Have you ACTUALLY ever had to paddle your 'toon?

[curtiscapk]

Hey Jim!!!

How you doin??!!!

Glad you stopped in!

[tuned]

Sounds to me that perhaps some of you guys should check your state regulations for safety gear. Most states require a paddle on board, no matter how useless. I have a small telescoping one so I can stow it easily. I have yet to find a use for it although several here seem to have come up with some novel ideas

[curtiscapk]

Not MO......

[curtiscapk]

this is an old post but has a few of the states thoughts on oars.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1451&hilit=oars

[curtiscapk]

here's a ussg safety check guide also no mention of oars...

http://wow.uscgaux.info/content.php?uni ... fety-check

[rancherlee]

Minnesota requires an Oar/Paddle....... So I bought a pair of cheesy plastic take apart ones at a rummage sale for 2$, you know the ones that come with an inflatable row boat!
It's a 4 step process for me to break out the paddle.
1- Kill the Johnsuki
2- Kill the 9.9 Yami kicker
3- Kill all 3 batteries running the Minnkota PD55 for 3+ hours @ "setting 10"
4- break the paddle in half because rowing a pontoon is futile.

[lazyriver]

we have had to paddle ours a Cpl times for some of the stupidest little reasons.

it really does suck and taught us a Cpl valuable lessons as newbies. main one being.... bring extra fuel..lol.

[Overboard!]

My dad paddled the old 24' Harris with his el-cheapo home made paddles on more than one occasion. Sometimes I was unfortunate enough to be on the boat at the time. He paddled more than a mile once, only to get within 1/4 mile of where he was headed and got help from a nice lady who offered to tow him the rest of the way. Needless to say he had his fair share of problems with this old thing, both unforeseen as well as self-inflicted (running out of gas), but most of the time he'd use it to paddle into the cove where his dock was because the water levels were low and he was afraid to use the prop.

He was always too cheap to buy a nice store-bought paddle, so he'd use a pressure treated 1x6 and cut it out himself. I have to say that while they weren't as efficient as a nice one, they did work. That is until they sat out in the weather a few years. After that they'd break off in the water when he tried to use them

[Waterlogged]

Paddled my Party Barge 22 about 50 yds a couple years ago when my Merc had one of its many failure to run episodes. It worked quite well, actually moved upstream.

Glenn

[HandymanHerb]

I don't really believe in paddling my toon, I figure a long talk and grounding it will be enough

[steveiam]

I don't really believe in paddling my toon, I figure a long talk and grounding it will be enough

That was funny right there--Just saying!

[SoCalAngler]

I don't really believe in paddling my toon, I figure a long talk and grounding it will be enough

That was funny right there--Just saying!

X2!!!!

[Oldsailor]

There's a paddle under one of the front seats - it was there when we bought the boat.

Can't see using it, as it's a short handled one. We have a couple of long handled ones that "might"
work in a pinch, but a cell phone and friends on live on the lake is probably our best alternative.

I'm too old to paddle anything anyway.....

[guy48065]

I think I'll mount a single oarlock centered on the back railing and get a LONG oar to motivate my boat like they do in Venice

[Todd4]

Actually a paddle is very useful on a pontoon boat:
Once you wear yourself out trying to paddle against the wind or waves; the paddle is useful for keeping you off the rocks until help comes.

I tried to paddle a 17 foot v-bottom ski boat many years ago after the motor wouldn't start. It's like swimming upstream in a river - you can make headway for awhile, but eventually you'll be back to where you started on your way down stream. Now if you just need to reposition yourself in a protected cove - have at it, wear yourself out. I'm too old for that - I'll use my TM.

Todd