TOPIC: Outboard Handling

** This thread discusses the content article: Outboard Handling **

Very cool stuff, thanks for sharing!

I like the quote from it, "Boating is alot like marriage... if you've never had experience with it, you won't believe anybody's description.... and if you have, anything you might say is entirely inadequate."

Actually has good solid advice despite it being 51 years old.

I found a copy of that booklet on ebay a few years ago, on a whim I bid $5.00 and got it! It is a fun read with some good advice that a lot more of the dumb dumbs who launch at our most popular lake should be reading!
Al

I have one addition to outboard "handling". As you near the 50 year old mark, refrain from lifting, or "handling" large outboards by yourself with brute force. I'm still trying to recover from setting a 1959 Evinrude 35 horse back on my boat last week.

Very cool vintage boating guide. Wow what fun. More importantly, preserved electronically for future generations to enjoy too.

Thanks!

These are relatively commonly encountered booklets. Maybe given away with new boat purchases?

A similar booklet is posted in the Library:

www.fiberglassics.com/library/Safety

Enjoyable read! Loved the "ballast" drawings. And I'll have to point out that the water skiers DIDN'T have life jackets on!

Brought back memories, I think they were also given out at boat shows by the Forest Service or DNR. Great art! Back then the kapok type life jackets were dangerous to ski in, no float coats yet, some used a ski belt.

Hey, Andy,

They are actually the exact same brochure it appears except for the title!

Both put out by the "Outboard Boating Club of America" except that the physical address is different. They must have moved up the street:

307 North Michigan Ave and 333 North Michigan Ave

CAT*FIN*k wrote:

Brought back memories, I think they were also given out at boat shows by the Forest Service or DNR. Great art! Back then the kapok type life jackets were dangerous to ski in, no float coats yet, some used a ski belt.

We had an early ski belt. It was orange plastic, with trapezoidal humps about 3" wide, 6" tall, and 3" thick. It was all fixed to a flat fabric/plastic piece with 4 grommets on the corners. Each grommet had about a one foot piece of flat cotton strap to allow you to tie it around your waist. I wish we still had it but I think it fell apart and got pitched.

Not to be topic jumping, but we had many of the belts, in a variety of materials, including foam, covered in a small plaid print fabric, and, I think, a neoprene type. All became dock bumpers.

Obviously, the guard at the gate is trying to explain to the guy that he has to turn his car around and back down the ramp.

A couple years ago, a man and woman came to the boat ramp near our dock with a brand new Four Winns 17-footer. They backed down the ramp (after about 6 tries), lowered the trailer dolly wheel, jacked the trailer up off the ball and launched the whole nine yards...funny as hell.

Another guy unhooked the winch, got in his 21' boat and had his wife back down the ramp. When she started to go crooked, he yelled at her, she slammed on the brakes and launched the boat onto the concrete ramp about 20' short of the water.