Got some more work done on the boat.  All that is left that is holding up going in the water is changing out the bellows and gimbal bearing and installing the drive.   Well that, and the huge mess that needs to be cleaned up from the soda blasting of another boat in the marina.

This blasting company had the audacity of blaming the mess on their customer.  They claim that a part on the machine broke and their customer said the job has to be done.  First off I don’t care who the customer is, if I am a business owner and it is between pissing off a customer and creating a health and environmental issue as well as causing damage to other boats in the thousands I think I would stop work and deal with the unhappy customer rather than keep going and have a dozen unhappy people.

Anyway, the blasting company did finally stop by yesterday and said they would clean and polish the boats and would get the stains out.  I don’t have that much faith in them after seeing the work they have already done.  This mess has also already delayed our going in the water by two weeks and now the blasting company claims they  have another job next week they can’t put off.  I think I am going to have to insist they have it done or I will have it done and give them the bill.  I refuse to be put out by people with sub-standard work ethics and will not own up to their screw ups.  It took them three weeks to acknowledge the fact that they caused this mess and to return my calls.  And that is a whole other issue, this should be the marina’s problem not mine.  They seem to want to sit on the sidelines and not get involved.

Enough of ranting, I did get the conduit for the inverter installed and the deck hatch back in place and sealed.  I also cleaned and painted the transducers, installed zincs on the trim tabs and touched up the paint around the transom assembly.  Hopefully after next weekend I can go in the water…we will see.

NEVER!  Although it was a very uneventful weekend boating and fishing wise for me, I did squeak a little time in for my favorite pastime.  I had a work project that ran most of the weekend and yesterday so I did not get a chance to go down to the marina but then again work is work in today’s economy.

I did run over to the Edison Boat Show for an hour or so with a few friends.  It seemed more crowded and it also seemed that there were more boats than the AC Show.  There were also a lot of sold signs on the boats, not sure if it was truthful or marketing ploys.

I hope to on Thursday after work run down and pickup my wheels and on the way back some anti-fouling paint for the outdrive and transom assembly.  Then this weekend I should be able to get my deck sealed up, the drive and transom assembly painted and the drive maintenance done.  Once the deck seal dries, she can be detailed and splashed…we should be on track for the first week of March if everything goes as planned.

Once considered the minority of the voting demographic slowly hunters, trappers, fishermen and outdoorsmen are becoming the majority in NJ.  Anthony Mauro and the NJ Outdoor Alliance has a big hand in this transformation.  This was evident back during the Senatorial election defeating Sen. Karcher and Assemblyman Panter.  On the NJOA’s web site you can get information on all the hot legislative topics affecting outdoorsmen and women, which politicians are with or against us, find out where the NJOA will be next and purchase merchandise or donate to the NJOA to help protect our rights as outdoorsmen and women.

To receive all the latest information and news on what this great organization is doing, what the politicians and environmentalist are trying to slip past us and where they will be sign up for the NJOA Action Alerts.

Had a busy day today at the marina.  Tommy, Mark, Wayne, Mike, Chris, Eddie and Danny were down either working on their boats or checking in on them.  This weekend’s work was drilling a bunch of holes in the side of the hull and bulkheads for through hulls and electrical conduit.  Two new through hulls for the new bilge pump and fish box macerator as well as drilled and dry fit the conduit for my inverter project.

The wheels were delivered to the prop shop today, so hopefully they will be done and back by the end of the month.

All I really need to get done before going back in is to drill the last through hull for new foreword bilge pump, install the conduit for the inverter, seal my deck hatch and have Mark and Mike walk me through the bellows and gimbal bearing replacement.  Everything else on my list can be done while in the water.

