"The Marine Installers Rant" has a birthday.

On a rainy weekend a year ago, after milling around on the internet reading boat related blogs, I had this dawning epiphany, I could do this, and off I went with zeal that even surprised me. It has been a remarkable year of discovery for me, and I am generally pleased with the results, and I hope you have been too.

I had set the goal of doing two posts a week, and largely achieved it, a B+ at any rate, and I have learned a number of lessons along the way, the most important one being that I am my own worst editor. No matter how many times I read the material prior to pushing the magical "Publish" button, as soon as it publishes, and I look at it, "D'oh!", there's a typo, or a poorly constructed sentence, and back to the editor I go. So I am, as always indebted to George Flavell, my airline pilot guru friend, whose additional two eyes see what I often don't, so I can go back quickly and fix them. I am also indebted to my writer, and editor  extraordinaire friend Dick for his patience, and sage editorial advice. He taught me to never waffle, or apologize for what you are writing, it never improves the story, and by asking the single question, "What line do you like the best in the story?", made me see the light, and a muddled story that had been vexing me for several weeks suddenly crystallized, and of all the pieces I have written, I am the most proud of this one. The yacht club, rockets, and the electron police.

I have learned a couple of other things along the way. You can't do this type of writing format, without learning basic HTML along the way, whether you want to, or not. You need this to fix pesky warts like spacing issues that you can't seem fix any other way. I have also learned that playing a bit with themes like a "Film Noir", or "Dragnet" backdrop makes writing a technical story more enjoyable for me, and I hope for you too, and many thanks to my wife Kate for her endless patience with me. She refers to this exercise, with a smile,"as seeing my mistress".

And lastly, to those who have linked to me, I am honored to be in such august company, thank you for the trust, and priviledge, and to fellow boat writer Mark Corke, I wish a you speedy recovery. On board with Mark Corke

Thank you, Bill Bishop

An Everglades 35 with some very clever dockside bondage work.

I always like nice rope work, and I can do the basics, but although functional, it never looks as good as this exceptional example does. This is my friend Mel Glickman's 35 Everglades, and it lives in the Tripp and Davis marina in South Dartmouth MA. I have a special relationship with this boat. When Mel bought it new, he wanted electronics for it. Although the boat was not geographically attractive to do the work myself, I designed its systems, prepared a bill of materiels, did wiring diagrams, and installation notes, purchased, and shipped all of the gear to Mel, who had it locally installed. It has twin Garmin 5212 12" touch screen displays, HD radar, 300 VHF AIS, sounder module, and a 1000W transducer. With only a couple minor tribulations (you had to read the wiring diagrams) everything worked out ok, and my long distance relationship with the vessel continues to this day. So when Mel sent me these pictures I was amazed, to say the least.

Although it looks complicated, this is elegant simplicity at its very best. A line was stretched from the dock, around the pilings, and snugged up with a come along. The height of the piling line is the middle of the average high and low tidal heights, relative to the length of the dock lines. Dock lines were spliced into the piling lines at the correct pre-measured locations, and then a tag line was spliced in to the the dock line's eye splices, that connects all three lines together. You can see below a cleated dock line with the tag line spliced into it.   

And here is a picture of the boat tied up, and now for the elegant part of this system. When Mel comes into dock, he favors the windward side. All he has to do is grab the tag line anywhere and slide his hand to the amidships dock line and cleat it off. He then uses the tag line to access the other two lines to cleat them off. He does the same thing on the other side, and job done, in a literal  minute. Badda Bing, Badda Boom. No boat hooks, no casting aspersions on the crews skills, no final adjustments, or tape marks on the lines, just grab the tag line, anywhere, and it's easy, with the added bonus that your wife will like you even more when you come into dock, and she has to manage the lines.

It gets even better. In this slip, when you cast off the dock lines, they hang clear of the water, and the spring lines are also in effect built in, so no crossing of lines over the outboard motors that will get caught up, and or chafe the motor's covers. By the way, you can do this with larger boats also. 

But what I truly liked the best, was the wonderful attention to detail, because even the hose is attached to the tag line with a spliced in snap hook. And...

