Ouch.

[nobbie48]

I remember that fire, it was around this time of year in 1999, I was living in Holland Landing and kept a boar at Albert's the next marina down the river. I doubt many owners in that marina had insurance.

While the marinas along the Holland River are reasonably nice, they are mostly floating trailer parks. When that fire happened, a lot of the boats in there rarely if ever left their slips. Wasn't that way before 1990 when they reduced the speed limit on the river to 9kmh. The trip from the marinas went from 15 minutes to an hour and it's a bug-infested swamp. I remember rescuing a buddy, the CG patched his radio thru to me -- it was 1AM and the passengers in the boat were repeatedly screaming to bring bug spray (the CG guys were having a hoot, laughing out loud as they listened in. When they signed off, they reminded me - don't forget the bug spray).

I suspect they cut the river speed to reduce erosion -- kinda stupid as the old 20-30' scows plowing that river throw-up monster wakes at 9 - much less when up on a plane.

Yup. Slog down the river to the bay and find out it's too rough to enjoy and slog back. My first season was at the marina right in Bradford.

There was a rumour that one owner torched his own boat for the insurance money, not expecting to take out the dock.

We moved to the narrows in Orillia and found it far better except for the bridge traffic noise.

Another ouch there: An owner had the engines pulled on his old wood cruiser and the boat was left in the water without power to the bilge pumps.

The boat slowly settled in the water until the water found the two four inch exhaust holes. The rest of the trip to the bottom didn't take long.

 

[crankcall]

There is a lot of just dumb around , buddy calls me at home the other night, it’s blowing 20+kts on Lake Ont , 5ft rollers and he has lost power on a 43ft boat . Called marine rescue unit , no answer. I go “borrow” a 12ft 70hp zodiac from the YC and go get him. 30 min hip tow into the marina , just soaked and miserable ( spilled me beer) and as we enter the marina , the marine rescue unit shows up . He says you didn’t answer my call? They do a radio check from 100ft away . His radio doesn’t work either. How the F can you have a 43 ft boat and half the crap doesn’t work and your playing in Lake Ontario in stormy conditions?


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[Mad Mike]

There is a lot of just dumb around , buddy calls me at home the other night, it’s blowing 20+kts on Lake Ont , 5ft rollers and he has lost power on a 43ft boat . Called marine rescue unit , no answer. I go “borrow” a 12ft 70hp zodiac from the YC and go get him. 30 min hip tow into the marina , just soaked and miserable ( spilled me beer) and as we enter the marina , the marine rescue unit shows up . He says you didn’t answer my call? They do a radio check from 100ft away . His radio doesn’t work either. How the F can you have a 43 ft boat and half the crap doesn’t work and your playing in Lake Ontario in stormy conditions?


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In my teens I worked at a kids camp at Jackson's Pt on Simcoe. When the blow comes up on Simcoe, breakers come from all directions - 5' chop on Simcoe feels like 10' on Lake Ontario -- can't count the number of ill equipped boaters we rescued using little Sunfishes.

In the early 80s there were a lots of cheap old wooden Chriscrafts and Owens cruisers. Owners thought a coat of paint was all they needed to do to keep their boats well maintained. There are several at the bottom of the lake.

 

[Mad Mike]

Neighbors got back in to check on our place in Ft. Myers. OUCH, worse than I thought.


Old pool



My pool got bigger.


Old view - pond front.

New View - Ocean front!