Houseboating Adventures - Issue 18 - (Page 14)

The Yanmar and Westerbeke diesel powerplants can use bio-diesel in its unaltered form. Vegetable oil fuels must be modified and used only in combustion-ignition engines. This makes bio-diesel one of the easiest alternative fuels to use. excitement we have had, the most recent experience this past August wins the prize. We were 50 miles up lake from Antelope Point Marina and on the morning of our last day we let go and got underway at about 9 AM. Thunderstorms were predicted on NOAA radio, but they are predicted every day in August. The weather had been perfect for a week, hot and sultry. About 30 minutes underway, and coming around a wide bend I could see that 20 miles off the sky was just black and the black part was wide. I've seen this before. We discussed turning back to use our anchor holes again but I was also concerned we might get pinned down for the rest of the day. The time problem stemmed from having a flight to catch out of Page the next day and we needed to be in the marina later that afternoon. I decided to proceed down lake rather than beach, and for an hour, we headed on a collision course with this super cell. I kept Desert Ritual in the middle of the widest part of the lake I could get to before the storm hit us. Winds to 60 miles per hour, lightning, and rain so hard we had white out conditions for nearly 30 minutes. Even with our lookouts posted we could not see any landmarks for some time and I simply kept her headed up mostly into the wind just hoping we did not get hit by lightning, or hit by another boat coming out of the white. A blow like that can push up waves to five and six feet and it did, but only briefly. We just held on like that until some visibility returned and then we went up top to inspect for damage. Everything that was tied down and bolted down was still there. We continued on our way as the storm blew past us. The wind was strong and cold but we could finally see where we were going. HBA: You keep your boat at Antelope Point. How many months of the year is it in the water? )6B@" A05("%C&5AB9&@ SH: We keep our boat on blocks at Unlimited Houseboats Services until mid-June. Then we simply contact Dave Taylor of UHS and he puts it in a slip in the marina. The service is fantastic and at the end of the day, it makes more sense for people like us who live so far away. HBA: How is it removed from the lake for storage and just how complicated is it? SH: When Desert Ritual is not being used, she gets hauled out. Dave's guys use a semi and a custom trailer. They back the whole rig down a long narrow ramp that's been dynamited out of solid sandstone. The houseboat gets driven onto the trailer just like you would do your ski boat. It's really cool. I did it once with another houseboat I had and I never want to do it again. The local police have to come and provide lead and chase cars for safety as they travel the 10 miles overland to the storage yard. HBA: How do the costs to get it out compare to putting it back in the water for the season? SH: It's about half the money for me to pay UHS to launch and retrieve the boat three times and pay Dave a storage charge for 9 months than it would be to leave it in the marina and pay the slip fees. If the day ever comes when I have more time for houseboating, I will rethink all this. But for now I'll hold on to the $22,000 slip deposit. HBA: Stan, besides being an avid boater you are also uniquely connected to the houseboat industry insuring many houseboats across the country. When did you get into the business? SH: I opened the doors of American Marine Insurance in 1988. In the early days we would write coverage for anything that floated and we wrote insurance everywhere.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Houseboating Adventures - Issue 18

Houseboating Adventures - Issue 18 Editor's Desk Desert Ritual River Dream Boatel 2007 Top Houseboating Accessories 2007 Impact Design of the Year 2007 Comeback Company of the Year Florida A-Z The Perfect Florida Houseboat Under Thirty Feet? Adventure Guide

Houseboating Adventures - Issue 18

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