And So It Begins

Greetings All,
I just joined up today. I am 6 years from my 2ed retirement. 1st was 20 years in Uncle Sam's canoe club. The wife and I have a plan to sell the house and downsize. We want to start the process of getting a boat to cruse the ICWW and do the loop. I told her about living on a boat, at least my experiences with it. But she is really excited to do this. We are newbees at this although I have worked around large boats and ships for a good part of my life. I will be asking lots of questions. And using the "search" function. :lol: Wish us luck in our endeavor. We will need it. Lots to learn over the next few years starting with Trawler Fest in Baltimore in Sep.

Aloha
Tom S.

Welcome aboard!

Dave

Trawler Fest Baltimore is a good place to launch, and there are gobs of great boats on and around the Chesepeake. Wonderful cruising grounds too.

Welcome to the forum.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

Welcome!
This forum has been a great resource many people, including myself. Best of luck to you!

Welcome Tom. Have fun planning and getting ready. I have 76 Mondays to go for my 2nd retirement too. Thanks for your service.

Welcome.

You need to start chartering different boats and sizes of boats to get a real feel for what you need in a boat.

Welcome Tom,
Years of experience on the big boys sure helps.
I have been at sea nearly all my life (Merchant Marine) as you guys call it.
All ways had fishing boats, small , then one day decided to build the boat I wanted. That was 20 years ago.
Still have the same boat but over the years it has evolved as my needs changed.
A boat is never a completed project.
After a while you will know what suits you , then go for it.
Enjoy the experience and soak up the knowledge from on the forum.
Cheers
Benn

Thanks for the warm welcome and the advice. The plan is to look and learn all I can from as many sources as I can find. thanks again.

Aloha
Tom S.

Greetings from SJ. I agree with chartering a 32-36 ft trawler to help figure out what you want. The Chesapeake Bay is a great place to start and close to home.

We are looking into the charter thing. I like the Idea of a combined charter and training that Blue Goose does down in Baltimore. High Wire do you know of any charter / training outfits in south Jersey?

Twidget said:

We are looking into the charter thing. I like the Idea of a combined charter and training that Blue Goose does down in Baltimore. High Wire do you know of any charter / training outfits in south Jersey?

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There's no charters that I know of in SJ. There are very few trawlers here either.
As far as training goes, what is your small boat experience? Before paying for hands on training, have you attended any basic safe boating courses? Advance courses? NJ requires completion of a proctored test for a Boating Safety Certificate which is required for NJ residents to operate a powerboat in NJ. It makes sense to get the classroom training done first. US Coast Guard Auxiliary and US Power Squadrons offer classroom training everywhere. BOAT/US Boating Safety Courseline http://www.boatus.com/courseline/ will help you find courses near you.

That is the exact information I need. I was not sure where to start. Thank you so much.

See also: Boating safety certificate

Dave

Welcome Tom!

High Wire said:

There's no charters that I know of in SJ. There are very few trawlers here either.
As far as training goes, what is your small boat experience? Before paying for hands on training, have you attended any basic safe boating courses? Advance courses? NJ requires completion of a proctored test for a Boating Safety Certificate which is required for NJ residents to operate a powerboat in NJ. It makes sense to get the classroom training done first. US Coast Guard Auxiliary and US Power Squadrons offer classroom training everywhere. BOAT/US Boating Safety Courseline Courseline - Foundation - BoatUS will help you find courses near you.

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I noticed course time is 900.Is that 900 hours?Seems a bit much.

ben2go said:

I noticed course time is 900.Is that 900 hours?Seems a bit much.

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Which course? It must be a typo.

I think they mean 9:00am starting time.

alormaria said:

I think they mean 9:00am starting time.

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I would have thought it as 0900,but I believe you're right.About how long is the course?

The CG Auxiliary Safe Boating course here in NJ is 8hrs long.

Twidget said:

The CG Auxiliary Safe Boating course here in NJ is 8hrs long.

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Thanks.That's what I was thinking it was.

Welcome aboard


Sergio "Alemao" Sztancsa
Sent from my iPhone, using Trawler Forum

alormaria said:

I think they mean 9:00am starting time.

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Yes, thats what it means. Its a full day long but some flotillas break it up into 2 hr segments during week nights.

High Wire said:

Yes, thats what it means. Its a full day long but some flotillas break it up into 2 hr segments during week nights.

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That would work great.I'll check into it.

Welcome! Thanks for your service and good luck on your next adventure!

Again thanks so much for the welcome. We just got back from one of the local marinas where we spent a few hours looking at some of the trawlers / cursers. We talked to as many people as we could and learned an awful lot.

I am learning that there is quite a big difference between a 40' 150hp trawler and what I am used to. 500' 118,000hp, 8,300 ton destroyer.