I was hoping to just uncover her and wash her prior to launch but that has been complicated by staining from a soda blasting company that should not be allowed to work in the manner they do.  They did not really erect a tent, the blasting media and the bottom paint was not contained and ended up covering a very large portion of the marina as well as half a dozen or more boats.  Not to mention this was performed not even 10′ from the water’s edge let alone outside the 100′ buffer zone.  I tried to wash off the dust and dirt but after the surface mess was removed it revealed heavy staining that will need to be compounded out.  The owner of the boat that was blasted did not seam to care too much about the damage and mess caused by the labor that he hired.  I am not 100% sure right now how I will proceed but I don’t feel I should have to detail the boat myself or foot the bill to have someone else do it.  Prior to covering I washed and polished the hull sides…so I would not have to do it prior to launch.  She was also compounded in spring of 2008 so there should be no need to do it again in 2009.

I just finished updating all the old posts.  All the content from my old blog is now here and searchable.  I still have to finish, more like start importing all the old pictures and inserting them into the corresponding posts but at least the import stuff is here.

I got to the marina early to try and get some work done before we headed down to the boat show.  Apparently this soda blasting company had other plans for me.  I have never seen a blasting company setup such a large tent and then not contain the dust and debris that was blasted off the boat.  They were inconvenienced by me working on my own boat since I would not let them use MY swim platform as a workbench or portions of MY boat to tape down the tent for the boat they were working on.  Then while I was in the boat they moved my ladder and I then had no way to get down from the boat.  At this point I was pretty mad and by the way they were setting up I figured it was best to leave and not be present while they were working.

When we returned from the show the mess was appalling.   I am going to have a talk with the marina owners over it.  Despite my boat being completely covered there is a coating of bicarbonate and bottom paint on everything.  Not to mention the piles of it all over the yard.  I can’t imagine how these guys stay in business the way they work.

After leaving the marina we headed over to checkout the new West Marine Superstore on the way to the Parkway.  The new store is huge!  It is well stocked, at least now if you are working on the boat and need a part, unless it is an engine part they should have it in stock.  I hate patronizing the big box stores but on a Sunday afternoon there are not too many places to get parts these days.  The bridge like electronics display is pretty impressive, they also have a sound proof audio booth for testing out stereos, speakers and amps, a huge fishing section with tackle from back bay to offshore, a much bigger selection of wire, connectors, fuses and circuit breakers that will come in handy and pretty much every other department has been super-sized.

 We had heard that on Friday the boat show was very light in attendance and everyone we know that went was able to park in the convention center lot…big mistake.  It was closed and we hit tons of traffic getting to it and away from it.  So we made our way over to Bally’s to realize my is too tall to park there so around the block through the traffic and back to the Clarridge.  It was like driving through mid-town Manhattan at rush hour.

As rumored there were none of the bigger boats due to restrictions on the bridge, wires and the marina that was used in the past being closed.  With the limitation of being trailered in the largest that I saw was the 36 Bertram and the Cabo (not sure if it was the 35 or 36).

We did look at several of the outboard powered pilothouse style and express boats.  The new Parker is a beast, the cockpit is enormous but trying to fight a fish that takes you  around the transom would be impossible with those huge 350′s on the back.  I don’t think you would be able to swing a line around them with a 7′ rod.  The rocket launcher on the roof of the pilothouse I think Shaq would have a hard time reaching, standing on the gunwale would give you access to end two or three but after that you would need a ladder or have to stand on the livewell to reach them.

The Everglades was impressive as well.  The windows on the bridge are huge. 

The most impressive as far as interior space as well as layout was the 34 Whaler.  The cockpit was not the size of the Parker but large enough four to five anglers.  The Verado’s are much more compact than the Yamaha 350′s so fishing around them is quite a bit easier but still not my cup of tea.  The bridge was roomy but down below is where they have the competition beat.  The wasn’t another boat in the 34-36′ range that had the interior space of the Whaler.  The stairs leading down could be a bit tricking in snotty conditions.  My biggest concern with this rig would be the attitude at which she runs loaded.  If she tends to run bow high like a Henriques then visibility will probably be an issue.  But if that were fine and her handling good, this would be at the top of my list for a mid thirties outboard powered fishing boat.

