Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - You are a senator how do you vote on HB-847

ITD · 05-11-2008, 08:50 AM

I don't know what happened to no comments only votes in this thread, but everyone else is ignoring it so I might as well too.

I see the survey has entered the discussion again. First of all, let's do the simple math, 36 boats out of 3,914 (day and night added together) were going over 45mph, which equals 0.9 % of the boats measured were at or over the proposed speed limit. Less than one percent. Calculate for the "high speed" boats, those over 50 mph and we end up with 0.28%. That would be 1 boat travelling 50 or over out of every 355 you see on the lake.

Pretty damning numbers against the "wild west" high speed boats everywhere argument if you are a proponent. So the spin doctors come out with their anecdotes.

Here are a few:

1. The areas were announced.
Actually only 3 of 9 were publically announced. The other 6 weren't.
2. Marked MP boats were used.
Ok, that's true, so what. Another argument used by the proponents
is that these high speed boats can't see anything until they are on top
of it giving them little time to react. For this study, the argument
is the high speed boats see the MP boats miles away and slow down.
Can't have it both ways guys.
3. The study only covered a small percentage of daylight hours, or the
study only cover a small area of the lake.

Irrelevant. We are talking about speed here, not boating density or
habits. If I believe these arguments, then I have to take them to the
appropriate level. For instance, the radar gun obtains its reading in a
few milliseconds and the average boat occupies only about 100 square
feet of the lake. So in reality the actual boating time the readings
reflect would be 2 milliseconds times 3,914 boats or about 8 seconds
of real boat time. The area covered by the readings would be 100
square feet times 3,914 boats, or 391,400 sq ft out of 72 square miles
of lake. Who cares, it doesn't matter, it's not relevant to the speed
recorded OR the sample required to get an understanding of what is
happening on the lake.

It is dangerous to take these numbers and start drawing boat population conclusions. The only relevant number from this study is that 1 out of 355 boats is travelling faster than 50 mph.

That number shows there are no problems on this lake that a speed limit will solve, everything else is just spin....

05-11-2008, 08:50 AM	#50
ITD Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Moultonboro, NH Posts: 2,860 Thanks: 461 Thanked 666 Times in 366 Posts	I don't know what happened to no comments only votes in this thread, but everyone else is ignoring it so I might as well too. I see the survey has entered the discussion again. First of all, let's do the simple math, 36 boats out of 3,914 (day and night added together) were going over 45mph, which equals 0.9 % of the boats measured were at or over the proposed speed limit. Less than one percent. Calculate for the "high speed" boats, those over 50 mph and we end up with 0.28%. That would be 1 boat travelling 50 or over out of every 355 you see on the lake. Pretty damning numbers against the "wild west" high speed boats everywhere argument if you are a proponent. So the spin doctors come out with their anecdotes. Here are a few: 1. The areas were announced. Actually only 3 of 9 were publically announced. The other 6 weren't. 2. Marked MP boats were used. Ok, that's true, so what. Another argument used by the proponents is that these high speed boats can't see anything until they are on top of it giving them little time to react. For this study, the argument is the high speed boats see the MP boats miles away and slow down. Can't have it both ways guys. 3. The study only covered a small percentage of daylight hours, or the study only cover a small area of the lake. Irrelevant. We are talking about speed here, not boating density or habits. If I believe these arguments, then I have to take them to the appropriate level. For instance, the radar gun obtains its reading in a few milliseconds and the average boat occupies only about 100 square feet of the lake. So in reality the actual boating time the readings reflect would be 2 milliseconds times 3,914 boats or about 8 seconds of real boat time. The area covered by the readings would be 100 square feet times 3,914 boats, or 391,400 sq ft out of 72 square miles of lake. Who cares, it doesn't matter, it's not relevant to the speed recorded OR the sample required to get an understanding of what is happening on the lake. It is dangerous to take these numbers and start drawing boat population conclusions. The only relevant number from this study is that 1 out of 355 boats is travelling faster than 50 mph. That number shows there are no problems on this lake that a speed limit will solve, everything else is just spin....