I'm leaving aviation and buying a boat

My wife doesn’t mind flying, nothing has gone wrong (yet). Each time we have been in a boat it has been a disaster, we even got shipwrecked on a tropical island. And I wasn’t flying the boats, we were guests of boating enthusiasts.

This made me look on eBay, now watching several large projects that look “cheap” and fixable. I always see things how they will be, not how the wife sees them.

Somebody slap me please!

I parked the houseboat idea when I saw how dear berths were.

Forgetting to put in the drain plugs before launching proves what seems to be a strange scientific fact. Water goes in faster than it comes out:wink:

They also get very, very heavy in no time at all. Trust me!

OME, keep this old saying in mind:

 

"A boat is a hole in the water into which you're continuously throwing money"

 

Been there, done that

 

[ATTACH type="full" alt="Last sail 7 [800x600].jpg"]43822[/ATTACH]

A boat is a hole in the water you throw money into.

A plane is a hole in the air you throw money into.

A helicopter is a hole in the air that doesn’t wait for you to throw- it actively sucks the money out of your pocket.

With ferro you will find that nearly all all marinas will not allow you in. Also most likely will be unable to get insurance. And if you find insurance from overseas; any claim if you suffer a loss of vessel will be a big challenge in some cases. IMHO.

Any ferro boat around today is likely of very high quality. Any bad builds have long since rusted or sunk.

For the unaware, ferro is a composite and includes expoxy. It is extremely strong and gets stronger with age. It is the toughest material for a boat. Done correctly it does not rust. It is the easiest to repair as well. Long term ferro is considerably cheaper to own and maintain.

The quality of a boat is not just about what its made from. Bit how it is built and maintained.

Yes there are crap ones about but same with wood or steel or glass.

Unless damaged by impact a good ferro hull will only ever need a belly scrape and antifoul. Nothing needs less work.

Steel rusts, wood rots and glass delaminates with age. Ferro just gets harder.

Almost all ferro boats around today were professionally built hulls and very sound. Cowboy builds are easy to spot.

Ferro can be great

Could've been worse - they could have launched it, without the drain bungs inserted.

I remember a burly mate ("Col") telling me how he and several mates of the same build, were standing around watching with interest, in the late 1970's when a bloke with a near-new Lancia Beta (front-wheel-drive), was trying to pull his boat and trailer up the boat ramp.

The Lancia was slipping and spinning due to loss of traction on the wet ramp, and with all the weight on the wrong end (rear end).

So the bloke got out and asked Col and his friends if they could lend a bit of weight to the front end, by sitting on the front of the car. The four mates duly obliged, and the boat owner got back into the Lancia, and "gunned it".

Col reckoned the Lancia moved forward a little, and then suddenly - there was an almighty BANG!! - from under the car!

They all promptly jumped off, and peered under the front of the Lancia, only to see litres of transmission oil, gushing out onto the boat ramp!!

Further inspection revealed (much to the Lancia owners consternation), a gaping hole in the side of the transmission (alloy) casting!

What had happened, was the intense torque generated by full throttle in 1st gear, coupled with no wheel slippage (thanks to Col and his mates), meant that the intense torque, tore one of the transmission mounting lugs, clean out of the transmission!! (it was a Citroen transmission, after all!)

Col said they sympathised with the Lancia owner - but then they wandered off, and left him to it! - because there was nothing they could do, any more - and they only did as the owner asked!

The two happiest days of boat ownership - the day you buy it, and the day you sell it.

Where is the epoxy in a ferro boat. A mate of mine built one in the seventies and there was no epoxy, except maybe later in the paint system.

I was on it one day just after launching and it wasn't fitted out. I bashed one of the bulkheads with a piece of timber and it rang like a bell. last I heard it was cruising in PNG.

Multiple layers of chicken mesh on some reinforcing rod to keep the shape and then plastered from the inside and the outside. Not a job I wanted to do, so I built a wooden yacht.

The latest Ferro build is epoxy, sand mix !.

you have to be twice as quick plastering the hull, than the traditional sand, cement, mix.

It will not last the thousand years that the "oldest Ferro boat" has survived.

Built in the roman days its sits at the bottom of a pond, & is resurrected on special occasions.

I was very happy with my Cutter until it was flooded by a Pelican nest blocking the cockpit drains, resulting in All the wood interior & decking rotting.

