I looked at the MD website but could only find technical details for the HRU series. There wasn't any mention of how it worked or why you would want to choose it over one of the other models. Any info on that? Thanks
A boat is just a hole in the water you pour money into. They require endless maintenance or very bad things happen.
Water is so corrosive. A buddy of mine in the Coast Guard Academy was from Connecticut and his uncle kept a boat in Mystic. We could use it all we wanted as long as we maintained it. That is where I found out how much time and money is involved in the upkeep of a small power boat. Sail boats are no different, maybe worse because sails and rigging are not cheap and those also decay with age. Later on I served on big ships in both the Coast Guard and later the Navy and saw how much work is involved in their upkeep.
There are video series of the recent drydocking and overhauls of two old US Navy battleships, the 1914 vintage USS Texas and the 1943 vintage USS New Jersey. Both are on public display but because of a law passed by Congress in the 1990s the New Jersey and the other three Iowa class battleships have to be kept in a condition that allows them to be returned to service in the event of a war. Silly because they are hopelessly obsolete but there you are. Texas will never go to sea again but their overhauls show the effects of time and exposure to salt water and weather and how much work is involved in correcting that wear.
The Marines wanted the Navy to keep them for gunfire support during an amphibious assault. Shades of WWII where the battleships would line up and pound Japanese held islands until every palm tree was literally gone ( called a "Navy haircut" ) before the Marines landed. The US Navy used to have dozens of battleships and big gun heavy cruisers for surface bombardment. No more.
Until I retired a year ago I was on the pointy end of that change. I worked for the Navy at one of their weapons development labs. Fun job. Better than anything on Discovery or the Military Channel.
What I'm hinting at is that I got to see the real skinny, stuff that we can't show the public.
I loved it and intended to stick around a few more years but made a decision on election night I absolutely do not regret. I just spoke with my former team lead today while driving across Arizona and he is not happy. Where we used to work from home part time and could "hotel" a nice desk throught a reservation system if we needed to come in to the office, now everyone is in the office but there is no room. His desk is literally a shelf in a hallway with a folding metal chair. His former high powered laptop was taken and the one he was given doesn't have enough disc space or memory to do what we were doing before. He's working with one arm tied behind his back. I kind of knew things would get bad but not that bad. One of the few times in my life I made the right decision at the right time and no regrets.
My "Flag Raising Ceremony" ( an American flag is flown on the base flag pole and given to you in a ceremony ) was on the same day Elon Musk issued the first of his "fork in the road" e-mails. Well I took a different fork in the road.
