Boating School

[Penguin]

It sounds like you want to do something like a barefoot charter. You simply go to the charter company and 'checkout' with the Fleet Captain. Prior to taking your group out by yourself, the FC will get you orientated with the boat then you will demonstrate to him that you can handle the boat out of the slip and out on the open water. He will take note of your navigational knowledge and overall seamanship/competence and make the call as to whether or not the company lets you helm the boat.  It is usually pretty informal depending on the size of the boat.

That sounds great, thanks.  I'll make sure to save this information for future reference.  And no, Mrs. Puff was not my boating school instructor, and I have no intentions of being the skipper of a supertanker, ever.  The reference was meant to be something I was bewildered by, and I should have included this icon: after it to indicate that, my bad.

-Penguin

[Shuffler]

Hmm, I suppose.  I'll do it for sure, just to have another piece of cool looking paper to show the harbor master.  It's just that I can go for helmsman over there in about 4-5 years.  That'll let me do even more, and then the rank of sea captain and icebreaker captain.

As for the question of the tanker, yes, I can.  It says any boat with or without mechanical propulsion inland.  That includes supertankers.

-Penguin

You can't run a tanker of any kind in the Houston Ship Channel. Your mistaken. The Captain of any ship coming to the channel is not allowed to maneuver his vessel into the channel. They lay at anchor just outside the channel in the Gulf. A crew boat brings the experienced nav to the vessel then it can come into port. That is for any ship destined for these ports.

Here Super Tankers are stationed offshore and lightered.


It's not like you'll be doing that any time soon though.

[dedalos]

Hey guys, I've come here to settle an argument with some of my friends.  I attended a three week boating school last summer, and my liscence says that I can be the skipper of any boat, from sunfish to supertanker while inland.  It also limits me to a 7m boat out to 2 nautical miles out to sea.  Both of these require adult supervision.

Here is my question; if my mom/dad/adult and I went to the harbor and rented a boat for the family to have a party on, would I be allowed to be its skipper?

Specific details (Important to the discussion, but boring to read)
I am a minor
I am a citizen of the United States
I attended this school in Poland
My rank is zeglarz jachtowy, or in English, yacht sailor/yachtsman

-Penguin

   Tell you what.  Try getting pulled over and give the cop a European drivers license.  You will get an idea of what will happen to you if you present papers from Poland to a guy in a uniform and how valid your valid papers are

I watched my Italian friend give a Chicago cop his Italian drivers license when we got pulled over and then try to explain the know everything that it was valid    I wish phones had video cameras back then.  Americas funniest videos would have paid good money for it    Apparently, no one told them that tourists from other countries don;t carry American drivers licenses.

[Penguin]

I feel hot, the flames are toasting me like bread.  I messed up; I deserve it.

-Penguin

[Muzzy]

Just remember what I said about going feet dry.

[Penguin]

You mean beaching the boat?  It depends on what kind, if it has a moveable keel, then it should be fine.  Otherwise, you're right.

-Penguin

[phatzo]

A boating story for everyone

The Florida Marine Patrol bagged me the other night.  It was like a simple traffic stop, only on the water.

About 9:30 p.m. I was making my nightly six-minute dinghy trek across the harbor back to my boat.  I had dutifully stuck my little red/green split flashlight up on the front of my rubber inflatable.  However, to the Marine Patrol approaching from the rear it appeared I was running without any lights at all.  Technically, in addition to the red/green light shining forward, I should have had a white light visible from the rear; either that or a single 3600 light on the boat's highest point. I knew of this regulation, but didn't believe anyone would be that nit-picky.  Acknowledging my forward lights showed at least an attempt to comply, they sent me on my way with a warning.

The following night I repeated my daily trek armed with a bright white suction mount 3600 flashlight.  This new light is so bright it ruins my night vision.  Holding it high above my head I ventured legally across the harbor.  After only two minutes my arm was getting a bit tired and I figured there's got to be a better way, for I'm not about ready to do this every night.  I tried sticking it to the dinghy, but being lower than the motor and my torso, the required 3600 coverage was blocked from several angles.  It was then a brilliant idea - an idea 100 times more brilliant than my new light - struck.

There is, I said to myself, an advantage to being bald.  It was dark enough, and I'm far enough from land that no one could see how stupid I looked as I wet the inside of the light's suction cup and squished it down upon my skinhead.  It was perfect.  I now had both hands free, the light was well above everything on the boat, and my night vision was unaffected, as I couldn't even tell the light was on.

Recalling the nightly parade of tired arms holding lights aloft as dinghies dash across the harbor, I wondered why no one else had thought of this grand idea.  Granted, it probably does look rather stupid, and other boaters might tend to steer away, but it worked exceptionally well.  That is until I spied a much faster boat departing the dock behind me.

I tried speeding up, but quickly realized this boat was easily going to overtake mine.  Reaching to my head, I grabbed a hold of the flashlight in hopes of removing it until the other boat passed.  I tugged, but the light didn't budge.  I tried prying it off at an angle; it didn't budge.  I tried raising one edge of the rubber lip; it didn't budge.  I tried sliding the entire suction cup across my scalp and down over the edge of my head; it didn't budge.  With the other boat quickly approaching my embarrassment zone, I altered course.