The hose is on a reel, and already turned on, so when Mel gets off the boat, after rinsing it off, with his 40 lb Striper, he just cranks in the extra hose, and he is done. Okay not quite, he still has to fillet the huge Striper, and talk boats with his colleagues.

I could not have done this type of work, But South Dartmouth based Captain Steve Camera can, and did. Steve is one of those consummate captains who has spent a lifetime on the water, in more boats than I could ever count. Mel says, "He knows where the fish are, every time", and after having spent a most enjoyable hour with him on the phone, I believe him. Steve charters out of the South Dartmouth area, and organizes several fishing expeditions a year to locations like Costa Rica, and is planning an Alaskan fishing trip next summer. So if you are interested in one of his trips, or need some advice on how to do this type of rope work, Steve says call him, and he will try to help. His number is 508-989-4852. You will find him to be a most engaging, professional, and fun person to talk to. Thanks Mel and Steve, it was fun.

Straightening up an Elite Craft

This is Sandy's Elite Craft Riviera, and it is a beautiful vessel to say the least. These beautiful runabouts were evocative of the classic wooden runabouts of days past. They looked like they were made of mahogany, but it is really an all fiberglass boat. How they did this is still a secret, or at least no one is telling. Elite Craft started building production boats in 1979. The last models were produced in 1993, and about 450 of these beautiful boats were built in total. Many of these runabouts now sell for more than the original sales price, which is notable in the depreciating world of boats. Production ended when an employee was killed while testing a boat, and the subsequent costs involved with dealing with the accident, put the company out of business. 

Sandy's boat was built in February 1990, and is a 1990 model year boat. Despite the fact that it is twenty years old, the boat is absolutely pristine, and all original. Sandy is a very meticulous guy, and there is no part of this boat that has not been carefully lavished over. The engine compartment, and Mercury engine look factory brand new. You will be introduced to Sandy downstream in the second "Meet" story, and you will learn why minute attention to detail is so important in his line of work, and cool work it is. Wait till you see these man toys!

In this case, beauty is only skin deep, and boy is this skin pretty, but the boat does have some designs warts. There are no strakes on the hull, making it a bit slippery in turns, and the narrow beam makes the boat list to one side when there are not additional passengers to balance the load. This is definitely a smooth water lake or river boat, and if conditions get a little bumpy, the boat, and crew will get wet. This boat now lives in Sarasota, and it is unusual to have dead flat water in the local bays. Our bays do not have rowdy water, but a 1' chop, will make for a wet ride in this boat at speed.  

So Sandy wants to make some minor changes to the boat. The first is to get rid of the somewhat kludged up mounting system for the Apelco depth finder. It is cantilevered out about a foot on a stainless steel pipe, and continually bounces while under way, so in the short run it is going away, and the transducer is going bye bye anyway.

 

You can't get away from the listing to one side, if there is only one person in the boat while sitting still, but a set of trim tabs will dramatically improve this problem while under way. That green spray rail was a factory "after the fact, after thought" option that makes the boat a little dryer when the water gets choppier, and adds a little extra stability to the boat.

Sandy originally wanted Bennett trim tabs, and after looking at the boat I said no. It wasn't that I don't like Bennett trim tabs, I do, but the fuel tank is in the aft of the boat, and about 2 1/2 inches from the transom, leaving no way to attach the Bennett hydraulic fittings and hoses, so I suggested Lenco. With Lenco tabs, all we have to do is to shove the wire through, and with some interesting gyrations, a coat hanger, and no need for an orthopedic surgeon to fix my body, the wires were pulled into an area where we can deal with them.  

Now Sandy, being Sandy, called Lenco, and they graciously agreed to make a custom sized set of tabs for the boat out of stainless steel, and to polish them to a high finish, and I have to admit, they are very striking. You can see the trial fit above, and if you look closely you can see the hole, where the pitot tube hose passed through the transom (by the way this little gadget was invented by a French Physicist Henri Pitot in 1732). On the other side of the transom were the holes left by the old transducer, so Sandy's finisholgist came in and did a perfect job of making them go away, and I mean perfect, no evidence, no halo, no nothing but a factory original finish 

Tabs are now installed, and what to do with the control pad? This is a bit of a conundrum. We don't want to punch a hole in the dash, because the black trim tab switch will compromise the original dash appearance, so Sandy fashions a small fiberglass plate that is the same width of the trim tab switch, and extends above it about 2". The switch is mounted to the plate, and the plate is epoxied to the back of the dash. It is rigid enough to use, and it can be relocated later. You can see the switch below in between the wheel spokes.

