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Boat Rentals
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
Lock masters refer to rental house boats as Harvey Wallbangers. One got jammed into the lock so hard they had to call in a tow truck to break it loose.2 person crews are not ideal on a large vessel, but I get it in a travelling husband-wife scenario. It does demonstrate where handling skills and training can be absolutely essential however. Much like motorcycling where people learn on the bare minimum to operate their machines, the same thing unfortunately happens a lot with boating - a lot of people buy way more boat than they have the skills to handle, and then make zero effort to actually learn those skills.
It baffles me why people don't want to spend the time or money. But a lot of people buy a $250,000 boat, spend the $75 to get their licence, and off they go!
A large pleasure boat can be operated with just a single skilled person on the lines (or at least someone who can quickly follow direction even if they don't actually understand the theory behind the maneuvers the cap is making) and a skilled person on the helm. And communication. The skills portion is often the weak link because people didn't get any training to learn maneuvering skills. Tight quarters handling can be miserable in windy conditions, sure, but a lot of people don't understand how to utilize something as simple as spring lines and techniques in their docking and undocking, or don't communicate them properly to the person doing the lines.
Wind threatening to blow you off the wall/pier/slip where you want to be? Maneuver in fast enough (within reason) to maintain steering and directional authority in the wind. Come astern quickly to bleed speed while getting the bow or stern near enough for someone to QUICKLY get a single line secured and spring the boat on that line. QUICKLY being key. And secure. Slow momentum as much as possible while that's happening to avoid yanking a cleat out or snapping a line lol, pull in the bow or stern using propulsion, then get the person on the lines to slip the line as necessary to get position where you ned to be while continuing to use the spring to maintain the wall, and once you're at where you need to be longitudinally, tie off bow or stern while still using propulsion to maintain the wall/slip/whatever, and then secure the other end of the vessel. Propulsion will hold it there while the person doing the lines gets to the other end of the boat. Then neutral. Boat secured. Done.
Anyhow, I know I'm preching to the choir here with some of y'all lol.
This is what exactly I did yesterday coming back into the slip. Honestly, I was surprised the boat owner gave me carte-blanche to dock his >$100,000 boat, stern first, in a slip with the wind coming broadside from the *wrong side*, and a rather expensive looking sailboat directly abeam, but I guess he was satisfied with the handling skills I demonstrated on the open water and coming back into the harbour at the PCYC. If the roles were reversed, admittedly, I don't think I'd have had the same faith in some stranger docking my +6 figure boat however.
Anyhow, instead of skills learned by educating oneself, what you often see out there is an unskilled cap just banging the throttles and shifters in a panic, no plan discussed or communicated ahead of time based on prevailing winds, and a person doing the lines who doesn't know what to do, how quickly to do it, or really what they're doing at all aside from trying to push off things they're about to hit with their pole. Then next thing you know you're banging into walls or slips at speed, or worse yet, other peoples boats, since you can't push off a 20,000-50,000+ pound boat with one person and an aluminum pole. Or you get the "abandon the helm" operator who doesn't know what to do so runs off with a pole as well to try to fend off what they're about to hit.
Rental houseboats are particularly fun to watch. Or utterly terrifying if you're anywhere near them on your own boat when they're coming into tight quarters.
I had to tow a small power cruiser into Keswick once as they had an engine failure that was blowing them into something hard. They didn't have / couldn't find a towing line. The slippery pumpkin seed deck shape had Mrs. Skipper holding on like a cat held over a bathtub but she caught my line and we got them in.
If you watch the Miami boat launch videos on YT it's amazing how few people know how to throw a line, neatly coiled and split in two (Tip, attach one end to something). They might as well have left it in the shopping bag.
Yep, like I said, money can buy an expensive boat. Money can also buy training. People seem to think they know it all once the cheque has cleared and they buy a captains hat on Amazon, and then they skip the training bit.
The Haulover Inlet YouTube videos will demonstrate this over and over again.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Doesn't need to be an expensive boat -- I've seen more than one noob destroy a runabout trying to get onto Simcoe during a big swell day.
Losing all semblance of control and banging your $250K boat into your neighbours $400K boat with some momentum behind it has a certain extra level of “Oh F*ck” vs watching Chuck bang his $2500 1985 bowrider into the wall at the boat launch, however.
But I get what you’re saying.
Apparently a lot of this is changing, insurance companies are stopping offering coverage on boats of a certain length and value if you have no formal training , RYA , PowerSquadron, ect. Just too many claims that are avoidable apparently.
