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Old 04-26-2019, 06:25 AM   #50
Garcia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Major View Post
Through experience and common sense. A person with a fast boat does not indiscriminately go fast in tight or crowded areas but instead looks for wide open spaces. My father owned a 27’ Eliminator that would do about 90. He would open it up routinely but was very safe about it. Most if not all owners of fast boats feel this way. An arbitrary speed limit was a solution looking for a problem that didn’t exist.


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If only common sense really were common! When I was a teenager and in my early twenties I feel the lake had fewer boats, smaller boats, and not as many boats that went really fast; I had a friend whose boat went 70+ which at the time was really fast. As boats became more and more plentiful - and bigger and faster - a significant number of people without common sense helped create an environment ripe for regulation.

While I don't think it will happen anytime soon, if boats continue to get bigger and bigger I would not be surprised to start seeing a move to impose some type of tax based on length, beam, and/or displacement - or perhaps even limits on size. The logic would be that bigger boats take up a disproportionate share of public spaces; for example, a boat like the one in this thread would take up (my guess) four or more spaces at a public dock and the equivalent number of mooring spaces on a sandbar.

I am not advocating for such a tax or ban, merely pointing out that regulation only comes about when conditions warrant them. Very few politicians take positions that buck the will of their constituents. And, those that do are not in office for too long.

Bottom line to me - if someone wants to bring a boat I feel is way too big for the lake, so be it. Until and unless something changes, that is his/her right to do so. I'll both admire it and roll my eyes when it goes by - and wish I owned such a vessel so I could do the Great Loop!
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