[TiltonBB]

Originally Posted by Dave R

It's a tough situation because of the possibility of current, and they really have no choice but to leave it subjective.

I routinely pass under the Hampton River draw bridge and unless it's slack tide, there's always a stiff current there. The water often swirls violently and the navigable channel under the bridge is narrow. By law, I'm not allowed to make a wake under the bridge, in practice, you'd have to be insane or inexperienced to attempt to pass under that bridge slowly. My boat displaces over 32,000 lbs, is 50'LOA, and it gets pushed around like a bath toy under that bridge, unless I power through "purposefully" (I make sure the boat is lined up with the channel and the rudders are straight before entering, then throttle up aggressively so that I'm accelerating smartly as I pass under the bridge). One of my marina neighbors sideswiped the bridge last year with a 45,000 lb boat trying to go through gently at 5 knots. I came close to doing that once in 2019 and won't make that mistake again.

Years ago I would often ride my motorcycle up Route 127 to Gloucester, MA and sit by the side of the Annisquam River bridge. In a couple of hours sitting there you could see many people back off the throttle when their boat started to move around in the current. A lot of them ended bouncing off the wall as they went through. Sometimes you can learn a lot, just by watching.