Ergonomic Nautical Awareness With Nothing Left To Prove

[fishhuntadventure]

I received the Lowrance "Flat-rate Repair" replacement for my GPS this past week. I spent most of the day yesterday cutting and painting someone's living room - by this afternoon I needed a little down time. So I went out to the garage and sat in the boat. The Elite 5 in no way resembles the Fish Elite 640c it replaces so now the GPS unit does not match the Fish Mark 480 sonar that sits right next to it. And that bugs me. Alot.

The fact that the bases are completely different is an advantage, though, because now I can center the sonar and centralize the GPS towards the helm a little more. And that would force me to move the compass. I hate putting holes in my boat ESPECIALLY on the dash. After a few minutes fretting about making the new holes I realized that this could be an opportunity! One chance to rearrange the dash layout and everything in the boat,which has essentially been the same since 1993.

This got me thinking about other things, like the dry lockers I built into the boat which do double duty as seats, the 11 fishing rods and two nets laid over these same lockers with their reels cluttering footspace ahead of the two forward pedestal seats, the maze of wires and cables at the transom, and the two batteries positioned on the floor. When I rebuilt the transom in 2001 or 2002 I 'cleaned up' a lot of stuff, and years before that I ran a hard fuel line from the motor to a new six gallon gas tank placed under the closed bow which made a huge spatial difference. Now there is a backup on the floor forward of the seats as well because only one tank fits under the bow.

So I ran out and bought a half-dozen small plastic storagey things like my daughters use for all their "products" and such and organized the port side locker. Why didn't I do this years ago? Never again will I have to paw for a pair of pliers or the emergency 8oz. bottle of TCW-3.

About the time I grabbed a few small bungees to get the reels out of the feet space it hit me: I have fished this little Niagara like a 20-footer and I even go so far as to say that there probably isn't a better outfitted or more fishable 14-footer around. The boat fishes well and I have nothing left to prove. I have even fished Champlain every month of the year. However, even if I took the few hours it would take to clean stuff up and relocate things to make it ergonomically tenable again, I have become aware that it is just plain time for a bigger boat- one like the 19' starcaft project I have yet to start on....

This for me describes the difference between "one-foot-itis" and a practical, ergonomically aware desire for a bigger boat: when you realize you really can't do any more with the boat you have. Period. You can keep making it work, making it catch fish, but you simply can't do anything more unless you have the space to make it happen.

Thanks for asking. So how was your weekend?!

[Ludo]

I think you need to fish this week

[fishhuntadventure]

I think you need to fish this week

tell me about it!

[Ludo]

Once a year, I ask myself if it's time to change the boat.

I would be happy with a new one

But the time I spent to modify it like you did, I feel bad to sell it to another. Most modifications are like you, and the other are for my security.

[fishhuntadventure]

...I would be happy with a new one...But the time I spent to modify it like you did, I feel bad to sell it to another. Most modifications are like you, and the other are for my security.

I probably won't sell the Niagara even when I get the 19' into service. Too many years of familiarity and I can tow it easy with my little car.

But the drive for a big enough boat to have an adequate cold-weather enclosure and plenty of storage without stuff being in the way and cluttery is really coming to life lately.

The huge fish and amazing catch numbers I am hearing about in all the Ontario reports sure aren't helping!