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Originally Posted by JohnNH
As many of you are aware, I am a Bass fisherman and operate a high perfomance Bass Boat as well as a couple of other types of water craft.
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Perhaps we should take a stand and consider approaching the legislature with some real recommendations that make sense.
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Looking forward to your comments,
John/NH
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I don't know all the answers. Heck I don't even know all the questions but I'll toss out an idea or three for debate. First while NH's Boater Ed program is a start I'm not convinced it'll accomplish much. What I see is a (maybe even the) problem is that it's waaay too easy for someone to "bone up" for the test and then flush that knowledge away before they're back on the lake. If knowledge of the basic rules of the road is part of the problem then I don't see the present course solving it. Coming back to my schooling I do see some help though. To this day I can still do simple math (8x6=48) w/o a calculator because it was burned into my brain though (seemingly) endless repetition. While "rote" learning is frowned upon these days, I do think it can help pound the basic rules into even Capt B's head. Therefore I'll suggest making the boating course mandatory every 2 (??) years so even boating newbies can get sufficient *exposure* so that they'll learn despite themselves. Now even I groan at this but given you can do the course online (? perhaps just as a refresher ?) ... I guess an hour every 2 years isn't that much. Even better, make the online course free and you'll remove another reason not to take it.
Along the same lines I'll steal an idea that someone else has posted before. Why not post the basic rules at each public ramp along with a buoy 150' out from the ramp. You might catch some of the out of state boaters and infuse them with some knowledge. In this endeavor the signage will need to be creative so it'll get noticed and read. I don't know how this might be done but I think it's possible. Not than many years ago I used to fly quite a bit for job reasons. Believe me when you've flown >60k miles in a year you get used to tuning out the safety briefing and yet I can recall with vividness one time the flight attendant on the Pittsburg to Bristol flight did her routine ... in a non-routine manner. With an overdone Southern drawl she said "In the event of an emergency the oxygen will deploy from the overhead compartment. First I want you to pray that our pilot Jimmy-Bob hasn't had too much to drink today and then, and only then, pull on the ..." Suffice it to say because it was so amusing even the jaded business travelers listened. I don't know how to do this on a sign but I'll bet some creative type does.
Next, as I've said previously, I'm not sure out-right unlawful and/or unsafe behavior is the biggest problem. Assuming the problems I've ranted about comes from ignorance or thoughtlessness, I would suggest adding a section to the boating course titled etiquette. The topic is not the laws but rather the unwritten rules we follow. I'm less sure how to present the information but perhaps videos depicting Capt B behavior and then what a more thoughtful boater would have done. As above the key is presentation. Officer Bob preaching about safety & niceness won't get remembered. John Cleese in a mocking diatribe about Capt B just might be. If the lack of boating etiquette is due to some larger societal rudeness issue, no training, nor any law enforcement efforts will bear much fruit. You can't force the majority to do something they really don't want to do; you can only hope to remind them of their better natures (to paraphrase Lincoln).
Lastly I throw out 1 idea for those who think some form of legislation and policing action just has to be done. I've opined previously that, at times, congestion lies at the root of a lot of boating problems. Short of reducing the number of boats allowed on the lake what can be done ? In the car world, even when the numbers can't be reduced, you can help by managing the flow better. Could Winni adopt a counter-clockwise flow rule ? All boats with X feet of the (land) shore must go in a counter-clockwise direction unless traveling at NWS. This (assuming people would obey) would tend to segregate boats going in opposite directions from each other, just as we do in channels. Exactly what number X is and how to handle traffic flow around islands and potentially other issues I'll leave open for discussion. This is more of an off the top of my head idea and so I toss it into the forum for your comment and/or amusement. I will say that if boat traffic moved more smoothly, w/o having to come off then on then off then on plane, boaters would be happier.