Marine Accessories

Now that the boating season is winding to an end, it’s about time to start thinking about how you are going to stow your vessel for the autumn and winter months. Leaving the boat in the water is certainly an option, but it leaves the door open for unnecessary wear and tear. Even if you aren’t in salt water, sitting for months on end can wreak havoc on the hull and outboard propellers.

The best option is to stow your craft in a warm, dry area, such as a garage or storage facility. Before putting the cover on your boat, it’s essential to go through a short winterization process to ensure it starts up clean in the spring. This includes basic tasks like checking the fastenings, emptying the gas tank and replacing filters, as well as a thorough cleaning, of course. You’ll also want to make sure any small openings on the boat are covered, as small rodents and animals are notorious for making these crevices their home.

Sportsstuff probably has the largest variety of inflatables in the market place today and some of the names of the products such as Big Mable are used by writers when the are doing an article on inflatable towables.  Sportsstuff with the depth of products it now has keeps adding new products each your so that you can have the most fun on the water that is possible.  You can choose an inflatable that is for one person or several people and they even have the ropes to pull them with.  If you have an inflatable you for sure want the 4K ball that will make the ride on the inflatable a lot more fun for the people riding the inflatable.

It is just as important to have a good outboard propeller on your boat as it is on an inboard because the damage that can be done by a damaged or wrong size propeller is the same.  Their are a lot of manufactures that make outboard propellers so you do have choices just like inboard propellers and remember some of the propellers work on outboard as well as inboard.  The damage that can be done to your lower unit can be great if you continue to us a damaged propeller which is a good reason to always carry an extra propeller on your boat.

The best Personal Flotation Device (PFD) is a Mustang Life Jacket. That’s why choosing the PFD that best fits your favorite water sports activity is important. Foam vests are great for active in-the-water adventures while inflatable PFDs are quickly becoming commonplace in most other marine activities. Manually inflating PFDs are a good choice for people who are comfortable in the water and expect to be spending some time in it, such as paddlers or river fishermen. If you don?t expect to end up in the water, but want the confidence of knowing that your PFD will inflate automatically in seconds if the unexpected happens, an automatic inflatable PFD is your best choice . Our exclusive HIT? (Hydrostatic Inflator Technology) automatic inflatable PFDs are perfect if you spend time in high humidity or wet weather.

Manual inflatable PFDs inflate by pulling the jerk tab that hangs from the PFD at waist-height whereas automatic inflatable PFDs inflate when immersed in water (or by manually pulling the jerk tab). All of our Inflatable PFDs provide 35 lb buoyancy when inflated and at least 3 1/4″ of freeboard (distance between the mouth and the surface of the water). Remember to check your inflatable PFD regularly to ensure it is in good working order and ready to be called into action when needed.

Marine radios are not just for playing music, they could be a CB Radio or an hand held communication radio but to be considered to a marine radio it must be able to with stand the elements of the marine environment.  Water being the main element that we must worry about no matter which marine radio we are using it must be able to work when it gets wet.  If you are on a larger boat on a very large body of water your marine radio could become a life saving device in a storm or if your boat looses power.

I am sure you have seen several boats tie up next to each other out in the middle of the lake and use life jackets between the boats to protect them.  What happens if one of the boats starts sinking and it has some non swimmers on it and all the life vest are used as boat fenders well this could cause a very serious situation.   This could be avoided by making sure you have boat fenders on your boat and while you are at it make sure you have a life jacket for everyone on board.

A single marine propeller is a right-hand rotation propeller, whose projecting blade is rotating from top to bottom and is moving from left to right. As the blade in this discussion rotates or moves downward, it pushes water down and back as is done by your hand when swimming. At the same time, water must rush in behind the blade to fill the space left by the downward moving blade. This results in a pressure differential between the two sides of the blade: a positive pressure, or pushing effect, on the underside and a negative pressure, or pulling effect, on the top side. This action, of course, occurs on all the blades around the full circle of rotation as the engine rotates the propeller. So the propeller is both pushing and being pulled through the water.  If you have twin engines then each propeller will rotate in opposite directions.

If you like fresh fish then the best way to do that is go out to the lake and catch some and to that in a great fun way is to have a Humminbird Fishfinder to maximize your chance of catching fresh fish for diner.  When you are a boater you like to boat the year around which means that in the summer we do all kinds of water sports such as wake boarding,  knee boarding or pulling people on towables and in the winder we fish if their is not ice on our lake and when we go fishing we expect to catch fish and again that is by using an Humminbird Fishfinder.