That's what I thought

need some kind of a latter to go over the side

Well just buy one!!!!

The big issue for me is not the people climbing on the boat, they will be aware of the blades.
The issue is in the many coves we hang out in with waist to chest deep water with hundreds of people wandering past and stopping to chat.
These people have no idea how far out a six drive hangs let alone how sharp the corners of Herring blades can be.

You figure the new boat is going to draw a crowd?

If I had that boat you couldn't get me to stop running it, let alone sit at a beach all afternoon.


How was the vacation? Island natives treat you well?

You would be surprised how good the Nylon covers are that BBlades sells. I am the same concern but the same to hold up.

Crowd size is directly related to the number of two-stroke powered blenders running on the boats rafted next to us. Most have no idea what the boats are. The attractions seem to be the girls, the music, the drinks, then lastly the boats.

Vacation was great, back to reality now. The wait to get out there and run is going to be much too long !!

I am moving toward a 42/700. Just a thought: would an extended platform like the factory Arneson Boat be the ticket?

I share the same concern about injuries at raft up.

I just got a 42/700--have an 8 year old that probably wouldn't be very happy if he couldn't jump off the back of the boat--I tested several over the side configurations, none were very appealing. I talked with Wyatt at the Miami show about the situation. We measured how far the "powder coated tubular extension" (that's what Fountain calls it) would stick out off the swim step---it seemed like it would provide very adequet protection to anyone meandering around back there and it will also make it very easy to get out of the water and back on the boat. I'm still going to be nervous about it, probably put the ladder off the side of the extension to keep him as far away as possible. It's a custom made thing and the only plausable thing that I've come up with.

The 42 that ran the Jammin on the James Poker run had that extension on it. It was a tubular swim platform on the back of the exsting platform. They were running Arneson drives on the 42 and needed the extra protection from the longer extension.

Who has bought/added an extended platform (from Fountain or other) and how much $ are we looking at? I really like the one on the 2009 Arneson boat on the Fountain website.