CARVER OWNERS CLUB
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December 2008

Headlines - Click on a Headline to see the Story

There are some additional categories of fun photos on the website.  One of the categories is called Signs.  The water moccasin breeding ground sign from Virginia is one of my favorites.  Another category is Boats.  These are unusual boats seen in different waterways.  All military type boats gave permission for the photos to be taken and published. 

If you would like to add your fun photos to our gallery, email them to me and I'll put them up.

Patsy and I had the opportunity to cruise a bit in Canada this summer on a friend's boat.  We stayed in Ontario, which is not to say that Ontario and Canada are the same.  Everyone talks about how clear the Canadian waters are.  Part of the reason for such clear water is that the Canadians are fanatical about recycling and living green.  The garbage or trash has to be sorted into very specific categories before it can be properly disposed.  We never could understand proper sorting, so we just brought our garbage home with us and disposed of it in New York.  We did briefly think about dropping the garbage into a neighbor's trash, so that their pickup would be skipped for the next two weeks, but cooler heads prevailed.

One funny story we heard was about the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) water patrol that took off the bottom of its boat while zooming along in, apparently, unfamiliar water.  The water on the lake where we were went from 1 foot to 80 feet (sorry, 0.3 meters to 25 meters) in very short distances.  So the OPP officers were standing in ankle deep water, but could not walk to shore.  A member's son saw the incident and did nothing.  When asked why he did nothing, he replied, "I'd had a few beers.  I didn't want to take a boat out to rescue them and have them cite me for drunken boating."  Cops are the same everywhere in the world.

Maintenance Tip

One of the best ways to cut the cost of owning and operating a boat is finding good mechanics.  Not much worse than having a bad mechanic waste your time and/or money by not correctly fixing your boat.  Most boaters don't expect perfection, but they do expect that the mechanic will make it right, at no additional cost.  One sign of a good mechanic is that he/she can give a estimate and stick to it.  There is not much worse than someone who cannot or will not give good estimates for costs and when the work will be done.

Here are two mechanics who recently impressed me.  If you contact them, let them know that I said hello.  The first is a Detroit Diesel mechanic named Jim Stitz.  You can reach him at 443-791-9399 or by email at stitz257@comcast.net.  Jim worked for Detroit Diesel for some time.

The second mechanic is a marine electrician in Daytona Beach, FL, Capt. Patrick Adsit.  You can reach him at 386-451-1224 or email marineservices@pobox.com.  I've used him a couple of times and all I can say is that he is honest, reliable, and understanding.  He could have saved me a few hundred dollars if I had called him first.

Bad Mechanics

Several members called or emailed me with several reports about how boatyards are gouging boaters in these tough economic times.  There appears to be almost no recourse to boaters because the cheating is so hard to prove.  Here are a few examples:

1. A boater was charged for three additional quarts of oil during an oil change.  When he showed the boatyard the bill, along with last year's charge for the same work, showing one quart less per engine, he was told that "they just took more this year."
2. Another boater asked for fairly simple maintenance work, usually done by one mechanic in less than an hour (but always charged for a full hour).  This year, the yard sent two mechanics, who stayed for slightly more than an hour.  It was not clear what the second mechanic was doing, but apparently he was responsible for keeping the first guy entertained. The result was a FOUR hour charge (2 hours per mechanic) rather than a 1 hour charge.  The boater is livid - the yard says that it took more work this year.  The boater said that the second mechanic did nothing related to work, but did manage to make several cell phone calls.
3. Shop work frequently requires miscellaneous supplies that are not directly charged, such as rags, tape, and so on.  A member reported that the yard started adding two to three times the expected supplies charge, including a $20 bottle of cleaning solution that sold in the yard's store for less than $10.  The member also just happened to have that particular cleaner on board, but was told that the mechanics had to use their own.  When asked about the extreme markup, the yard said that the mechanic's time was important, too.  When the member mentioned that the mechanic's time was already being charged to him, the yard had no reply, but no discount either.
4. A boater got the cost for diesel fuel, went to the marina to buy, and was quoted a price that was more than a dollar higher than the original cost.  The explanation, the original quoted price was for more than 1000 gallons. 

Times are tough for everybody, but cheating to try to stay afloat is not the right way to make money.  Boaters have long memories and talk among themselves.

The Club has several events scheduled or in the planning stages.  Here's what we have so far:

Saturday Night Out, April 18, 2009, Harbour House Restaurant, Chestertown, MD 21690.  This is one of the favorite events of the year.  Chef Bob promises a wonderful menu, even though the restaurant doesn't officially open until May.  Tea promises to be with us.  This is always a great time.

Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous, June 5, 6, and 7, TBD.  The boutique rendezvous provide a much more intimate experience and the ability to explore new places without overwhelming them.  We are still looking for an interesting place to hold the rendezvous, possibly somewhere near Annapolis.  Send your suggestions to events@carverownersclub.com

Sears, the retailing giant, voluntarily pays the difference in salaries and maintains all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.  By law, they are only required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more.  Maybe we could find at least one gift to buy at Sears this year in support of their outstanding treatment of military families.