brakes in the water

[rbwright123]

The 2002 Celina photograph in the New York Times article brought back
great memories of that photo shoot. It was Saturday, just at dusk as
the sun was settig on Grand lake we were instructed assemble mob mass
Amphis and follow each other in tight formation with headlights on.
Marianna and I were in about row 5 or 6 following about 20 other
amphicars when suddenly the lead row slowed down. It looked like the
fireworks show started early as 40 blus brake lights illuminated at
once. So dont feel embarased about using the brakes while floating, it
is a natural reaction as you are about to plow your pride and joy into
someone elses pride and joy. I dont remeber any casualties but many
close calls, and we havent had a tight formation since. Robert Wright

 

[WB6WSN]

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<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<div style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: rbwright123
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2005 8:12 AM
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Subject: [amphicar-lovers] brakes in the water


<tt>The 2002 Celina photograph in the New York Times article brought back
great memories of that photo shoot. It was Saturday, just at dusk as
the sun was settig on Grand lake we were instructed assemble mob mass
Amphis and follow each other in tight formation with headlights on.
Marianna and I were in about row 5 or 6 following about 20 other
amphicars when suddenly the lead row slowed down. It looked like the
fireworks show started early as 40 blus brake lights illuminated at
once. So dont feel embarased about using the brakes while floating, it
is a natural reaction as you are about to plow your pride and joy into
someone elses pride and joy. I dont remeber any casualties but many
close calls, and we havent had a tight formation since. Robert Wright
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<tt><font face="Times New Roman" color="#0000ff" size="4">Well, if you have to suddenly apply some reverse thrust while you're in the water, you better plan on doing a clutch on/ brakes to lock the wheels / brakes off / shift to astern / clutch off polka. Yeah, yeah, you shouldn't let yourself get into that kind of dire straight, but you ought to know what to do if...........</font></tt>
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<tt><font face="Times New Roman" color="#0000ff" size="4">Tight formations of anything requires quite a bit of skill and a lot of thinking ahead. Boats and formations have a very bad history.</font></tt>
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<tt><font face="Times New Roman" color="#0000ff" size="4">Ed
El Cajon, CA USA
67 Rust Guppy
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[nelson625@aol.com]

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Right you are Ed. We weren't in Celina for the 2002 shoot, but I can imagine it waa momentarily pretty hairy. I can remember on my first trip in the water, several people including my wife Carol, who was reluctant to accompany me because of the phophecies of gloom which had been forecast, were engaged in photographing the "maiden voyage." During that initial few minutes, they caught me illuminating my brake lights. Pretty hilarious, but a fairly normal reaction.

On a related subject, at swim ins, we frequently go night swimming of course. Technically ( and absolutelytrue ), it is against Coast Guard regs to have your headlights or parking lights (including brake lights) on at night, as there is noCoast Gurad regulationpermitting this assortment of lights in these colors and locations on the vessel, except probably in a parade where the vessels are basically in single file and can be seen relatively clearly. I mention this because not only is is illegal, but as probably all of us have experienced, with the oncoming headlights of an Amphicar, one is easily blinded and like an animal in a car's headlights, one knows not which way to sensibly turn or exactly what to do if the rate of closure becomes perilous in order to escape the danger. If one is all alone on a lake or in an area of water, though it is still not legal, it would not likely create a hazard. I do not believe any of our club have suffered a ramming or sinking as a result of headlight blinding, but it certainly is a real possibility. Vic "Captain Splash" Nelson near Daytona Beach