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Great Question

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Ollon
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Great Question

Post by Ollon » Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:31 am

So I decided to follow Bill Baldwins advice and have my 14 year old daughter Bailey drive the woody last weekend in hopes of her wanting to shun the Sea Doo for a life in wooden boating. We had a great time and she loved driving "the old boat". Another plus was being able to relax in the back seat with my wife and enjoy a glass of wine while someone else chauffeured us around the lake. Then she asked me why all the boats have the steering wheel on the wrong side. I really had no answer for that one. We had a boat once that had the wheel on the left but I have no idea why. Can anyone chime in on this? Bailey needs answers.
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mbigpops
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Re: Great Question

Post by mbigpops » Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:56 am

A standard marine, right-hand torqued engine would see the driver adding his weight to the starboard side, to offset the thrust from starboard.
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Doug P
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Re: Great Question

Post by Doug P » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:39 pm

OK. I'll be the JERK and state...you let a 14 year old drive while you sat in the stern drinking.

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Re: Great Question

Post by farupp » Tue Oct 14, 2014 1:15 pm

Sounds like a GOOD plan to me!
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mfine
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Re: Great Question

Post by mfine » Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:02 pm

Doug P wrote:OK. I'll be the JERK and state...you let a 14 year old drive while you sat in the stern drinking.
Yeah, why wait until 14? In NY you can get your boating license at 10 and if your parents are on board I think a toddler can drive.

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Re: Great Question

Post by Peter M Jardine » Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:13 pm

deleted.
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Re: Great Question

Post by jim g » Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:43 pm

Peter,

Here in Georgia. A 14 year old can take a class and test by the state DNR and drive a boat with 35 hp or less by himself anywhere on the lake. But this same test will also allow the 14 year old to operate any PWC by himself with no supervision. So my question to the DNR agent was which is more dangerous a 14 year old in his 1939 15 1/2' chris craft with a model B engine {60 hp} that goes maybe 30 mph or on a jet ski that can go as fast as 70 mph.

As far as the steering wheel moving from the left to the right. If I remember correctly it had to with seeing the colors of the bow light.

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tkhersom
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Re: Great Question

Post by tkhersom » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:26 am

I don't think we have boat licenses in Maine? :?

I started running boats at 3, and remember countless hours all over a 13 mile lake in a 10 HP Gamefisher at 10 years old. Gone for hours at a time.

Not all boats steer from the starboard.
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Re: Great Question

Post by RRGadow » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:41 am

My 12 year old drives our 33 footer and our 15 footer.....and usually I have a beer or glass of wine in my hand, isn't that what we use boats for....some relaxation :D

As for the original question mbigprops answered that.
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mfine
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Re: Great Question

Post by mfine » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:26 am

I love how the laws vary state by state. In NY, after taking the class, anyone 10 or older can operate a boat up to 59-1/2' unsupervised. No hp limitations. Once they turn 14 they can operate a PWC.

The weight of a driver (no passengers) offsetting the prop torque is the answer to the original question but there are exceptions.

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tkhersom
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Re: Great Question

Post by tkhersom » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:41 am

mfine wrote:The weight of a driver (no passengers) offsetting the prop torque is the answer to the original question but there are exceptions.
Ya like a Jet Drive! Should be a center steering wheel. Try doing that and see how many points you get for originality. :shock:
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Life Is Too Short To Own An Ugly Boat

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maritimeclassics
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Re: Great Question

Post by maritimeclassics » Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:03 am

It has to do with production, there was a couple of reasons for the change. Early on Chris Craft and other large boat manufactures could only buy 2 or 3 different steering gears or columns. There applications were for tractors and trucks that is why they are automotive steering gear and not built special for boats. Through the 20's and early 30's you saw the steering mostly on the port side and then it changed to the starboard side. When the steering was on the port side your steering gear arm was next to the hull and the steering rod had to be bent in 3 places and jump over the port stringer to meet up to the rudder arm. More time consuming having to bend each rod 3 times and because of the jump over the stringer you needed to raise the floor up in the aft cockpit to go over the floor timber that was on top of the stringer. I had thought that you could just put a port steering coulomb on the opposite side but found out the hard way that the boat would turn backwards. Sometime in the 30's it changed where the steering manufactures changed the gearing in the column to accommodate steering on the other side. Now the boat companies only had to bend the rod once and they did not have to jump over the stringer. They now could build a boat with much less free board and in Chris Craft you started to see the design change.
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mfine
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Re: Great Question

