Before the First Passenger Steps Aboard The dock is a different place in the morning. Before the tourists arrive, before somebody starts asking where they should sit, and before the first phone comes...

The Number on the Capacity Plate Isn't the Whole Story It usually starts with the cooler. Then somebody brings another one because the first one is for drinks and the second one is for food. There are...

You can tell a lot about a boat before it leaves the dock, but you have to watch people getting ready rather than looking at the boat itself. Someone is carrying a cooler toward the stern, another...

The first argument usually starts before the boat leaves the dock. It isn't really an argument, of course. Nobody is upset. One person wants to sit in the shade, another wants the front because they...

The First Few Trips After Leaving the Lake The first thing most freshwater boaters notice when they take their boat into saltwater is not the tide or even the waves. It is the salt. After the first...

The first thing most freshwater boaters notice when they take their boat into saltwater is not the tide or even the waves. It is the salt. After the first trip, you can find it on places you never...

Fishing From a Pontoon Is a Different Kind of Fishing Fishing from a pontoon is not quite the same as fishing from a small boat, and you usually notice the difference before the first fish is caught...

There is a part of boating that doesn't show up in many photographs. The boat has already come back to the dock, the engine is off, everyone has gone home, and the owner is still standing there with a...

When the Standard Layout Doesn't Quite Fit the Owner One of the first things you learn around a boat shop is that customers don't always walk in knowing exactly what they want. They might have a...

There is a difference between having six friends on your boat and having six paying passengers on the same boat. At first glance, it might not look like much of a difference. The boat is the same. The...

The morning had been almost too calm. The water inside the bay was smooth, the kind of water that makes you forget you're even on a boat sometimes. People were sitting around talking, somebody was...

There is something almost funny about looking at a boat before everyone arrives. The seats are clean, the deck is open, and there is plenty of room to walk around. Nothing is in the way. You can look...

By the time the first group arrives at the dock, the day has usually been going for a while. The passengers don't see most of it. They see the boat sitting there, the water behind it, maybe a few...

There is a funny moment in a boat shop when a finished boat leaves. For months, maybe longer, it has been sitting there while people work on it. You know every corner of it. You remember when the...

"We'll be back by three." That's what somebody usually says before a family boat trip. Three hours sounds like plenty. Enough time to get out on the water, make a few stops, have something to eat, and...