Dear members of the New Hampshire General Court,
Soon you will be facing a piece of legislation filed by Senator Martha Fuller Clark that will ask you to make permanent the temporary speed limit on Lake Winnipesaukee.
I ask you to defeat this measure and allow the two year trial period to play out allowing the New Hampshire Department of Public Safety to collect and review the data, then report to you, the legislature, on whether this law is practical or needed. I, and a majority of boaters on Lake Winnipesaukee, strongly believe this law is not only unnecessary but is a detriment to the economy of the Lakes Region, New Hampshire and will cause an unnecessary financial drain on the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
A vocal minority has convinced a majority of you that Lake Winnipesaukee is and has been a lawless and dangerous place for years however when you take the time to look at the facts, and the laws that have been in place for years, you will understand that they have been doing nothing more than creating the illusion for their own narrow agenda.
New Hampshire has a boating regulation called Safe Passage. For those of you who are not boaters it simply means that when a boater comes within 150 feet of pretty much any object, be it another boat, swimmer, shore, no wake zone etc. they are REQUIRED to cut their speed to no more than 6 miles an hour! This is a uniquely New Hampshire law! Few if any other states have it and it has gone a long way toward making New Hampshire the safest place to boat in New England and among the safest places to boat in the United States of America! Please take the time to read this NH Department of Safety Services Press Release of August 2009 for verification!
http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/ss/090817.html
In spite of the overwhelming amount of rhetoric that has been coming from supporters of the speed limit even those that patrol the waters of New Hampshire have stated it is an unnecessary law and a snapshot of Lake Winnipesaukee during the 2007 boating season conducted by the New Hampshire Marine patrol showed that fewer than 1% of the boats clocked by radar were traveling in excess of the then proposed speed limit and it is my understanding that no more than a single ticket for speeding has been issued in the 2009 boating season. That re-enforces the conclusion of boating experts that speed has not been a problem on Lake Winnipesaukee in the past and it is currently not a problem. Please take time to read the New Hampshire Marine Patrol report of their 2007 speed study on Lake Winnipesaukee!
http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/s...eedsurvey.html
New Hampshire’s boating safety record prior to speed limits on Lake Winnipesaukee exceeds those of any other New England state according to the United States Coast Guard. Advocates for imposing this unnecessary law on New Hampshire boaters routinely search the internet for stories of tragic accidents in other parts of the country, and in some cases in other countries, and try to say this could happen here! However they ignore the existing laws that keep our waterways safe. Laws that do not exist in the parts of the country and elsewhere that they continue to try to compare with New Hampshire.
Below is a link to the United States Coast Guard Boating Statistics. You will see that of the 96,205 boats registered in New Hampshire in 2008, the year before speed limits went into effect but after mandatory boater education was already law, that only 28 vessels were involved in accidents! That is a ratio of 0.00028% of New Hampshire registered boats and does not include transient boaters from out-of-state that visit New Hampshire so that number is actually even lower!
http://www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/...stics_2008.pdf
Finally, I want to bring to your attention the economic impact of an unnecessary boating law and the dangers that law poses especially in light of the down economy in New Hampshire.
The following is a link to a comprehensive study conducted in 2003 that shows the economic impact of boating, fishing and swimming in New Hampshire. Keep in mind this study is in 2002 dollars. Creating an atmosphere that implies New Hampshire is no longer friendly or welcoming to tourists is a very dangerous economic road to begin to travel.
http://www.nhlakes.org/docs/EcoStudyPhaseII.pdf
Ladies and Gentlemen of the General Court I ask you to defeat the proposal by Senator Fuller Clark that would make the speed limit on Lake Winnipesaukee permanent. Allow the law to run its course and sunset on January 1, 2011.
Thank you for your consideration.