Post by mfine » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:58 pm

tkhersom wrote:Try doing that and see how many points you get for originality. :shock:
I am pretty sure a good judge could already find 99 points to deduct. Perhaps I should do a little work this winter and then bring squirt to the ACBS international next year to see if I can get the first 0 point boat award. :mrgreen:

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tkhersom
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Re: Great Question

Post by tkhersom » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:58 pm

mfine wrote:
tkhersom wrote:Try doing that and see how many points you get for originality. :shock:
I am pretty sure a good judge could already find 99 points to deduct. Perhaps I should do a little work this winter and then bring squirt to the ACBS international next year to see if I can get the first 0 point boat award. :mrgreen:
Bet you would still win the "Wood Jet Boat" category! :mrgreen: :D :mrgreen:
Troy in ANE - Former President CCABC

1957 CC 21' Continental "Yorktown" (Mom's boat)
https://www.chris-craft.org/boats/22625/
1985 Formula 242LS "Gottago"
1991 Formula 36PC "Band Aids"

Life Is Too Short To Own An Ugly Boat

Peter M Jardine
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Re: Great Question

Post by Peter M Jardine » Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:19 pm

deleted. no point.
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Ollon
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Re: Great Question

Post by Ollon » Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:52 pm

Thanks for the responses. The boat we had with the steering to port was a cable system so that makes sense now. I see a future Physics extra credit project for Bailey. I didn't mean to cause a brouhaha over the wine. I appeciate the supportive comments as well as the jerk one and guess I could set a better example although sipping a glass of wine is a far cry from pounding cocktails in the stern and perfectly legal in California. There are no open container laws on vessels in this state.
I remember taking the Young Boatmans Safety Course in N.Y. at the age of 10 and getting my license. My friends and I were all over the Great South Bay and none of us ever had a citation or an accident. It was commonplace for any of us to be at the helms of our parents boats while they entertained their guests. I was even entrusted with taking our 36 foot Egg Harbor to the gas dock by myself for refills at an early age and by high school I was ferrying it out to Fire Island on weekends.
I guess my point is that everyone has different things they can or cannot do depending on the laws of the land they live under as well as those of the roof they live under. I also remember riding in the back of the station wagon without a seatbelt, riding my bike like Evel Knievel without a helmet, and even climbing trees yet somehow I managed to last this long.

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tkhersom
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Re: Great Question

Post by tkhersom » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:41 pm

If you look closely there is a glass of red wine just under the GPS in the previous picture I posted. :D

Hope the local warden does not read this forum or he may be on my case next year. :cry:
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1957 CC 21' Continental "Yorktown" (Mom's boat)
https://www.chris-craft.org/boats/22625/
1985 Formula 242LS "Gottago"
1991 Formula 36PC "Band Aids"

Life Is Too Short To Own An Ugly Boat

Ollon
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Re: Great Question

Post by Ollon » Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:18 pm

You are definitely a man who knows how to enjoy the "fruits" of his labor. What you have done with American Beauty is amazing and she truly lives up to her name. Cheers
Ollon

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tkhersom
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Re: Great Question

Post by tkhersom » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:08 pm

Ollon wrote:You are definitely a man who knows how to enjoy the "fruits" of his labor. What you have done with American Beauty is amazing and she truly lives up to her name. Cheers
Ollon
WOW! Thank You for those very kind words.

Sandi and I really do enjoy AB and there is still plenty more to be done to get here where we would like to see her, but we will use her along the way because that is what boats were made for. :D
Troy in ANE - Former President CCABC

1957 CC 21' Continental "Yorktown" (Mom's boat)
https://www.chris-craft.org/boats/22625/
1985 Formula 242LS "Gottago"
1991 Formula 36PC "Band Aids"

Life Is Too Short To Own An Ugly Boat

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