OK, let me try this again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BearIslander
I have heard the switchable exhaust story before. There might be a few responsible people that would use it in a crowded environment. However I'm sure the reason it is illegal is because it would mostly be used to quiet down when the Marine Patrol was around.... I was born at night, but I wasn't born LAST night.
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BI, where did I say anything about lifting the existing decibel limits? I didn’t!! So, as codeman671 put it, I could either be legally loud or courteous and quiet. What a novel idea!!! God forbid I should ever try to be courteous because we all know performance boaters are not courteous!! Yeah, right; what a bunch of BS!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BearIslander
I don't know anything about your boat, but if you can't operate at legal speeds AND be able to see where you are going, then it should not be on a crowded lake.
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Nice, twist my words. BI, I CAN operate my boat at legal speeds because for now, at least, “legal” is “reasonable and prudent under the existing conditions” which means I’m allowed to throttle up, at night, to get my boat up on plane so I can SEE where I’m going without having the bow of my boat blocking my forward visibility. I can also see in front of my boat if I’m moving at no-wake speed. 25mph is where the problem arises; it's simply too slow to get my, and I'm guessing alot of other boats, up on plane. If the 25mph night-time speed limit is imposed, the only way I would be able to keep the bow down so I could see in front of my boat, would be to break the speed limit to get up on plane and stay there (GASP!) or motor at no-wake speed and, to borrow from Dave_R, no-wake speed is not the most efficient speed possible on a boat. My wife and I work hard to afford our boat; we're not rich. Since we're not rich, I’m not going to waste money and fuel! You pro-limit people think all the GFBL people are “rich” but I, for one, am NOT! Oh, I almost forgot, there is one other option, stay home and not go out at all. But this isn’t about keeping a certain type of boat off the lake, is it?!?!?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave_R
Oddly, I have to agree with BI about boats that ride dangerously bow high (meaning the view forward is blocked) at speeds above 25 MPH. Sounds like a design issue that should be addressed. Sustained operation in that mode is reckless, IMO, and ought to earn the operator a ticket. If it's not possible to maintain planing speed, the operator should reduce speed to bring the bow down far enough to see. That's just common sense.
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Dave_R, as far as I know, it’s not a “design issue” that needs to be addressed but then again, I’m not a designer. From my own personal experience and what little bit I’ve read about boat design, any boat that has a “planing” type of hull will encounter a bow high condition until it reaches planing speed. Obviously, the lighter and/or shorter the boat, the lower the planing speed will be. You’ve “never, ever, seen a GFBL operated in this manner” because we (the performance boat owner/driver) KNOW it’s unsafe and our intent is to get up on plane as soon as we are clear of traffic (this is where the 150’ rule comes into play!) so that we CAN see in front of us! Apparently, the intent IS to keep a certain type of boat off the lake, because the longer and heavier a boat is, the higher the minimum planing speed of said boat. So if the 25mph limit is imposed, a lot of performance boat owners won’t be able to safely use their boat at night.
Dave_R, in one paragraph you say “If it's not possible to maintain planing speed, the operator should reduce speed to bring the bow down far enough to see. That's just common sense” and in the next paragraph “It's the least efficient speed possible on any boat.”, referring to bow high operation. We can’t have it both ways. Most, maybe not all, performance boats can’t “reduce speed to bring the bow down far enough to see” (to meet the proposed 25mph night-time limit) and still operate efficiently. I don’t want to waste the fuel (and money) by being on the lake at night and only go “no-wake” speed and besides, we’ve already heard from the people claiming we pollute more than any other type of boat (including the two-cycle outboards?) so it’s really not advisable for that reason also.
This is why the current standard, “reasonable and prudent under the existing conditions”, is STILL the best alternative. It’s not the performance boaters making the lake unsafe, it’s the boneheads that either don’t know or ignore the existing laws that are unsafe. Fund the MP so they can enforce the existing laws and ticket THEM to death until they either get it straight or stop coming here altogether but don’t legislate us to death for their ignorance and/or arrogance.
OK, rip me apart; I know someone out there wants to do it.