Duck Pond Redneckery


So how did that kill recreational boating?

Here, on the weekends half the pickup trucks you see have a boat on a trailer.
Unless you are rich enough to own a boat with a toilet you can't drink on the boat. That means no one can drink on the boat and if they do the driver gets charged.
 
Here the pontoon is the big thing. They draft about 8" fully loaded. All the rivers are very shallow and the deep Vee's can't get around that easy. Plus, you'd better know the waterways or a row boat can play hell at low tide.
 
Actually, you need to include the skeg on the bottom of the lower unit. That's usually a few inched lower unless you have it tilted up to where the water pump draw will suck water.
 
Is draft the displacement water level? Ie the distance from water line to bottom of the boat?
From the water line to the lowest point on the boat.

I've always heard it used to reference the lowest part of the hull, because motors can vary. Of course the prop & skeg stick down lower than the hull, but you can tilt up the motor to float over a sand bar or something if you have to.

The skeg is that fin on the bottom of the motor, right in front of the prop. It protects the prop from damage if you bottom out.

On some boats, the skeg is also a replaceable, sacrificial lamb to the corrosion gods. Made of magnesium, it serves as a dielectric to neutralize static electrical currents that'll corrode the shit out of an aluminum boat. They're unnecessary on wood or fiberglass boats.
 

Back
Top