Recent content by kthoennes

Like some of the others posters we have two transducers, one set for depth under keep, the other depth. That gives me the flexibility or option to pay attention to either one without doing math. Simple enough I know, but when you're running in very shallow water I'd rather minimize...

Always wanted to learn to play the piano, but that's pretty sedentary.

Welcome. We were Minnesooootans for a while, and my wife's family owned the Mad Hatter on the river in Stillwater. South Dakota now, Missouri River instead of the St. Croix or Mississippi, but I can't tell you how many boats we crawled over through the snow in the Twin Cities area. (Finally...

I'd confirm the general discussion so far. I'm a Mainship, not Chris Craft, but like the other responses, the general manuals are almost no help and that probably goes for a lot of boat makers. The wiring schematic on the other hand, that's one of the most important documents I have. Previous...

Since this thread started, it's got me thinking more and more if I'm losing anything yet. My post above about an avalanche of mental clutter in modern life made me wonder if I'm just rationalizing my own deterioration. I don't think so (thank you Lord), at least not yet. I may have mentioned...

Yep, all location dependent. We're residents of South Dakota (real residents, not absentee), one of the lowest tax states in the country. Bought our boat in Massachusetts years ago but took delivery in Rhode Island, because at the time there were MA tax regs and cases that seemed to say Mass...

I'd second an amp, even though I'm not an audio geek. Especially the unit at the helm with all the wind and noise, it really helped. I initially bought what a small one in physical size because I don't have tons of room in the helm pod -- but it was 400 watts, sucked way too much power...

Boy, lots to think about. Just on the mental angle for now, not physical: Like many of the posts above, I get easily distracted too, it's so hard to stay laser-focused on one project, one task, but then I don't really think that's age (yet). Lives are incredibly cluttered lately. Incredibly...

Our AM/FM radios -- two separate, one at the helm, one in the salon were both ancient and crusty and one was dead, so we did a total upgrade last summer. At first I bought a Boss car radio simply because it was cheaper. I want decent sound but I'm not a high-end audio nut like some guys, and I...

We've kept our boats on the hard, jackstands, shrink wrapped, since 2011 but with the battery cables disconnected. No trickle chargers. FLA. The current boat has six batteries and we've never lost one due to winter storage, even though our winter runs Nov - March and we always get at least a...

Yep -- I learned that lesson with my fuel filters, oil pressure senders and a few other things. Half the price and as far as I can tell, identical to the "marine" version. Wouldn't do that for everything, like my marine spark-arrested alternators, but for lots of maintenance things, NAPA is a...

I think for most boaters, Shrew is right. I don't know if it's a contemporary culture thing or what, but in the now nine years we've owned our boat, no more than two family members have ever visited at the same time. Even in our relatively large marina, we hosted guests on just one blustery...

For the millions of us who live in states (or provinces) with severe winters, including here ag country where all forms of farm machinery sit dormant over the winter with only a small fraction on trickle chargers, this discussion abut frozen batteries is amusing.

For what it's worth, the owners club for Boat magazine sets a requirement of 24 meters or about 79 feet for "superyacht" status - to be in the owners' club in other words. That's pretty much a random, entirely un-authoritative standard I know, but it's good for making jokes to my wife when...

We routinely have weeks of 0 to 25 below (F) every winter here and my FLA batteries do okay. Our marina disconnects batteries during winter layup, and they're certainly not dead or mostly discharged when disconnected, but on the other hand the charge certainly declines sitting idle from...