I am sure I have fit in to the category of frustrating newbies already, and I do sincerely apologize for that. On behalf of newbies though, I would like to explain.
To me, there are 4 types of boaters.
1. The boater who has the money to buy whatever he wants (be it old or new) and then has the money to pay someone else to fix it.
2. The boater that has the money to buy a decent boat for fun, but can't afford to pay someone else to do all of the repairs needed, so he looks for help but is pretty boat savvy.
3. The boater who buys what he can afford and thinks he got a great deal, realizes real quick that it needs a LOT of stuff that he can't afford to have someone else do, wants a boat for fun, but really doesn't have much boat knowledge but is pretty good with instructions and can figure things out.
4. The boater who could be any of the 3 when they started, but now - they have the knowledge and experience and are willing to come here to help.
Most new people are going to be #3, while you guys are #4. This may be their first message board even. They could have found this placing googling "why won't my boat work" and ended up here. They don't know what that thingy madoogle next to the round whatchamacallit is, or why it is connected to the widget with the thingy mabob. So its really hard to use the search to find the thread on here from 6 weeks ago about the same thing with someone else. Not saying that is an excuse, just saying that's how it ends up.
Me - I am a knowledge hound. I love learning stuff. On our project (my son and I are co-owners), we have different styles. He is an aircraft mechanic on KC-135's. He's like " I ordered a shop manual and it will be here in 7-10 days." and I am like "this website - you can ask a question and they can tell you what you need to know!". I do love shop manuals, but they tell you how to put something back together correctly. It doesn't tell you how to narrow down the problem based on if the motor went "cachug, cachug, cachingy-dingy, cachug" versus "cachug, cachug, cachuggy-duggy, cachug" like real world experience from you guys does. But if I have that question - how do i even begin to phrase it in a knowledgeable question?? LOL
I guess what I am saying is - yes, we newbs can do better about how we ask a question and what info we give. But please understand - we don't always know what is what in order to ask it right. Boats are different (as you know). I know my way around car engines, my son can work on about any plane, but just imagine how we both scratched our heads when we saw water pouring out of the exhaust. We were both like "the head must have a crack in the water jacket letting water in to the exhaust - but HOW IS IT EVEN RUNNING?!?!?! Now for you guys, you'd have just shook your heads and laughed at us (and probably are right now) but to us - we had a HUGE problem. lol
Lastly I would like to say - thank you all. I did get scolded a little bit for not reading more, but I read these threads every chance I get (which has been a lot in the last week). I have learned so much in the last few weeks from reading and reading and reading. Yeah I've asked a few dumb questions, but I am a newbie. That's what we are for.
Well I said lastly, but this is really lastly. I will leave with a joke that sort of fits--
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A group of men were sitting around a table at a bar. One would say to the other an number, and the rest would laugh and laugh. First guy - " 15!" and they rolled with laughter. The next guy - " 182!" and they cackled like school kids. Next guy " 1,498!" and they just bellowed out with laughter. Finally, a young guy and the bar couldn't fight the curiosity any longer. He walks over and says " Excuse me, I really hate to intrude on your evening, but curiosity is killing me. Why are the numbers so funny?"
One of the men says "Son, we are the International Joke Teller Society, and we have every joke in the world numbered. We tell them so much that we don't even tell the jokes anymore, we just tell the number because we all know what they are." The younger man says - "That's so interesting. Mind if I try?" "Sure" they say. So the young man proceeds.
"945". Nothing. "11,491". Nothing. "898!" Nothing. The young man gets mad and walks away. One guy looks at the others and says "some can tell 'em, some can't".
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That's sort of like message boards in general. If the new people don't come along and ask the dumb, stupid questions - then the long-timers won't have anything to do except sit around and discuss topics by number.