The accessories section was not bad, a few vendors/manufacturers that I would have liked to have visited were not there.  I renewed my Sea\\Tow membership with Capt. Sean, got a warm welcome and gift bag from Michelle and was able to meet Capt. Kermit form Sea\\Tow Manasquan…hopefully the boat shows are the only times I run into Capt. Kermit.

There was a booth for ShamWow but Vince was no where to be found.  I am not sure if this was actually the real product or not.  It seemed like a knock-off to me.

I was hoping to maybe find a great deal on a auto Garmin GPS unit, I remember seeing them last year but did not find a single one. 

There was a booth that had some very interesting LED lights.  There were spreader lights, drop lights and some were hard-wired and others were rechargeable.  They referred you to the Consumer’s Marine booth for purchase but I did not feel like fighting the crowd around the booth.  I am gong to get one of the spreader lights and give it a shot though, it seemed pretty bright at the show.

The guy with the soft-side coolers with the ice under halogen lamps was of course there.  I might just have to get a small one to try them out.  A couple of years ago they were next to us in the JCAA booth and it really is amazing how well they retain ice.

PlasTeak was helpful.  I am considering replacing my carpets with a synthetic decking.  I did not realize how expensive that product is though.  For them to make the mats would be upward of a $1,000 for a very small area.  I think I am going to have to measure better and do the math and see if it really does come out to that much and also compare the cost to the DIY materials they offer.

 SeaSuckers were there.  I got to talk to John about the issues with mine and he is going to replace them under warranty, I just need to ship him out the suction cups and the vacuum pumps.  Will have to get on that later today.

All-in-all it was a pretty good show.  I would have liked to drool over some larger boats that I can’t afford but I think they managed to pack in a good amount despite the issues they had of getting the larger boats in.

I have been an XM subscriber for many years. It seems since the merger the service has gone down hill and fast. I now have no signal in places I never had a problem before, the commercial free music now has rambling idiots which are just as bad as commercials and the customer service when you call in is terrible. If I wanted to listen to Carol Miller, Denis Elsas, Cane, Bodhi, Jim Kerr, Meg Griffin, Eddie Trunk or any of the other NY area DJ’s I can listen to them for free on FM. And god forbid having to listen to Dusty Street ramble about nothing, I would rather watch paint dry while removing my finger nails with a pair of pliers.

I am not sure what the powers at be were thinking when they allowed the merger of the two companies eliminating competition. There is no one to switch to now just the same bad service by another name.

To top it off they are jacking up the pricing now and removing services. I think at this point I am going to cancel my subscriptions and buy an HD radio that also has some sort of portable drive for digital audio.

I just can’t imagine that dwindling customer service, rising prices and offering less features will keep customers that were used to something they are no longer getting.  What are you experiences with either service?

We know something is coming, whether it be the already mandated Federal Registry (Jan. 1, 2010), state registry or state saltwater license.  Delaware put one in place for 2008 and NY has one in the works.  There are some bills in legislature already that hopefully don’t pass the way they are structured.  I am for a state license.  Why would we want to send money to the Federal Government to be put in the general fund and never used for fishing?  I think Tom’s white paper is excellent and brings up a lot of very important points for the structuring of a saltwater license in NJ.  While most of the angling community is against a license, I don’t see a way around it.  If it is well thought out it very well could make things a lot better in the future.  One thing it could benefit is the traveling angler, if you fish Delaware Bay, NJ waters and Raritan Bay if NJ structures the license properly it would be reciprocal or honored in each neighboring state so you would not be required to purchase three licenses.  Despite the corruption and political bias in NJ I think a saltwater license can be structured to help the recreational angler if enough of us get behind the process to ensure it is tailored to our specifications and not the to the politicians liking.

Take a read and I think if you are on the fence or against a license you may rethink your position.

Federal Registry White Paper by: Tom Fote