www.iFourWinns.com

My Seventeen year old son got his boat license a few weeks ago. So now at the end of the weekend he has claimed the job of driving the boat around to the boat ramp. He is very responsible and trustworthy but I still fuss a little, I think it is just a Dad thing. Any way here is a pic of him having a good time.

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Ardy
Adelaide South Australia
Red H180 3.0 Merc

Get him trained and comfortable...it will be ok.

Trust me, I get nervous with my wife when she loads it on the trailer. Our routine is She drives me up to the dock and I just jump off to go retrieve the truck. I back it down the ramp and she loads it on. The thing is if there is a long line at the ramp, she goes out of the no wake zone, opens the exhaust and does laps in the damn thing.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I don't think it's a dad thing, I think it's a "I waited way too long, and went through too much trouble to get this boat" thing.

I only get nervous as my wife is going in reverse towards rocks It only happened once and she drives way more than I do now.

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX

HAHAHAHA!!!! Too Funny.

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Todd
1988 Four Winns Horizon 200
AKA "Summer School"

I agree, I get nervous even when the admiral drives..... good thing she doenst want to drive very often, but now the kids are starting to ask if they can drive....

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Jeff

'14 Cruisers 380 Express "Simon Sez"
Merc 8.2 Mag MPI 380
DTS B3X, (x2) Axius Premier


(SOLD)
'08 V318
Merc 350 Mag MPI 300
DTS Seacore, B3 (x2)

Great job letting him have a run Ardy.

I was 10 when my parents started letting me run the 14' aluminum with a 9.9 hp and around 12 when I was allowed to run all the other boats. We had to pass Dad's strict test first, docking in the wind, etc.

With a cottage on an island all us kids grew up in boats. Mom would send us to the marina every day for newspapers and groceries. Great freedom and probably the reason I still love boats!

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2008 H210SS Yellow VP 5.7 GXi 320 HP (sold May 2010)
2008 Mercedes ML 320 CDI Diesel

He is quite good at docking , so no problems there. It is interesting that he wasn't interested in the whole boat license thing until we got the flash new boat??? But hey he is having a great time

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Ardy
Adelaide South Australia
Red H180 3.0 Merc

I say the sooner the better. My 6yr old starts & drives the boat once were out in an open part of the lake. I want him to feel comfortable with it and not treat it like a novelty.

Have your son watch out for those black dots!!!!!!

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H210SS 6.2
F150 Platinum

If he can dock, he has a HUGE part of boating figured out. I see so many people struggle at docks, mainly because they just dont slow down and really think about what they are doing.

I didnt realize you had to get a license to drive a boat down there. Wow. If they had that requirement here, their would probably be less knuckleheads out on the water, haha.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I am getting nervous about teaching the wife to drive the boat this year. She keeps asking me to let her drive, but we have so many shollow spots around here and if your not careful about where you go it could be bad. Also I know she wouldn't pay attention to the temp gauge and depth gauge. Not sure if my boat has a temp alarm or not. Last year I cought the temp shooting up after leaving a very weedy bay we had parked in to get lunch, but never got an alarm. Had to stop and clear the intake of weeds we had sucked up. Pretty sure she would not have cought it until to late.

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1998 Baja Boss 252 7.4L MPI Bravo 1 (SOLD)
2007 FW H200SS 5.0GXI (Sold)
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 Crew 6.0L (tow vehicle)
1991 FW 170 Freedom 4.3L (SOLD)

Supposedly our boats have a high temp alarm...but I am not sure what temp it comes on at. You can set your depth finder to give a shallow water alarm, but I have found it to be annoying as heck. The damn thing goes off when we are loading/unloading the boat so we disabled it. We both watch it real close though...even she watches it when I am driving. Our lake (or the areas we go to) is deep enough that we dont have to worry much, but there are some under water trees that are a concern. We both know where they are and do a good job of just taking it easy in those areas.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

Ardy

Do you have to do a course or a practical test for the licence? Do you personally have to have a licence?
Here in Canada everybody needs to have a licence come Sept 2009 in order to operate a pleasure craft and there are restrictions on age vs horsepower. I took a three hour course before I even owned a boat, wrote a test and they gave me a licence. I thought it was wrong but didn't complain. I wish they forced us to have a practical test and that was qualified for different sizes.... would keep idiots from getting monster boats and not knowing how to operate.

Here's a brief description of our situation

http://www.boaterexam.com/canada/boatingLicense.aspx

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

At age 12: I had a 13'4" Boston Whaler with a 40hp Evenrude on the back. Needless to say we clocked it at 43 on the water. When I was 16 my friends and I would ski at the local lakes during the summer weeks.

My dad always trusted us and let us run the boat at extremely young ages, and I think that it was great that he did, it removes all fear of the water and teaches you how to react to other boats.



Good to see younger boaters out on the water.

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Rob

Present: 1999 Formula 280SS
Past: 1989 180 Horizon

http://www.robcamerondesign.com

Here in Oz you can get a permit which has restrictions as to maximum speed of the boat at 12 and a full boat license at 16. The full boat license is a written exam only. As for idiots driving boats they are found world wide you just have to watch out for them unfortunately.

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Ardy
Adelaide South Australia
Red H180 3.0 Merc

A great rite of passage... way to go, Ardy!

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic