Is you spouse capable of driving your boat?

Can your Spouse drive the boat?

  • Yes - And can even dock it!

    Votes: 58 27.1%

  • Maybe, but not really comfortable driving.

    Votes: 115 53.7%

  • No - No interest, too scared.

    Votes: 37 17.3%

  • Where is the brake pedal?

    Votes: 4 1.9%
  • Total voters
    214
osd9 said:
When I sold my 1998 330DA, the buying couple were in their late 40's. The husband had no desire whatsoever to see the motors or the helm area. On sea trial day, she took the wheel. When they closed and came by to pick up the boat, she got behind the wheel and he got the lines. She did/does ALL the driving.
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Was the toilet seat left in the open position? :grin:
 
My wife only sets foot on the boat about 2 or 3 times a season. She doesn't have a clue, and would prefer to keep it that way.

My girlfriend, on the other hand…
 
My wife attended the boating class for women that the dealer offered. She did OK. A few times I needed her to drive the boat and she did OK for brief periods. But really, she just prefers to drive me crazy. I found that the less I ask her to do, the better it works out for us. When she handles the lines, she gets her fingers caught. When she brings up the anchor, she gets the chain caught in the capstan. It's easier, and there's less drama when I don't ask for help and don't accept it when offered. Since we have no children, I'm mostly single handling the boat.

Best regards,
Frank
 
My wife enjoys boating as much as I do, maybe more. She gladly takes the wheel and frequently goes out with her girl friends and her sister and leaves me home.

I can't imagine having a mate that isn't into boating as much as I am. Lots of times I am taking care of the lines or putting stuff away while she captains us around. The only thing she isn't fond of is pulling the achor up and who is?

I think some of you need new admirals. :smt043:smt043:smt043
 
My wife has been driving power boats longer than me... When she was a teenager her and her brothers would waterski on the TN river... I was sailing... like a real boater...

Of course I was showing her how to drive our brand new twin engine 380, she was not in the channel at the depth sounder went from 60 feet to 2 feet. I yelled to pull the throttles back and instead she took it out of gear at cruising speed. I yelled "NOT THE TRANSMISSIONS" so while the engines screamed up to 56,000 RPM, she put the transmissions back in gear.

Tomorrow's lesson will be on how to call Sea Tow and write checks.

She drives our 480 now all the time... and so do the 3 older kids... how else can you go take a pee while running for hours on end?

PS: If my wife finds this, I'm sure she'll post how I removed a piling on our dock the first time I brought the 480 DB home.
 
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Kim is one of those "no man can do anything better than me" types.

So when we were in the market for a new boat we were doing a demo on a Crownline. We were crusing down the Tennessee river @ about 45mph or so, Kim was at the helm & the young boat salesman looks at Kim & says to try not to get too overwhelmed by the boat as they have courses for women to learn how to properly handle a boat.

We'll I've been around her long enough to know that that statement was like waiving a red flag to a bull. Without even looking up I found something to hang on to & staring the salesman straight in the eye she hit the throttle & cranked the steering wheel as hard as she could never once taking her eyes off the salesman.

Lol.....the salesman about $hit his pants then made a comment to the effect that maybe not everyone needs the course. I still tease her about it.
 
My wife has become a consumate bow bunny, competent with lines in almost any situation but has very little/NO desire to drive the boat but will if I have to make a quick trip to the head.

Teach your son how to run the boat for several reasons. Safety being the obvious. Friendship being the other. I started running my family's boats when I was 13ish. It was my 'job' to help my father. Ultimately, he would go out for rides and I would do everything. With his most recent boat I have more hours on it than he does. The common bond of boating created a relationship with my father that I cherish.

Oh, and I think I would prefer Tim's son take the helm of my boat instead of my wife, he's good.
 
Our son has been able to pilot our boat (away from the dock) since he was 13 (he's 17 now). It has been great being able to sit back with my wife and watch the boat wake as we head home. Kinda like having a chauffer!:grin:

The problem now is that we've suddenly become "un-cool" and he spends less time on the boat than before. Something about a big slow boat isn't as fun as supercharged SeaDoos apparently!:huh:

Moral of the story... you may not want to count on your kids always being there to get you and your wife home if something happens to prevent you operating the boat!:smt009:smt009

My wife is VERY intimidated by other boats, their wakes, buoys, engine sounds, shifters, throttles... well you get the idea:smt100.
 
osd9 said:
When I sold my 1998 330DA, the buying couple were in their late 40's. The husband had no desire whatsoever to see the motors or the helm area. On sea trial day, she took the wheel. When they closed and came by to pick up the boat, she got behind the wheel and he got the lines. She did/does ALL the driving.
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Dom, that sounds exactly like the couple that bought my '95 330, the husband didn't even come to the survey.

My wife has been boating all her life and had many of her brother's hand me down boats as a teen. She had a 18' Lazer that topped out at 96MPH! She put the boat in the slip once last season and did better than I do sometimes.:huh:
 
I spent a lot of time letting my wife drive on calm days to let her get a feel for all elements of driving; crossing wakes, acceleration, planing and docking. We gradually increased now to full time driving sometimes. We pretty much take turns drinking alcohol. One of us drinks on Saturdays the other on Sundays the one not drinking obviously drives the boat. I found the best thing to do was not to ever yell at my wife while she was learning how to drive. She is excellent at monitoring the gauges, adjusting the trim or tabs as needed. She loves now to point out the idiots on the lake and yell at them as we go by. Like she could do something, seriously she is a 100#. As per docking, she is getting better she has an odd method of drifting in slowly and ,making me get off with a rope and me pull us in. It is pretty comical but who am I yell at her, she paid for half the boat.:huh:
 
My wife has no desire to learn how to drive our boat either. I ask her to take over in the harbor as I climb to the bow to remove the fenders, but she get very nervous when other boats are around. She constantly compares driving a boat to a car. She turns expecting exact tracking, and can't get her arms around the fact that boat reacts differently. She is always afraid of hitting other boats. She sometimes makes dramatic directional changes in the harbor. I usually try to have here just get the boat in/out of gear a few times each year. She know how to find our location on the GPS and how to call the coast guard, plus I have a sticker next to the radio with instructions.
 
Four Suns said:
PS: If my wife finds this, I'm sure she'll post how I removed a piling on our dock the first time I brought the 480 DB home.
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Gary I like your humility, so all of the Nah Sayers about you cannot be completely correct.

I am still practicing myself with certified captains when I get a chance, and my lady friend is also taking the MM woman's course. She fully understands the need to learn. But boy sometimes when I have to go whiz, I wish she was further along. So far I have been lucky and in the river when calm or on the ICW in no-wakes zones where all she had to do was steer straight, while I do the Whiz-head shuffle and back. I guess if the other urge for the moment comes up I will just end up constipated.

My brothers and I learned how to quickly become un-constipated as punishment for some mindless infraction as kids.

Make sure the bathroom is clear, put about four ounces of Epsom Salt into a glass with about four ounces of warm water, stir, not shaken, chug down, stay withing vicinity of bathroom. Insure before hand an adequate supply of paper is on hand. :smt043
 
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Every year when going for a ride I remind my girlfriend how to stop the boat in the event that did ever fall overboard. She lacks interest also which is too bad or maybe a good thing. I'm not a very patient teacher!
 
The admiral does not take the wheel. If she took the wheel, then she couldn't yell at me for banging into things.

Seriously. Much easier to place blame than take blame.

We have talked about her learning more. . .she has driven, knows basic rules of the road, and is very willing to drive towards the dock right up to the point that reversing engines is needed.

At that point, she usually gives me the sad puppy dog eyes and grabs my hand to place it on the wheel. And if I get close to banging into something she starts yelling at me. Like a good Admiral should.
 
Some of you may have seen this on another thread...in addition to my wife I have five (yes 5) daughters, ages 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23. My wife loves boating, the younger two are still forced to love boating and the older three have varying degrees of interest in boating. One of the very nice things about MarineMax is their Woman in Boating classes. All six of my boating women have taken the introductory and advanced classes with varying degrees of success. MM actually takes them on the water for a day with a licensed captsain, on an identical model boat to the one you own, and teaches them an awful lot during their time with the captain, at the dock, on the water and in docking situations. Each of them got to put the boat into a slip (again with varying degrees of success) 4 or 5 times during their lessons. As a result of this I think they KNOW how to run the boat and even dock it....but they rarely drive and never dock. My two youngest probably have sufficient confidence and skill to run the whole show with practice but I have to get over the exposure to my well being, as well as that of the boat, piles, obstructions and the general boating population before they'll get enough helm time for the practice. My wife was comfortable with driving the 320, nervous with the 40 and scared to death of this boat even though it's pretty much the same as the others controls wise and probably more stable. She doesn't even like sitting at the helm while on autopilot while I go down below to look the boat over while on plane or to pee. She doesn't mind driving at low idle up the river or even holding the boat on station while I pull up the anchor. I think she's just afraid of doing damage to a pretty big ticket asset. She does handle lines well, doesn't need directions during docking and is generally useful on the boat in most circumstances....maybe this summer I'll have to nudge her towards more driving.....just in case.
 
trebbel said:
Teach your son how to run the boat for several reasons. Safety being the obvious. Friendship being the other. I started running my family's boats when I was 13ish. It was my 'job' to help my father. Ultimately, he would go out for rides and I would do everything. With his most recent boat I have more hours on it than he does. The common bond of boating created a relationship with my father that I cherish.
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Great points Todd... I learned from my Dad who learned from his. Therefore, my kids are fourth generation Chesapeake Bay Boat Rats. Or in other words, sons of sons of sons of sailors!
trebbel said:
Oh, and I think I would prefer Tim's son take the helm of my boat instead of my wife, he's good.
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I will tell Jack you said that, he'll be thrilled (don't tell Lauren though)!
 
Four Suns said:
PS: If my wife finds this, I'm sure she'll post how I removed a piling on our dock the first time I brought the 480 DB home.
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Gary

Glad to see it happens to all of us. At the end of a long six hour run with the 40DA we got back to our marina with pretty nasty conditions prevailing, especially for docking. :smt089 I usually turn around and face the stern when backing into my slip and got the boat between the first two piles when the stern started to drfit towards the boat next to me. To this day I don't know why I did this, but I turned around and faced forward, disorienting my throttle/gear selector locations and insted of taking the transmissions out of reverse I pushed the throttles forward. The result was a snapped off 16" dia. pile and a swim platform rub rail and fiberglass insert that were completely destroyed. :smt009
Amazingly no one got hurt (other than my ego) and the swim patform itself was not damaged, which was good since the platform is integral on the 40. My wife said nothing negative to me that day, or for quite some time after, but I do hear about it occasionally now....learned a lot from that one.
 
If you guys ever call here and talk to Beth, thats my wife. She is an awesome skipper. The biggest boat I have seen her run is a 50 Viking MY which in my experience is the equivalent of a typical 70' boat. Its a big 3 story tall pig with absolutely no visibility.
 
comsnark said:
The admiral does not take the wheel. If she took the wheel, then she couldn't yell at me for banging into things.

Seriously. Much easier to place blame than take blame.

We have talked about her learning more. . .she has driven, knows basic rules of the road, and is very willing to drive towards the dock right up to the point that reversing engines is needed.

At that point, she usually gives me the sad puppy dog eyes and grabs my hand to place it on the wheel. And if I get close to banging into something she starts yelling at me. Like a good Admiral should.
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:lol: Good one. Maybe our wives went to admiral school together!
 
My wife is a corn fed raised farm girl from mid-Missouri. Needless to say she isn't afraid of too much, except the Sea Ray. She says it's too big! But I know her as soon as it hits the water she will want to drive it.

I also have a 20ft Alaskan riverboat with an Evinrude 250 with a jet. We like "skinny water" until she places some shiny spots on some rocks. We were going up this river (more like a creek) and it had a lot of hairpin curves in it. She wanted to drive, so I explained to her that as we were going up river any boat coming down river had the right-of-way! (Jet boat rules) About that time an airboat comes screaming down river, her eyes get real big and as we went by and hit the wake she turned the wheel hard! Well that put us into a spin and as I was hanging on the rail with my finger nails and we were suddenly facing down river! She looked at me and calmly asked: Like that?" :wow:

Gotta love her!
 
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