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Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

Bill McIntyre

San Clemente, CA
Staff member
Forum Mentor
Jan 27, 2005
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I just noticed this feature, so I thought I should take advantage of the opportunity to introduce myself.

I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. My father was a fishing guide and commercial fisherman, and I am frankly a bit hazy on when I started swimming around under the docks trying to shoot small sheepshead with a Hawaiian sliing, but I am pretty sure that by age 13 or 14 I had progressed to using a Champion Arbalete and a Cressi spring gun to shoot grouper, jewfish, cobia, snook, etc. while freediving. When I was age 15 (in 1954) I won a rod and reel fishing contest that got me enough cash to buy my first tank and regulator. There were no certification courses then, but the owners manual that came with the gear did say that you shouldn't hold your breath during ascents, so I survived being self-taught. Later, during my 20 years as a US Marine officer, I got my only formal training when I attended US Navy scuba school at Pearl Harbor.

I was primarily a bubble blower for most of my life, and went through phases of photography with the Nikonos I and II cameras, shell collecting, abalone and scallop grabbing, and various sorts of spearfishing depending on where I was living. In 1996 I returned to freedive spearfishing, and now the only time I use a tank is to free hung anchors or fish that are tied up in the kelp too deep for safe freediving.

I recently retired from part-time college teaching so as to have more freedom to dive during the week when the crowd at the launch ramp is smaller and so that I can spend the weekends with my wife who is still hard at work supporting my expensive habits. I am always looking for congenial and safe diving companions who can get away during the week and join me on the boat pictured below. Great diving skill is not required, but a strong back to pull the anchor is a definite plus. :)
 

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Welcome aboard!
I'm sure you will find lots of good advice on Deeperblue.

Lucia
 
naiad said:
Welcome aboard!
I'm sure you will find lots of good advice on Deeperblue.

And more likely will be doling it out ;)
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
Hi Bill, welcome to DB, nice wsb. Florida still has some fairly decent diving, but not like you remember. Nice to have another "well seasoned" diver on board.

Tell us about that boat, specs? carrying capacity? ride in rough water? (what is rough to you?)

Connor
 
Hi Bill,

Wellcome to DB. That's a very nice fish.

I'm in Baja ¿do you ever came down here to dive?

Cheers
 
cdavis said:
Tell us about that boat, specs? carrying capacity? ride in rough water? (what is rough to you?)

Connor

Its a 22' Seasport. Its got an 8.5' beam, carries 100 gallons of fuel and 25 gallons of water. Its made in Bellingham, Washington and used widely in the NW and Alaska, but you don't see many of them in So Cal. For the previous 24 years I owned a Skipjack 24 Flybridge model. I got tired of sitting in cold spray for the 50 mile run to San Clemente Island, so I put an aluminum half tower and eisenglass enclosure on it in 1997. That made it more comfortable, but also increased the load washing everything when we came in. When I realized I was older than dirt and valued comfort more, and no longer was fishing for marlin (the real need for that flying bridge) I decided to get a boat with an enclosed cabin where I could sit in shorts and t-shirt and run the windshield wipers while I watched the autopilot steer on those long trips. Our water and weather out here are really so much colder than in Florida, even in the summer, so its nice to sit inside and turn on the cabin heater if necessary.

The boat holds three divers comfortably for day trips, and four if its a short trip. For overnight its really best to limit to two guys, but I have done trips with three as long as they like each other well. It has lots of nice features like a dinette that lowers into a bunk, a sink with pressurized hot water, and a two burner alcohol stove. The best thing was something I had them do custom- a hot fresh water shower out in the cockpit which can be used to put water down the wetsuits to enhance courage between stops, and of course to get all the urine off when we are through for the day.

It has two 48" long fishboxes below the deck, and they both drain into a macerator pump to get all that stuff overboard rather than into the bilge.

I better quit gushing over my boat for now. The attached photos show the hot and cold knobs for the shower and the salt water washdown, the sink under the helm seat and the stove, the cockpit with hatches open, a view of the stern from the water showing the swimstep and the fish cleaning table on the transom, and a view of it on the trailer so you can see the hull lines.

It rides very well for a 22' boat, but of course I would rather it were a 42 foot boat. It has more storage than my 24 footer.
 

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welcome dude :)
nice boat nice that you are here also
greetings from israel
eyal
 
Hi Bill,
Welcome to DB! I think you will find DB to be a real international board with some great ideas.

I know that this California native has learned a bunch from the folks here!
 
Nice boat Bill
I never actually saw the boat before, only the jumbo sized WSB and YellowTails.
The shower is definately a good idea, remind me to look you up if I ever make it to the left coast. ;)
I installed a car shower and it makes winter diving almost pleasurable :)
 
Huan said:
Nice boat Bill

The shower is definately a good idea, remind me to look you up if I ever make it to the left coast. ;)
I installed a car shower and it makes winter diving almost pleasurable :)

Please do look me up, but you better hurry. I ain't getting any younger. :)

I don't know how I ever got along without this hot water.
 
Very interesting boat. I looked up their website and liked what I found. You are so right on the shower. A friend turned me on to the idea some years back, a real plus.

Thanks for the info

Connor
 
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