As the faster boat zipped by in the distance, I steered back toward my floating home.  Nearing the stern of my boat the whole back end suddenly illuminated.  I spun around expecting to see the bright lights of a Marine Patrol boat with three officers grabbing the rails in desperation of falling overboard from uncontrollable fits of laughter.  Yet when I looked back no one was there.  Spinning back around, the stern of my boat was still lit up brighter than I'd ever seen it at night.  Again I looked behind me; again no one there.  I suddenly realized I not only looked stupid but acted the part as well, for the bright light was coming from atop my head where absent any nearby objects I couldn't even tell it was on.

Still I couldn't break the light's suction firmly grasping my scalp.  Fishing a dime from my pocket - a brief period of intellect suggesting the pocket knife my fingers first found would be a poor choice - I gently pried up an edge to the rubber cup.  Near midnight, in a calm harbor, the loud Champagne-bottle-like pop probably aroused several slumbering alcoholic sailors.

The top of my head felt like a can of ravioli, for the suction cup had drawn up my scalp in circular ridges that held their shape.  Undaunted and in the certain knowledge that these skin ripples would dissipate within an hour or so, I headed to the shower.  The raised circles atop my head were already beginning to soften when I bent over to soap up my legs.  On the way down I caught a glimpse of something strange in the mirror. Directly in the middle of my head was the world's largest, world's most perfect, most crimson hickey.

[phatzo]

[icepac]

LOL.....that had to be Dinner Key marina in coconut grove.

[Masherbrum]

Hey guys, I've come here to settle an argument with some of my friends.  I attended a three week boating school last summer, and my liscence says that I can be the skipper of any boat, from sunfish to supertanker while inland.  It also limits me to a 7m boat out to 2 nautical miles out to sea.  Both of these require adult supervision.

Here is my question; if my mom/dad/adult and I went to the harbor and rented a boat for the family to have a party on, would I be allowed to be its skipper?

Specific details (Important to the discussion, but boring to read)
I am a minor
I am a citizen of the United States
I attended this school in Poland
My rank is zeglarz jachtowy, or in English, yacht sailor/yachtsman

-Penguin

I found the perfect boat for you to skipper:

[VonMessa]

How is that crazy?  That's a boat that we used in boating school, and it was the midsized one.  The biggest one had a concrete hull with three sails and two masts.

-Penguin

Technically, it was a schooner, then

[Penguin]

A schooner?  I thought that it was a sloop if it had one mast and two sails.  I don't know the names in English, but I know them in Polish.

Ket- 1 mast 1 sail
Slup- 1 mast two sails
Sluter- 1 mast three sails
Kecz- 2 masts three sails, steering behind rearmost sail
Jol- 2 masts three sails, steering before rearmost sail but behind second to rearmost sail

-Penguin

[VonMessa]

A schooner?  I thought that it was a sloop if it had one mast and two sails.  I don't know the names in English, but I know them in Polish.

Ket- 1 mast 1 sail
Slup- 1 mast two sails
Sluter- 1 mast three sails
Kecz- 2 masts three sails, steering behind rearmost sail
Jol- 2 masts three sails, steering before rearmost sail but behind second to rearmost sail

-Penguin

Sloops have one mast.

I could have been a ketch.  Ketches are similar to a sloop, but there is a second shorter mast to the stern of the mainmast, but forward of the rudder post. The second mast is called the mizzen mast and the sail is called the mizzen sail. A ketch can also be cutter-rigged with two headsails.

A schooner can have two or more masts, but the second mast is at least as tall as the first, distinguishing this design from a ketch or a yawl, where the second mast is shorter than the first.

My wife and I went out for a few days on a beautiful schooner on our honeymoon while we were in Petit St. Vincent.  It used to be a pineapple shipping boat and was refurbished by a proper British Captain that made his way to the Caribbean and never quite made it back home.   

[Penguin]

Sloops have one mast.

I could have been a ketch.  Ketches are similar to a sloop, but there is a second shorter mast to the stern of the mainmast, but forward of the rudder post. The second mast is called the mizzen mast and the sail is called the mizzen sail. A ketch can also be cutter-rigged with two headsails.

A schooner can have two or more masts, but the second mast is at least as tall as the first, distinguishing this design from a ketch or a yawl, where the second mast is shorter than the first.

My wife and I went out for a few days on a beautiful schooner on our honeymoon while we were in Petit St. Vincent.  It used to be a pineapple shipping boat and was refurbished by a proper British Captain that made his way to the Caribbean and never quite made it back home.   

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Are you clarifying what I said, restating it, or correcting me on something I missed?  Boating school was last year, so I might be a bit rusty.

-Penguin

[VonMessa]

Are you clarifying what I said, restating it, or correcting me on something I missed?  Boating school was last year, so I might be a bit rusty.

-Penguin

You stated that you only knew the names in Polish.

A schooner?  I thought that it was a sloop if it had one mast and two sails.  I don't know the names in English, but I know them in Polish.

Ket- 1 mast 1 sail
Slup- 1 mast two sails
Sluter- 1 mast three sails
Kecz- 2 masts three sails, steering behind rearmost sail
Jol- 2 masts three sails, steering before rearmost sail but behind second to rearmost sail

-Penguin