In the long run, a console will be fabricated that will sit on the floor to the left of the helm. This will be the final home for the trim tab switch, hatch lift switch, Garmin 740S, and maybe a couple of drink holders. Exactly what this will look like is being thought about, but it will look perfect for the boat when it is done, because Sandy will not accept anything less.

Up next is the new hatch lift for the boat. It's not that it is hard to install, but I am going to do a little geometry, and moment calculation 101 in plain English on  how to spec one out. You won't need anything more that a pocket calculator to do it. It won't make your brain hurt much all, and some pretty pictures will be used to help. Euclid is watching.

If you would like to learn more about Elite Craft boats you can visit the Elite Craft Owners Club.

Combinatoric permutations of Shackleton, his whiskey, and the NZAHT

"I thought you'd rather have a live donkey than a dead lion."

Ernest Shackleton's comment to his wife Emily, regarding his failure to reach the south pole.

I couldn't resist starting off with a hundred year old case of scotch whiskey discovered frozen under the floor of Ernest Shackleton's Cape Royds hut in Antarctica in 2006, but this is only a small, but fun part of the story.  I will return to the whiskey a little later. The real story is about the early Antarctic explorer's bases, and the historical restoration that is occurring, in this remote, and getting less remote part of the world. As the title indicates, the subject matter will move around as it suits my whims, and I'm going to leave a good trail behind for you to explore further.

I have chosen Ernest Shackleton as the focus, because many boaters are familiar, in particular with his audacious 800 mile small open boat journey in the "James Caird" (actual picture of the launching is above), with five crew members from Elephant Island (just off the coast of Antarctica) to South Georgia Island where a whaling station was located, and thus saving all of the crew from the ice trapped Endurance. This and Captain Bligh's 3600 mile small boat trip, are two of the most epic events of this type ever recorded.


Shackleton was one of the major players during the "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration", and participated in four expeditions. The  first expedition was as a third officer on the Robert Scott Discovery Expedition (1901-1904). Shackleton contracted scurvy during the expedition, and was sent home early in 1903. Shackleton was the leader of his second expedition, the Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909). This is my favorite expedition, because it reminds me of the Apollo missions to the moon. His third expedition is the well known Endurance, or Trans Antarctic Expedition, (1914-1917) which ended early, and well, meaning no lives were lost, because of Shackleton's epic trip to save the crew in the small  James Caird. Shackleton's last expedition was the Shackleton Rowett Expedition (1921-1922. Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack while on board his ship in January 1922, and thus ended the "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Okay now, just bear with me a little longer, and we will have some fun. Who owns Antarctica? The answer is a lot of countries have territorial claims, but in essence no one. The continent is open by treaty, to legitimate scientific investigation. There is no mining, industrial, or military activity allowed on the continent.

For over 50 years now New Zealand has taken care of the historical Antarctic sites located in the Ross Sea area. In the late fifties attention was drawn to the condition of the early expedition outposts, and some attention started to be paid to these historic sites. By 1960 a more formal plan had been drafted to undertake restoration. The New Zealand Antarctic Society had primarily managed the historic  restoration efforts, but never quite had the needed resources. The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust was founded in 1987, and has managed the restoration activities to date. Since then Shackleton's hut has been mostly restored (work will always be ongoing), and over 5000 artifacts from the site have been added into the Shackleton collection. Activities are well underway at other sites, including Scott's hut. I don't need to remind you that work at these sites is part time. I understand the winters are a tough time to work outdoors, and the summers don't always have to be kind.

Above is a more contemporary view of Shackleton's hut, after a great amount of effort.

