s pulling a two (3) man, 9 1/2 ft. long and about 4 ft. wide boat.  It has a 4.5 horse motor on it.  2 swivel seats, trolling motor, fish finder and a weight restriction of 610 pounds.  There’s the problem.  I weigh in at 219 lbs., and he’s over 300 lbs, and I try to explain to him that it is very important that you have the proper weight distribution on these kind of boats or you will tip them over, or fall out if your body weight starts in one direction.  There’s nothing to grab ahold of when you fall, and if you happen to grab one of the swivel seats, you most likely will fall out anyway, tearing the seat out of the floor area.

Well, we get the fishing poles and our gear packed up.  We drive to the lake and put the boat into the water.  He steps into the boat and automatically the back in of the boat (he’s sitting in the back) sinks down deep, and I mean deep into the water.  The front of the boat is in the air.  I get my 219 lbs. into the front and it levels out a little.  He heads to our fishing spot, but the boat is not moving very fast, and that 4.5 horse motor should move the boat along at pretty good clip.  Here’s another problem.   When you put a lot of weight in a boat you are going to make the boat motor get sluggish, as it just cannot push the boat along at any sort of speed.  That’s why the boat has a 610 Lb. weight limit, and that includes everything on, and inside the boat, including me and him.  Anyway, I tell him not to be leaning to the side or making any sudden movements as it will throw me out of the boat.  I wear my life jacket, and he has his in the floor of the boat.  (Not wise when you are on the water. as anything could happen).  After about 10 minutes we make it too the fishing spot, and I tell him to stay close to the bank area as I’m worried about the weight limit and us tipping the boat over.  He is so excited about going fishing that it goes in one ear and out the other.  Finally I tell him to kill the motor and I lower the trolling motor to get us where we can fish.  I explain to him that when boats come by us the waves will start rocking our little boat so do not, I mean do not, lean with the waves or we will fall out of the thing.  He simply say’s OK.  Naturally boats do come by us, and waves do appear but we are still good to go.  The boat is so small that I cannot turn around safely in my swivel seat to look at him in the back, so I take it that he is doing ok back there.  I can feel his movements as the boat tips back and forth with each of him movements and I tell him to be careful.  I continue fishing and all of a sudden I hear him say.  “A little bit of water is in the floor of the boat.”  I said what?  I couldn’t turn around and he said it’s just a little.  He wanted to fish so bad that he was going to overlook water in the boat just to stay out fishing.  (He has got to be out of his mind).  I told him to tell me if the water got bad enough so we could go back in to the land.  He simply said ok.  I continued to fish.  All of a sudden he tells me to watch out that he’s got to stand up as his legs are cramping.  I said ok, but to be careful and not lean to one side or the other.  He stands up and the boat levels out and water comes rushing up front where I’m at and my tackle box and everything is under water.  Now it go scary.  I ask him why he did not tell me that he was knee deep in water as we could sink out there.  He said nothing.  He got a coffee can and started diping water out.  I told him to get that motor started and lets go while we still could.  He got it started and we slowly, but surely got back to shore with the boat.  I wonder right now if he would have let the boat sink, and put our lives in jeopardy just to catch a fish?  Anyway, we pulled the boat on the trailer, and when we pulled the boat out of the water we seen every hole in the boat as water was coming out little holes inside and outside this boat.  The complete hull was full of water.  We could have easily been out in that lake under water (and no we had no paddles), so up a creek without a paddle.  Finally I was just glad to get home, and he simply said “I want you to know that I really appreciate you going fishing with me today.”  I told him no more fishing until he plugs those holes, gets on a training exercise plan, and looses some weight, as he is simply too dangerous.  And I was worried about his weight alone?  Put holes in the boat with it, and you have some major stress going on a very deep lake.

In all, I just want everyone to make sure when you go out on a boat you wear life jackets, do not put more weight in a boat that it will allow, have a back-up plan (we didn’t), and have some way to get back to shore.  Safety is very important, and even though we all will pass on some day, I do not want it to be in a lake with my friend while we are suppose to be fishing!  If you have any comments please leave them below, as that’s about it.  I’m stressed, relieved, and just glad to be back home with my pets and wife.

Here’s a video of what a boat looks like while it’s sinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9KDg1vaLGU