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Awesome info Frank.. hey I won’t be horseless for to long haha.

your always welcome on my boat for sure just poking a little fun at you I am sure you will find a good one soon

story of a spare motor

I am of the opinion no one should be out on the big lake or the river where barges may be present with one main motor !
was test running a boat on the cal sag eng quit would not restart we always take a 2'3 with on these test runs looked up and 200 yards away coming down on us fast was 6 barges two wide 3 deep front barges where MT good 20' up in the air no way tug captain could see us threw the 2.3 over transom started it up and got us out of the barges way. I have had boat quit on me before on these test rides but never any thing like this case of the worse timing possible not kidding literally saved our lives

The column I wrote on this subject will be in the February/March issue of Great Lakes Angler but the long and short of it is there's now a third option of throwable PFDs available which are perfect for smaller boats where currently the only option is either a somewhat expensive and bulky ring or horseshoe buoy or a seat cushion. For the column I tested how far and accurately I could throw the seat cushion I have on my boat - on land where I didn't have any rods, windshields or people in the way. With a strong, Frisbee-like heave I could get it to fly 20 yards in zero wind but with poor accuracy. I was pretty good in no wind to 10 yards. Into a 15 mph wind both distance and accuracy sucked and in one toss where I was striving for distance, the wind caught it and the toss went backwards.
The new 3rd option, recently legalized, is an inflatable throwable. Powered much like inflatable PFDs it's in a tight, football sized packet which Tom Brady could probably throw accurately for 60 yards. Check out www.throwraft.com. Self-inflates or can be manually activated. Reuseable.
Though DNR requirements make me have a rope tied to my ring buoy, the jury is out on whether the rope is a help or hindrance in an emergency. (Thus the reason I have both a cushion and ring buoy - and now a Throw Raft. The problem with the rope is it hinders long and accurate throws and can easily be fouled in props or on lower units impeding maneuvering the boat in a rescue situation. A better option is to have an unfettered throwable devise and a Throw Bag, which is a rope stuffed into a bag about the size of a football which can (like the Throw Raft) be tossed farther and more accurately, when/if the situation warrants.