| Innovative Towers
...this note just arrived in the Dec/Jan issue #104 of ProBoat
As a reader always interested in off shore sportfishing innovations, I enjoyed Bruce Pfund's articles "Shootout" (PBB No. 101, page 38).
In 1972 I had a ride on a 64' (22.5m) Halmatic sportfisherman equipped with a tower constructed primarily from twin aluminum poles at the forward end of either side of the cockpit, similar to a vertical gin pole upon which was perched an oblong pod for the captain and a few other observers. There was minimum cross-bracing and about a million fewer welds than in a typical tower of today.
Compared to towers of that era, the pod was farther aft, giving the captain a better view over the transom.
But the best part was that it had a real ladder leading up to the pod and wide enough for one person to ascend while another descended.
Chris Exley
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