Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post

jeffk · 01-15-2005, 05:03 PM

I've been boating on the lake for 10 years now. I've seen people do all sorts of stupid boating behavior, mostly involving excess speeds closer than 150 ft. I'm sure others on this forum have longer boating experience on the lake than I, but not once have I had a problem because someone was going faster than 45 mph. I have seen others going fast but usually at a significant distance. My boat (22 ft) tops out at about 55. I will occassionally push it to the limit when I am a good distance from any obstacles. It's fun. After a couple of minutes I cut back to a more sedate crusing speed.
As others have pointed out, it's the reckless behavior, not the speed. I will conceed that the combination of bad behavior and speed can make a bad situation worse. However, a high speed pass through the broads early in the day is not inherently dangerous to anyone. I would bet that going out in a canoe or rowboat without a life jacket has caused more fatalities without any other boat even being involved. Can we figure out some type of legislation to prevent that stupid behavior? (Off topic - and snowmobilers that don't know the lake going out drunk late at night and drowning?)
Almost every time I can think of someone doing something dangerous on the lake I was aware that they were probably breaking an already existing law. Why don't we focus on education and enforcement of existing laws before we decide we have to regulate the fun out of everyone's lives.

01-15-2005, 05:03 PM	#52
jeffk Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,130 Thanks: 201 Thanked 421 Times in 239 Posts	Let's focus on the behavior that causes the problems I've been boating on the lake for 10 years now. I've seen people do all sorts of stupid boating behavior, mostly involving excess speeds closer than 150 ft. I'm sure others on this forum have longer boating experience on the lake than I, but not once have I had a problem because someone was going faster than 45 mph. I have seen others going fast but usually at a significant distance. My boat (22 ft) tops out at about 55. I will occassionally push it to the limit when I am a good distance from any obstacles. It's fun. After a couple of minutes I cut back to a more sedate crusing speed. As others have pointed out, it's the reckless behavior, not the speed. I will conceed that the combination of bad behavior and speed can make a bad situation worse. However, a high speed pass through the broads early in the day is not inherently dangerous to anyone. I would bet that going out in a canoe or rowboat without a life jacket has caused more fatalities without any other boat even being involved. Can we figure out some type of legislation to prevent that stupid behavior? (Off topic - and snowmobilers that don't know the lake going out drunk late at night and drowning?) Almost every time I can think of someone doing something dangerous on the lake I was aware that they were probably breaking an already existing law. Why don't we focus on education and enforcement of existing laws before we decide we have to regulate the fun out of everyone's lives.