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Originally Posted by KonaChick
Evenstar you attribute speed to the reason these boats violated the 150" rule? I don't see the connection as I can violate that rule whether I'm putting along at 10 mph or 100 mph. Why would speeding make me more apt to violate that rule??
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I've very clearly stated numerous times, in great detail, why these specific violations were speed related - so do a search on my previous posts. These specific violations were not intentional - they were unintentional - due to speed. I have never have never been a victim of an unintentional 150 foot violation on Squam - where there is a 40mph enforced speed limit. And I paddle Squam a great deal more than I paddle on winni.
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Originally Posted by Ryan
Your logic is severly flawed. If you can't enfore existing laws, how will the new SL be enforced? The law is an empty prayer and after it's shown ineffective, you're going to have to come up with some magic to get it renewed.
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How is my logic flawed in any way? I stated: "The current rules are being enforced . . . " No law is 100% effective, 100% of the time - that's an impossibility - yet not being able to enforce laws 100% does not mean that we don't need more laws.
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I'm not sure if you saw any of my posts from the past week, but there was very little MP presence on the lake last weekend. It was heavily congested. Gas prices are keeping MP boats docked, but not keeping boats off the lake.
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Do you know for a fact that the MP is spending any less time on the lake this summer than last? If so, do you have any proof that this is due to gas prices? A MP boat was on the lake near me last week, and they have to trailer their boats to be on this lake. And I saw just as many MP on Squam last Saturday. Their presence on both lakes seems about the same as any summer to me.
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Because there have been numerous, documented cases where it has been shown that speed, and speed alone were the direct result of accidents on highways. These facts just didn't exist in Concord.
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Collisions might be rare, but close calls from high speed boats seem to happen quite a bit. No agency keeps track of close calls, so there’s no real data on this. I’ve had close calls with high speed boats, so I know for a fact that they happen. And many other boaters had stated that they have had close calls. The absence of a fatal accident is not proof that high speed boats are not dangerous to paddlers.
And when there is a boating accident, there's no accurate way to estimate how fast the boat was traveling - the main tool for estimating auto accident speeds are tire skid marks - boats don't leave skid marks.
Chief Warrant Officer Jim Krzenski, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce happens to agrees with me:
“Avoiding collisions on the water differs in many ways from avoiding collisions while driving in your car. The one contributing factor which is similar between boats as compared to automobiles is SPEED. It has been statistically proven that the number of collisions between vehicles, be they of the marine or roadway type, are reduced as speed is reduced.” http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/122098tip.htm