Okay, lets have some fun now. It's Whiskey time! This is a very small part of the conservation effort, but the massive publicity over finding a case of 100 year old Whiskey, in the Antarctic of all places, had to have provided a welcome boon to the NZAHT's conservation efforts. A documentary film is being made, and who doesn't like a good story over a whiskey, or about whiskey? I averred to one of the conservators that it is their story to tell, and here you will find a terrific bog written from the "Whisky" conservator's point of view, and with great photo's titled The Great Whisky Crate Thaw. On the same  subject, I tried to dig out some information from Richard Paterson, who is Whyte & Mackay's master blender, but he was somewhat reticent to discuss how he could recreate the whisky, if he had a sample. It is not clear that he will get one, but I know he sure wants one. You can get more information about this subject at Whyte & Mackay's "Master Blender" page. Yes the company that sold Shackleton the whiskey is still around, or more correctly, Whyte & Mackay owns the label (Mackinlays Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky).

These early ventures were truly scientific ventures, and a great amount of expense and effort went into planning and outfitting these expeditions. Remember when I mentioned that the Shackleton Nimrod expedition reminded me of the Apollo moon missions?  Both Shackleton, and the moon astronauts took cars along on their expeditions. Shackleton's car never performed up to expectations in the harsh Antarctic condition's, but it was the first auto on the continent.

One of the most interesting parts of looking into this meandering missive, is the large amount of documentation there was to pour through. One of the most interesting things I found was at the NZAHT's website, and is the provisioning list for the Nimrod expedition. Amazing to say the least, right down to the prefabbed hut.

Above is a photo of Nimrod expedition explorers in the hut.

I'm not the only one to spot it, but you can see next to the clock, a large advertising flyer for ladies corsets with a young lady pictured sporting one. No doubt in my mind, this is the same type of "Pin Up" that is in my mechanics garage, except his is far more scantly dressed, if at all. I wonder if the flyer it is still around? It is listed on the Nimrod expedition "Provisioning" list link above.

Another fun Shackleton tidbit is this ad that has been floating around for years. Many scholars have researched it, and it is a fake.

I spotted this cute dingy a couple of days before I started to assemble this story. I asked the owner why it was named the James Caird II. He stopped, smiled, and said "Because Shackleton owns the James Caird I".

A last couple of thoughts. I think the NZAHT should give Richard Paterson a wee few drams of the whisky, for a price, and a cut of any sales generated from selling Shackleton's/Mackinlay's whisky. Shackleton won't miss it, and the revenue stream from sales can be put to good use on other projects. Also, if you give him a sample, do a real analysis on the contents. Richard can nose it, but good sample analysis should be done, and Richard, if I have had anything to do with getting you a sample, send me a case of the new Shackleton whisky, I will pay the NZAHT royalties portion, and the freight.

And for the historians, what ever happened to Shackleton's car? I could only find a few obscure references that mention it being donated to a museum. Could it still be in Antarctica, hidden in a snow drift?

Some good links:

Want to see Shackleton's hut? about 900 people a year do, and an expected 80,000 people will visit Antarctica this year, and this is one way to get there.
The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust An excellent site worth spending time at, and they always need help, fiscally at any rate.
The Canterbury Museum The "Whisky" conservation is being done there.
Want to see what Shackleton's hut looks like right now, visit the Penguin Cam at Cape Royds
Lots of Antarctic links here

Meet Steve Padar

One of the most important lessons I have learned in life, is that everyone has a interesting story, if you stop talking yourself long enough to listen, and boaters always seem to have more interesting stories than most. This is the first, of a intermittent series of stories about some of my clients.

So let's go meet Steve Padar. This is Steve's backyard, and his boats. He has, a small Scout center console, and in the background, his Grady White walk around. He had a third boat on blocks in the back yard, but I suspect in order to maintain martial bliss, he was advise of the right answer to the question of "When is that boat leaving the yard?", and it is now gone. Do you see that rounded structure to the right, that is a telescope dome. I met Steve when he requested a little help with installing a Raymarine weather receiver for the Grady White, although he was more than technically capable of doing this himself. 

When I first visited Steve's house, and while walking up to the front door, my keen powers of observation told me there is something different about this house.

And also in his backyard, you quickly develop the opinion, that Steve is doing something more than trying to receive blacked out football games on the sly.

So here is Dr. Steve Padar, from Sarasota Florida, who in real life is a practicing neurosurgeon, and he graciously allowed me to see his metaphorical man cave, and what a technological wonder it is! 

Everywhere you look, there is something to see. A full wall of floor to ceiling books, and racks of equipment everywhere. Behind this equipment wall is a long desk with two very large flat screen monitors, and a half dozen computers under it.