So much for wood. disheartened I rang a marine broker to take it off my hands for Free.

spacesailor

Regulation this; Regulation that; Approval for this; Restriction on that. Landing Fees; parking fees. ASIC cards; permit to jump through hoops.

 

Stuff it. I'm giving up on aviation and buying myself a boat like this one:

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="43818]43818[/ATTACH]

 

It'll only cost me $57and a half K. Nobody will call me "rich an extravagant" because I own a boat, like they would if I owned a plane.

 

I don't have to go through an expensive training regimen to be able to drive it. I've just got to sit a "road rules" test. I don't have to be fastidious in maintaining it. In fact, I don't have to maintain it at all, but can still keep using it. I don't have to set up something akin to the National Archive to keep all the records of maintenance and mods. I don't need an Engineering Order to install any equipment. I don't have to pay landing fees, and can park it at home. I can go anywhere on water that the boat can float in. Why, there's nothing legally stopping me from using it to sail around the World; up and down the Nile or Amazon, or tour the rivers of Europe. I can use it night and day, in good weather or foul.

 

I won't have to undergo regular medicals and risk my licence being suspended because my BMI is above some arbitrary magic number, or my eyes grow dim.

 

I can't fly, but I'm telling you

 

I can sail my boat where I want to

TAKE ME WITH YOU! TAKE ME WITH YOU!

A mate bought a steel 30 foot ex-fishing boat with a 6 cyl Perkins diesel in it - just because he loved going fishing.

He lived on an estuary and was able to moor the boat not far from his house, where he could still see it. One morning he got up, and he couldn't see it, it had disappeared overnight!

He raced up to the mooring, only to see the top of the cabin about 2 feet below the water level!

During the night, a cooling system hose had burst, and flooded the hull - and she promptly sank like a rock!

He did recover it and fixed it up, but by then, he was starting to realise the old boat ownership story, about a hole in the water, etc etc ....

Ah the old sinking boat problem....

Lots of ways around that problem, firstly by shutting the seacocks after finishing with the boat.

Or changing to keel cooled or other variations of freshwater cooled. Wet exhausts can also be a issue if not designed well or maintained. But you can convert to a dry stack and no issues.

If you maintain it and follow simple rules, sinking is not a issue.

Having auto bilge pumps and a alarm is also very very sensible. Some are set to call you and get your arse to the boat.

Generally failure to maintain, just like with aircraft is a really quick path to burning money. Or worse.

A flying boat becomes a very poor sailing boat once you shut the engine down. and the drag is with you every Km you fly. They DO seem like a good idea though . (Until you think about it) Nev

 

You could go the Piaggio P 7 route and use hydrofoils:)

 Extra fuel cost but the speed is higher. Less bow waves etc A fair bit more inspection/ maintenance. Lots of salt spray so you need to be enclosed. that thing probably flies and is a bit of a n indulgence perhaps? Nev

A compromise will have to be found:

Emuo, The solution is not to ( invest ) too much in either but have both, ie 8 meter trailersailer on a properly engineered trailer, not a (cost effective) production trailer. Costed after my refitting from racer to cruiser plus new outboard less than 10k + $70 per meter per year stored fully rigged at the club. And for the air a two seat factory built 1000 Lb MTOW  ultralight on a custom built streamlined fully enclosed mobile hanger that doubles as very roomy man cave accommodation when you get to where you want to fly, or not, depending on the weather less than  $25 k + $200 trailer rego per year $70 flying club membership and $400 aircraft and licence extrorsion fees and thats it. so $35 ks gets both + $1510 annuals. Thats not that expensive when you look at what some people fork out for a set of wheels eh.

Looking at the rigs at Birdsville last week I could see at least $150k for land cruiser plus caravan and I bet they were looking at us in our planes and calling us rich b.....s. They could have bought three of mine.

Nice little Haines there OME.. A lot of us enjoy being on the water as well as flying.. I've been doing both for years ☺

Well, as befits a humble fly-boy, I'd be thinking more of a rig like this; a wee beasty fit for towing by one's wee Jimny.

The theory being that one could stay, for weeks at a time, close to the airport where one's aeroplane lives and thus better be able to get up to speed with one's flying skills and, hopefully, keep them that way.

And, as to the naval wing, maybe one of these: