Training your skipper

[rjack321]

Yes, I'm in the "Salish Sea" - the big swirly body of water between Olympia WA and Port Hardy BC. And yes we are the crew by and large. I just wish we were the skipper sometimes too, I have a ticket. My personal boat isn't big enough to support more than 3 tech divers, and its too small a visual/radar target for the big dives in shipping lanes.

I have a grapple. I picked it up for a song at Boater's World when they went belly up. Its AL and only 12lbs so I strapped an extra 10lbs of lead onto it. Its nice cause the tines unbend instead of snap off. We don't use it that much, maybe 2-3x year. The shot line gets used maybe 4x year. The rest of our deco diving is done on walls or rarely from shore.

Most of our deco is done on AL40s so its fairly straightforward for safety divers to use a single 119 or 130 or small doubles of EAN32 (120s being uncommon here) and meet us at 70ft. Then report in to the skipper and drop back down to check on us at 20ft. I have never seen a boat here with surface supplied O2 or hang bar kinda stuff. We commonly need to bring extra O2 to feel like we got our butts covered if there were a major hit. In addition to a DAN kit, I have a steel 72 rigged as a stage. We are looking at getting a FFM for that - just in case.

Thanks for the reminder, we should get our own AED. Seems like they aren't as common as they should be.

 

[wedivebc]

Yes, I'm in the "Salish Sea" - the big swirly body of water between Olympia WA and Port Hardy BC.

Please don't call that area Salish Sea. I have sailed the Georgia Straights and Juan De Fuca all my adult life and that name is just another token to appease aboriginal demand for more recognition. I hate changing landmark names in the interest of PC.

 

[rjack321]

Please don't call that area Salish Sea. I have sailed the Georgia Straights and Juan De Fuca all my adult life and that name is just another token to appease aboriginal demand for more recognition. I hate changing landmark names in the interest of PC.

Maybe up there its the latest PC craze. Down here it really has no such connotations. IIRC it was coined by some white guy in Bellingham maybe 15yrs ago. Personally I like the Decatur, Bainbridge, Juan de Fuca, Stuart, Lopez, etc. names regardless of their Euro-whiteness. I don't have any idea where "Comox" came from, although I have a pretty good hunch where Squamish originated

 

[deepstops]

Please don't call that area Salish Sea. I have sailed the Georgia Straights and Juan De Fuca all my adult life and that name is just another token to appease aboriginal demand for more recognition. I hate changing landmark names in the interest of PC.

While we're at it, can we refer to the hook using its correct nautical term "grapnel", not "grapple"?

 

[aue-mike]

I have spent waaaay too much time trying to educate waaay too many paper captains that populate Florida. In many cases, once we got them up to speed, the business folded or the captain moved on; finding a proper dive boat captain (for tech dives) has been frustrating. We found more luck working with charter fishing captains, as they typically have a better grasp of basic seamanship and dealing with currents. We make it stupid simple for them, as we bring our own shotline and clue them in on the basic rules such as never tying off to the shotline or polyball, what to do when an SMB comes up, provide copies of our tables so they know when to expect us, etc.
However, it got to the point where I ended up getting my own boat. I would recommend either outfitting your vessel to deal with the issues (add radar and highflyers) or upgrade to a larger ride. More money up front, but less frustration (in regards to diving BS) in the long-term.

 

[rjack321]

However, it got to the point where I ended up getting my own boat. I would recommend either outfitting your vessel to deal with the issues (add radar and highflyers) or upgrade to a larger ride. More money up front, but less frustration (in regards to diving BS) in the long-term.

I have mine own boat right now. I downsized from a 34ft trawler to a 15.5ft RIB. Not counting the maintenance time at the dock, the trawler was taking my whole vacation time to travel to and from a divesite (7.5 knots, yawn). I needed something smaller, speedier, and trailerable. I can do many of the less current/traffic intensive sites here with the RIB. But once it gets to the "big dives" where we want a safety diver and have alot of extra cylinders, or are in exposed places etc my current boat is maxed out. And with the current economic climate & scuba there are scant qualified charters left to fill the gap. I would like another "big boat" someday. But I got a house, compressor, etc that is in the way.

When you take your own boat offshore do you share in the tending and the diving? How do you divy the responsibilties up?

 

[aue-mike]

I have mine own boat right now. I downsized from a 34ft trawler to a 15.5ft RIB. Not counting the maintenance time at the dock, the trawler was taking my whole vacation time to travel to and from a divesite (7.5 knots, yawn). I needed something smaller, speedier, and trailerable. I can do many of the less current/traffic intensive sites here with the RIB. But once it gets to the "big dives" where we want a safety diver and have alot of extra cylinders, or are in exposed places etc my current boat is maxed out. And with the current economic climate & scuba there are scant qualified charters left to fill the gap. I would like another "big boat" someday. But I got a house, compressor, etc that is in the way.

When you take your own boat offshore do you share in the tending and the diving? How do you divy the responsibilties up?

Picking a boat is all about compromise and there are no "perfect" boats for all that you are likely to use it for.
I have a Parker 2510 WA, which I trailer all over Florida. While a "25-foot" boat, the engines are on an extended bracket (freeing up valuable cockpit space) and she is almost 30 foot LOA so about as much as I would want to tow.
Yes, we run half-up, half-down to deal with running the boat and having people topside; we then run a second evolution -- it makes for a longer day, but that's what it takes. On a few instances we have a diver willing to run the boat for the bulk of us on deeper dives, and then we hit something on the way back in so everyone gets some diving in.
Anyone doing these kinds of dives off private boats need to understand its not a charter, and basically everyone is part of a team that needs to participate towards a common goal. Meaning people should be interested and get experience running the boat and doing other tasks versus just diving.

 

[SFLDiver3445]

On a few instances we have a diver willing to run the boat for the bulk of us on deeper dives, and then we hit something on the way back in so everyone gets some diving in.
Anyone doing these kinds of dives off private boats need to understand its not a charter, and basically everyone is part of a team that needs to participate towards a common goal. Meaning people should be interested and get experience running the boat and doing other tasks versus just diving.

I agree Mike. I cant tell you how many times I've been out doing deeper dives on friend's private boats, where I've been more than happy to take one for the team by driving the boat, dropping them up current ahead of the wreck, sitting around watching the clock and waiting for smb's, then following the smb's and playing interference for any oncoming boats until the divers hit the surface, and finally helping them all get their bottles and themselves onto the boat when I pick them up.

Next dive/trip, someone else volunteers and we all eventually benefit from the team effort!

Adrian