VB on target as usual. The vast majority of boaters, at any given point in time, are doing between 20mph and under 40 mph. If you get a lot of boats going every which way, it can, and often does, look like total chaos. Last year it was the high gas prices, this year it's unemployment and the economy. People get a little bent out of shape worrying about their retirements accounts and what lies ahead.
According to my dad, Winni was crazy in the 70's and never got better. It is what it is. If you really want to read something so true it's shameful, this is it.
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The real us versus them needs to become the safe boater versus the bonehead boater, not slow versus fast. The answer is to rid the lake of bad boaters.
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That's really the summation of threads from the last few years. None of us likes crazy, nor dangerous, on the road or on the water. We know the issues, and understand the problems. We try not to rationalize them, but identify them. There really is no us versus them. It's really more those that get it, and those that do not.
We were to go tubing today, not one of my favorite activities. First, I must navigate (zig-zag) around a hundred sailboats or so, deal with 15 to 20-knot winds, and stay within the bay because it's going to be a pretty rough day. Pretty much the deal all summer excepting the 90% rainy days. I only worry about other tubers, the usual boneheads that change course for no man, and the occasional fisherman that troll across the narrow channel.
The bigger and faster boats take to the open water and cruise out there. I wish I could, but the 2 to 5 foot waves slow me down a little bit
Some of the real nuts, like myself, wish gas were $6 a gallon to cut down on the boneheads and we could selfishly enjoy the lake themselves. But alas, it's a big world out there, and they all share it. As a kid, I used to take my little 12' aluminum boat with trusty 5hp Gale Buccaneer engine everywhere. I went from Meredith Neck to Sally's gut, down to the Weirs and channel, many times out to Silver Sands area, sometimes even in the Broads
My biggest problems were the Sophie, big cruisers, and a few bucks gas money.
I don't what what people's frame of reference is, but there's always been a tremendous difference between weekday and weekend boating, everywhere. Many of us that grew up on big lakes had to take the good with the bad, or be relegated to small puddles and ponds. As on the roadways, there are those that perceive danger at every turn, and may very well just lose their nerve endings as they age. Perceptions change, even if nothing really has changed. I'm sure many people would love to see Winni with only a few dozen boats tops, nice calm water, gentle breezes, and free lollipops for everyone. Not gonna happen.
As has been suggested many times, if someone's being a bonehead, call it in. If nobody responds, oh well. There are many opportunities to nail them, provided the MP has the desire, and the resources. Much of the "aggressive environment" on most lakes has evolved as people with little or no experience bring their attitudes out on the water. Education has little impact on these folks generally, but enforcement does. I assume if it were such a huge problem, as has been indicated over the last year, the State would have put much more funding into eliminating the wildness. They did not.
So I'll take a hint from Skip here. Until I start hearing and reading verifiable reports of mayhem and accidents all over the lake from aggressive boaters, I'll assume it's a "perceived" problem and not a real one. There was an accident with a PWC this year, the boat on island last year, and a bad one years before that. When you're reading about accidents and fatalities every week, boat wrecks all over the place, then there's an out of hand problem. If it's many witnessed close calls, swamped canoes and kayaks, actual intimidation and people fleeing for their lives, I'd be hearing from the marine patrol, the local news, and people would be calling the MP every minute of the day. Since they report none of that, I'll assume it's not occurring. How many times did you report dangerous boaters to the MP during the last few years? I know that if our neighborhood reports problems to the police here, they act.