I have been mostly small timing it until now, but since my new boat has arrived I am officially "all in". My new 36' Newton Dive Special is USCG inspected and ready for divers. Best of all she sips fuel and I can run her with as few a three paying customers (Inspected for 30 passengers or 23 divers) and I have put a cap at 15 divers max. She is tied up at the Bay Point Resort's Marina which is by far the nicest in town and they have been kind enough to open up the owner's pool and bathrooms (nice clean and with showers) to my guests. So if you and your family or friends are heading into the area I'd love to take you diving or put you on some fish from PCBs newest dive boat operation.
http://www.panamacitydivecharters.com/images/dsc_0128.jpg
http://www.panamacitydivecharters.com/images/steel_slinger.jpg

Very noce looking operation Pat. Look forward to diving with you if my wife ever loosens the leash. :)

congrats, newtons are awesome. Did you do much of the rigging or did you have that done at the factory? What her cruise speed? How far offshore is a offshore trip going to be? Can you describe a typical 3 tank dive...departure/returning time/run time to get offshore?? depths?

Factory did most of the work, we only did stuff like mounting speargun racks, accent lights, "save water shower with a buddy" placards, and added some roll control for those larger tanks and tanks with boots.

Offshore is pretty much any trip further than 8 miles from the pass. It really isn't a measure of distance from shore but rather a pricing scheme for the charter ops here. Obviously the further we all run the more fuel we burn and that is how we try to recoop it.

Spearing trips will be exclusively in state waters on my boat as it is illegal to take passengers for hire and let them take regulated reef fish or pelagics in federal waters without a special rare and expensive permit, in federal waters. Typically depths are right at 100' and nitrox is highly recommended.

An offshore trip typically adds another hour (5 instead of 4) to the trip. I run the boat at about 18-20mph and the furthest offshore site we commonly hit is 14 miles out.

Just so we are clear my inshore and offshore designations are for scuba trips. All spearing trips are done on an hourly basis like the charter guys. If two or three drops is enough then we can do a spearing trip under the scuba rates, provided we everyone is on the same page. Spearguns are always welcome on all my trips, just let me know ahead of time so I can plan which site we hit and be legal.

Pat,

That is one fine looking dive boat. Congrats...

Had the pleasure of goin' out with Pat and a few buddies bout a month ago . A great boat is no good without a good captain AND good numbers . Pat delivered the goods . Any Atlanta folks ever want to go I'll be glad to go along and give you the heads up on what you need to bring etc etc and if you need another guy I'm ready.
Greg Tysor