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Thing is, you legally don’t need insurance at all for a boat.
If it’s financed the bank will almost certainly want it, but paying cash? No insurance needed whatsoever.
Your being silly , yes you could carry zero ins. But no marina ( or yacht club) will rent you a dock , nobody is storing you in winter . Cottage boat ? Ok, sink at the dock and get the MNR bill for a fuel cleanup ? Thousands . Ontario insurance suggested on a 20k boat is now 3million liability . Just changed from 2 mil last month . You may not have to have it , you’d need to be an idiot not to. Loose your house when your fly by wire throttle ( no cables on most boats now) sticks and t bone a nice cruiser and it ends with a civil suit ? That’s dumb .
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I think you’d be very surprised at the percentage of small marinas that don’t require personal insurance on a small boat. They rent you a dock, you sign a liability waiver, that’s it.
You can show up at lots of marinas and rent a transient slip for a week and they don’t ask for insurance either.
There’s also the not small percentage of weekend warrior or private dock at their cottage crowd who also don’t have insurance.
Are they carrying extra risk by making these choices? In many cases, sure, but the overwhelming majority of boats have no insurance whatsoever on them, liability or otherwise.
I’m talking small weekend warrior pleasure boats, not the yachties in yacht clubs. The former makes up the majority of boats out there, including things like jet skis and aluminium fishing boats etc.
A fire at Holland River Marina decade+ ago took out the whole dock due to the covered slips feeding the flames the length of the structure. One owner's boat was uninsured due to needed a survey and he was waiting for haul out to avoid the double lift expense. He lost his boat plus had to pony up $10K for cleanup.
Some smaller boats are covered under house insurance but must be low HP with no accommodations.
Sadly, in the "Hold my beer" world, bumping into another boat and putting a gouge in the side is covered by a "Sorry bout that"
My home insurance is max 30hp, max length of 17' iand must be less than 10 years old when insurance starts irc. I need to tell them about boats and pay for boats with motors.
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Boat insurance is relatively cheap in the Insurance world. My house hold policy covers 12ft max 9.9hp , which covers the Zodiac . Sailboat valued at 30k is $359 per yr and covers race damages ( I can’t believe it either) . Shark sailboat is $249.
Boat ins is pretty cheap in comparison to anything else .
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Boat ins is pretty cheap in comparison to anything else .
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Fwiw I think my sister and BIL have decided to take a pass on the boat I pictured earlier in the thread. Not sure it’s the right one in several regards. Long story.
Eyeballing a 40’ Cruiser Yachts now. It has a lot of questions though. And it costs $100 In gas to just put the keys in the ignitions, much less start either engine.
Eyeballing a 40’ Cruiser Yachts now. It has a lot of questions though. And it costs $100 In gas to just put the keys in the ignitions, much less start either engine.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
That fire was 25 years ago, I kept my boat in the dumpy Soldier's Bay Marina just south of there. It was quite a fire -- I think it took out 20 + boats.
Not the first kaboom in the Holland River. When they put a speed limit on the Holland River in the early 90's, all river marinas turned into dumpy-boat trailer parks.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Cruisers Inc. used diesel in a lot of their 35+ boats - there isn't much of a premium for diesel on a 20 year old boat. Expect 20% fuel savings... that adds up when your guzzling 120l/hour.Fwiw I think my sister and BIL have decided to take a pass on the boat I pictured earlier in the thread. Not sure it’s the right one in several regards. Long story.
Eyeballing a 40’ Cruiser Yachts now. It has a lot of questions though. And it costs $100 In gas to just put the keys in the ignitions, much less start either engine.
Indeed. Except no diesel available on Scugog. Or anywhere close honestly.
I guess that would end any rule or debates from the marina about them Jerry-canning fuel into the boat when they don’t physically have diesel to even sell them, but ~1500L is a LOT of Jerry cans.
The one currently for sale in the area is a twin 454 gasser however.
For a friend's boats we would roll 55 gallon drums down to the dock. 5 gallons at a time was crazy.
That would work.
Plus, they could burn furnace oil/dyed diesel instead of road diesel.
But on a long trip on the Trent I’d certainly have to check diesel availability for sure.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
You're looking at 1200l tank on a 40' boat - so range anxiety will not be a thing on the Trent.
When in your home harbor, call a fuel guy - mobile filling trucks work small marinas (the ones that server farms), and they are much cheaper than marina gas.
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