[Airwaves]

Originally posted by Broadhopper:
I remember years ago, a marine patrol boat ran over a small whaler type boat in Alton Bay one night. The argument was the MP claimed the other boat had no lights. Not sure what the outcome was but the officer was placed on leave and eventually retired or quit. Can anybody recall that event?

I don't recall that event but I do know that the Colregs require vessels to have lights at night. So if the MP boat operator was correct then he/she was not at fault and was a scapegoat.

Originally posted by APS:
Boating accidents in nearby Connecticut and New Jersey have spiked.

Both states have required Boater Education much longer than New Hampshire. Their "education" programs are keeping accidents down, all right—but only when there's bad weather!!!

New Jersey went for a NEW!!!—AND—IMPROVED!!! BOATER EDUCATION course this year when their accident rate went from 85 to 124.

After ignoring this post for a while I decided it needed to be addressed because someone might actually believe it to be accurate, it's not!

New Jersey's NEW!!!-AND-IMPROVED!!! BOATER EDUCATION course went from requiring operators of PWCs under age 25 to pass a test, to boaters on NON-tidal waters to pass a test! THAT WAS THE NEW AND IMPROVED ASPECT OF THE TEST. It also means ocean boaters are NOT REQUIRED to take or pass a mandatory boating test.

Now I don't know how long their PWC requirement was in effect but the expansion to include NON-tidal waters is much more recent than NH's boater education law!

I'll be the first to admit I don't know alot about boating in New Jersey, but based on a map of NJ I think I am safe in saying the vast majority of boaters are ocean boaters, not lake boaters and are not required to pass a boating education course or pass a test.

So to try to say New Jersey's boating law isn't working when it doesn't require a majority of their boaters to take or pass a boating course is not relevant to anything!
If New Jersey had the same law, or even a similar one to the law in place in NH it might have a place in this discussion!

I have spent some time searching the internet to find a correlation between boater education and increased boating accidents in CT but I haven't found one, could you please tell us your source?

In the meantime I stand by my statement. Boating accidents in NH have decreased every year from 1999 to 2004. Boater education is working, LET IT WORK!