Another large desk is packed with lots of ham radio gear.

Wiring galore everywhere. These bundles are the feeds from the exterior antennas. 

And lots of Ethernet connections tying systems together.

So what is this room all about? In addition to being a ham radio enthusiast, one of several of Steve's hobbies is the acquisition, and direct down loading of weather photographs from NOAA's satellites, and this is not a trivial task. The pictures below are from the GOES 12, and 13 satellites. These are geostationary  satellites parked over the equator at 75 degrees W (GOES 13), and 60 W (GOES 12), and they were being downloaded as I watched.  

These photos were downloaded on Sunday, September 5th around noon EST. In the full frame picture, you can see hurricane Igor, and behind it, you can see the tropical depression, that will become hurricane Julia. My camera does not do the quality of these pictures justice.

Above is a better view from GOES 12. You can see Igor clearly, and Julia to be, is just off the African coast. Although it takes substantial technical acumen to receive these photos from a geostationary satellite, Steve's equipment can also receive photos from weather satellites moving in orbit. This takes another level of technology. You need software that will provide you with Mr. Kepler's orbital data predictions, the antenna axes kinematics have to be programmed to intercept the track, and match it. The satellite signal has to be programmed into the system to receive the signal, and if this wasn't enough, as the satellite approaches you, and then moves away, the signal undergoes a Doppler effect that shifts the frequency, and the receiver has to compensate for this shift. This is a very simplified explanation of a very complex process.

Steve's equipment can receive frequencies from 50 kilohertz to 2.4 Gigahertz, although to be technically correct, he can't receive every frequency in this range, but he does handle a good swath of it. Amazing, and technologically stunning to say the least, and all of this hidden in plain sight in a lovely bay front home. 

We're not through yet. As if this wasn't enough, Steve's other hobbies are travel, boating, diving, and photography, and he excels at all four. He has traveled all over the world with his camera, from the Antarctic peninsula, to the North Pole and many locations in between. Diving in Truk lagoon, the Galapagos Islands, the Australian Great Barrier Reef, and many other exotic locations, and taking magnificent photos along the way.

I mentioned that Steve visited the North Pole, something that most of us will never do. He traveled there on the Russian icebreaker the I/B Yamal. This is the pride of the Russian icebreaker fleet. It is just shy of five hundred feet long, and is powered by not one, but two nuclear reactors, and weighs nearly one million pounds. This ship will crunch some real ice, and real ice had to be crunched to get to the pole. Only about a dozen trips by ship have ever been made.

As a footnote to the story, I was looking for a picture of the I/B Yamal, and you are looking at it above. The picture was taken Aug 3rd, 2001 while in route to the North Pole. In the picture, of the not easy to get certificate below, there are three notable things about it. The location is 90 degrees north, you can only get it if you have been swimming at the North Pole, and it is dated August 5th 2001. So Steve is actually on the I/B Yamal at the time the picture was taken. 

Now you have met Steve, doctor, neurosurgeon, boater, traveler, photographer, diver, and intensely curious about the world around him. I know he will demur, but he is a modern day renaissance man, and an extraordinary, and gracious person to spend time with. All of us have a bucket list. I think Steve's bucket is really a fifty five gallon drum and still mostly full. I am working on being a better listener, and thank you very much Steve for the time you spent with me, it was most enlightening, and pleasurable.  

You can see some of Steve's terrific photography here. You may need to download the Photodex.com viewer to see the shows. Check out the Antarctica, and Truk Lagoon slide shows, but there is much more to enjoy here.

You can learn more about the Ice Breaker Yamal here.

The Photograph of the I/B Yamal is from Wikipedia commons, and was taken by Wolfratz

So you really think you own a fishing boat?

"Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them.... The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final anchorage."

Arthur Ransome

Racundra's First Cruise, 1923

This is a little photo essay about the vessel "Melia", and I have had an unrequited love affair with this vessel for a long time. I have not been on board, or met the owner, but I will lurk around until the opportunity presents itself. You can see her in the picture below, at the end of the dock in Sarasota's downtown marina. That is a 100'+ Westport yacht in front of her, and the Melia towers over it. When I used the words "fishing boat" in the title, I was being specious, Melia is truly a ship.

