Hey talking about huge balloon beach tires, I was watching a guy and his 12 yr old kid trying to launch their Weta in surf and a little windy one day with the biggest beach tires I have ever seen on his launching cart (all Weta's have launching carts), he had retrofitted the huge wheels (against the dealers advice) to his launch cart so it would be easier to traverse soft sand (biggest I have ever seen, seriously were monster truck sized). What a comedy of errors this ended up being. The giant balloon tires had so much flotation he could not get his boat off the launch cart, while working intently trying to get the boat off the cart, he had his small kid doing his best to try and hold the boat by the bow trying to keep it head to the wind (all his sails we half up). They kept going deeper and further out as the wind was pushing them, and pretty quickly the little guy was over his head and in real trouble (with his dad oblivous to what was going on, so busy trying to get the launch cart with way too much flotation from under his boat). I had just come in with my TI and was watching from shore ( purely for entertainment). All PFD's were laying on the deck of the boat. I finally had to swim out and help the kid who sure looked to be drowning to me. I suggested maybe those tires were a little large, and possibly add a little water in them to reduce flotation might help. There are a lot of Weta's in Sarasota bay, and I see and talk to the local dealer a lot (cool guy), Fortunately everything turned out ok, the dealer said the guy had asked about adding the huge tires, and he had repeatedly highly recommended to not do that. After getting the boat back close to shore it took an additional 10-15 minutes for both of us to get his boat off the launch cart with great effort ( I thought,,, you've got to be kidding me). I'm pretty sure the guy learned nothing from the experience (probably still has the same setup), but I learned some valuable lessons watching his kid almost drown. You know your tires are too big if when floating on the launch cart, the boat is almost completely out of the water (DAH), I now put my PFD on before touching the water, as well as insisting all my passenger wear theirs before leaving the shore line. Might not apply to TI's, but it's somethin to think about. True Story Bob
|