Towers obsolete?

Not sure of the proper terminology for towers or crows nest often seen on sports fishers among others. The point is, with $1000 drones with real time cameras broadcasting to an I pad seems like their (towers) time is done.

Send the bird up, find the fish and go get 'em.

Thoughts??

Huh. I doubt that will have much effect on the tower competition in Miami....part of the culture.

They do like their towers....you have a point... I have seen some that looked taller than 40 foot racing sloop rigs.

I think consumer drone technology, control, durability, and battery life has a long way to go before they take the place of boat towers.

kthoennes said:

I think consumer drone technology, control, durability, and battery life has a long way to go before they take the place of boat towers.

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When or if they did, they'd have launch towers for the drones.

Towers don't have much to do with fishing. It's more to do with bragging rights at the dock!

Hummmmmm...you mean it is kind of a sexual thing? Mine is taller...longer...higher???:lol:

Not relevant. I "fish" at a supermarket, or better yet, a restaurant featuring prepared/cooked fish. ... It would be a shame if crows nests became obsolete.

In parts of Italy, in the distant past, a tower on the property was a statement of wealth. The higher the tower, the wealthier you were perceived. I leave the rest to your imagination.

For some fishing...some would consider them indispensable.

A lack of understanding their use breeds some of the smart remarks....but they are up there with some of the new lighting schemes and other flash adornments for braggarts, not boaters.

Some fishermen are the real thing too...

You hit on a new got-to-have-it gizmo: the "drone landing pad" welded onto the tower. Remember you read it here first!

hmason said:

In parts of Italy, in the distant past, a tower on the property was a statement of wealth. The higher the tower, the wealthier you were perceived. I leave the rest to your imagination.

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That's also what I heard/observed last week in Italy.

Mule said:

Thoughts??

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Towers are not going anywhere for a long, long time, if ever. If you truly think they are its because you have never used one for its intended purpose.

LOL @ this whole thread. As bill said they aren't going anywhere. Usually towers are made a certain size keep in proportion of the boats lines. Albeit there are some boats with huge towers for reasons I'm not aware of.

Capt.Bill11 said:

Towers are not going anywhere for a long, long time, if ever. If you truly think they are its because you have never used one for its intended purpose.

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Was thinking the same thing it is amazing to watch them in the distance from the tower

A guy down the river from our old house bought a nice new boat, put a tower on it and installed a boat lift and then didn't use the boat. The tower made a nice Osprey nest! I don't even want to think about cleaning up all the bird poo he had to do and it is really caustic stuff.

I think trying to play with an electronic thingy while running around coral is a ticket to disaster! You cannot run a boat and a drone at the same time.

Tingum said:

I think trying to play with an electronic thingy while running around coral is a ticket to disaster! You cannot run a boat and a drone at the same time.

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Most skippers on this forum are adept at multitasking and are fully capable of crashing a drone while running a boat aground. Its as easy as texting and driving

Dimmer, Ya forgot to mention fiddlin with the plotter ...while runnin a drone, texting and going aground.

Seems to me a drone could be a useful tool and at around a thousand a copy vs tens of thousands for a tower stiring in the PITA a tower causes with air draft with bridges.

markpierce said:

Not relevant. I "fish" at a supermarket, or better yet, a restaurant featuring prepared/cooked fish. ... It would be a shame if crows nests became obsolete.

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The best, cheapest fish I ever caught was at Costco.

If you ever saw a towered sportfishman, fished and crewed using the tower....you would understand.

Could a drone be used, and might it be better? Possibly, but not unless it had hours of endurance and could be put on auto pilot to follow the boat or self land easily.....unless you also had a crewman assigned to just deal with the drone.