A couple of quick comments then I think I've had enough.
Quote:
Originally posted by Winnipesaukee
If your boat can maintain steerage at 3mph, then you can go up to 6mph. 6mph is the limit for boats which can maintain steerage under that speed.
If your boat can only maintain steerage at 10mph, then you obviously can't safely operate at 6mph, so you must proceed under the second part of this clause, and your limit is 10mph.
It's pretty simple.
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I am in total agreement with the second paragraph, not the first.
Quote:
Originally posted by Woodsy
...I flagged over the NHMP boat and ASKED specifically what their interpretaion of the NWZ rule was....
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It has been my observation over the decades of boating on Winnipesaukee, and in the past few years of reading this forum that consistency is not one of the strong points of the NHMP.
As one example I remind you of the email that I sent to the NHMP asking about the Boat Wise NASBLA certificate and whether it was recognized in NH. The NHMP wrote back saying NO private agency certificates were recognized NASBLA approved or not...I passed that information along to a friend who had a Boat Wise certificate, he went up and took the proctored examine in NH and the NHMP proctor told him they would have certainly accepted the Boat Wise certificate. Asking the NHMP is not going to guarantee you the correct answer!
Quote:
Originally posted by Winnipesaukee
That minimum speed a boat must maintain can change given the conditions.
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Without reposting your entire comments, you are correct. There are times in when a boat, even one with a headway speed of below 6 MPH, can exceed that speed in order to
maintain steerage way. That is the clause that everyone seems to be ignoring...
Quote:
Originally posted by Chipj29
Does anyone really think the MP would or even could use a radar gun to track speeds of boaters in a NWZ? Or is simple observation good enough? Seriously, 6 +/- 2 mph, you can't tell the difference. Boat speedos are not that accurate. The only difference could be the size of the wake.
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That gets to the crux of the problem. A NHMP officer is going to visually determine your speed through a NWZ. If he decides you are violating the NWZ you could end up with a ticket and next year a ticket will become a moving violation on your driving record.
Because of that added little bonus to the new law, a district court judge is ultimately going to rule on this, create a precedent and thereby clarify the law.
Because of the lack of the word
"SHALL" anywhere in the RSA, and what appears to me to be the
INTENT of the RSA is to establish the definition of Headway Speed that forces a boat to maintain the slowest possible speed through a NWZ, it is pretty clear to me that the 6 MPH speed is guide, not a hard and fast speed to be traveled.
Don't forget, this added bonus of the new law covers the entire state of NH, not just Winnipesaukee and also applies to the safe passage law.
As I said, you do what you want but me? I am going to err on the side of caution and let someone else be the test case.