The steel hulled vessel has a foc'sle on steroids, and looks like it could take almost any seas I could imagine.

The aft deck has a substantial hydraulic davit system,

and there is no shortage of electronics on the mast including dual open array radars, satellite TV, Sat phone, and multiple communication antennas.  

An over sized RIB sits above the aft cabin, and behind the wheel house.

It almost looks like a fancy work boat, and it is, in a recreational sort of way.

But now you find out what the over sized davit is for. The vessel carries a 33' Intrepid center console fishing boat on its back deck. I suspect this vessel carries its owner to places the rest of us could never get to, and launches the Intrepid to fish in waters that would be virginal from a fishing viewpoint. How do I love this boat, let me count the ways. 

Playing the game, if I had some ham, I could have a ham sandwich, if I had some bread, below is the vessel Kate and I would own, if we had the bucks. Anyone can have a white plastic boat that looks like a hotel on the inside, I find this vessel infinitely more appealing. Eight kts is fine with me. 

To learn more about these Jay Benford designed boats, visit Florida Bay Coasters

A day in the life, the installer goes to Garmin school.

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head

Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,

And looking up I noticed I was late.

Found my coat and grabbed my hat

Made the car in seconds flat.

"A day in the life" Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Cub Band, circa a long time ago, and slightly stepped on

This is how my day started on Tuesday. Up at 3:00 am, out the door at 4:00 am, drive from Sarasota to Dania Florida (Ft. Lauderdale), grinding through the Miami rush hour traffic in a driving rain storm clutching a map, and arriving at the International Game Fishing Association museum at about 8:30 am. I want to dispel that ugly myth right now, that your installer's days are spent drinking Pina Coladas, and going for boat rides, while charging fees that would make a brain surgeon envious.

So my school day starts at 9:00 am at the International Game Fishing Association's museum, where Garmin has arranged the meeting rooms for the day. I suspect the location selection was not an accident, and it sure beat the meeting rooms at the local airport hotel. The IGFA facility is a stunning modern building, and as you can imagine is filled with world record fishing memorabilia. Garmin representatives check you in, and point you to a buffet filled with bagels, rolls, fruit, and lots of hot coffee.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many installers were there to take the class, and the large number of Garmin staff that were available during the presentations, most of whom were technical staff, although a couple of senior sales staff were present to keep an eye on the technical staff, or was the technical staff there to keep an eye on the sales guys?

Oy vey! do you see the size of the book, and I have to learn all this today? Actually the book is worth its weight in gold. It contains almost every installation manual for Garmin marine products, and a wealth of other technical, and product information. The contents are also on a CD inside the book.

So off we go at 9:oo am, and John Murch does most of the primary technical presentations.

It was a fast paced presentation, with the presumption that everyone in the room had a Garmin installation background baseline. The thing I liked best about John's presentation, was the interactive aspect. If you stuck your hand up, and ask for clarification, or a question, things stopped, and you got an answer. If John didn't know the answer, and it wasn't often, the other Garmin personnel either knew, or were on the the phone, and or computer, and you had the answer ASAP. This format kept the presentation lively, and interesting.

The day relentlessly goes on, there were breaks to refill your coffee, and lunch was provided (the lasagna was bland, and I wished there was some Tabasco to be found). From Chartplotters, to sonar, to radar, a terrific autopilot presentation from Robert Archer, one of the original TR-1 personnel, and software. No Garmin technical subject was left out. There was also virtually every marine product Garmin sells on display to play with.


All of a sudden it is almost 5:00 and it is test time. Seventy five questions later, (I missed three, semantics are everything), you are given the grand prize. The Garmin technical, and good house keeping seal of approval.

I leave at about 6:00, arrive home at 10:00, let the greyhounds girls out, had a bourbon, and passed out.


The following morning, I bestowed some of my new intellectual largess on a client, who had been having some particularly vexing issues. Using one of the hidden diagnostic screens I had learned about, I found a vital clue about what was happening, and shortly the problem was corrected. You can teach an old dog new tricks. 


With thanks to Joe Cornwall for the use of the IGFA mueseum photo, Joe is the webmaster of the Fly Fish Ohio website.