Quote:
Originally Posted by elchase
I just don't understand why everyone I meet who uses the lake more casually is saying how much this year's SL and last year's test helped bring civility back to the lake, and all those on this forum (who almost unanimously opposed the SL) are seeing all this mayhem and all these violations. I'm on the lake at least thirty hours a week this summer, and have seen maybe two incidences of bonehead behavior (not counting all the performance boats cruising around with their trims up to make big wakes on purpose) and a handful of SL violators. This compares to the incident-per-minute rate I've witnessed in past years
And my failure to understand is compounded when the same people say on one thread that the SL is having all this negative impact, then on another thread saying it is doing nothing but wasting enforcement dollars (which is it?). And the people saying it wastes those enforcement dollars say on another thread that the MP is not even bothering to enforce and is spending all their time entrapping people into passage violations (which is it?).
My observations are my observations, and I am as entitled to share them as you guys are. My opinions are my opinions, and I am as entitle to express them as you guys are. I refuse to just back and shut up when I read stuff here by a decidedly biased group that so blatantly conflicts with what I am seeing out on the lake. And trying to ram down our throats the notions that 1) things are still crazy out there despite the SL, even though the SL has chased all the boats off the lake (which is it?), 2) There are more violations this year because of the SL, even though going slower is making you all waste so much gas (which is it?), 3) the SL is ruining the shorefront, even though you are still going as fast as you want (which is it?), 4) the SL is destroying the local economy, even though you are ignoring it anyway (which is it?), and 5) all these other contradictions. Most of what I read here disagrees with what most of us who are out on the lake day after day year after year have witnessed, and might fly with your comrades and the naive, but is not going to intimidate the rest of society into buying it.
I'm sorry if my opinion and my boating interests differ from yours. But my passive boating activities never interfered with yours the way yours did with mine, and I simply do not want to see us take a giant step backwards to the mayhem of 2007 and before. The SL is indeed making us feel good, and I like feeling good. You guys should consider the impact your aggressive activities have on others before telling us why we are wrong in opposing them.
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el I couldn't disagree more with you. I live on the lake all summer long and I can only assume you are boating on weekdays between 5 and 8 pm. Other than that I have witnessed the absolute worst boating displays EVER this year. Please for you and your friends sake do not spread the word the the lake is somehow magically safer this year as you will be putting yourself and your friends lives at serious risk. As an islander I can tell you I boat way more than the average boater as it is my primary source of transportation. My 25 foot bowrider capable of a shade faster than 47MPH is my car. I am subjected to seeing the absolute worst of the worst and I can tell you that this lake is VERY dangerous right now. I was absolutely horrified on Saturday. Pulling out of my dock felt like getting on to I-95. Tubers in channels with kids in the water. Boats 25-35 feet away from each other. An idiot on a Jet Ski with two others on it cut across my bow less than 25 feet. First time I ever used my horn like a car horn. It worked and the kid waved.
He thought I was saying hello! This lake is absolutely NOT safer. I started boating on the lake in around 1981. I've driven everything from a tin boat to the Doris E. herself. I can tell you from experience that things have gone way downhill in the past few years and I am getting scared going out on a Saturday. Let me add that not ONE Performance boat has been involved in any of these situations, not ONE! So I am sick and tired of the allegations that pin it on those guys. I am not one of them I am merely a frustrated boater. Frustrated with legislation that DID NOT address the Real problems of the lake. I am actually beyond frustrated and more pissed off than anything. I drive around the lake wondering how all these people passed a boat test????? The bill that was passed has had absolutely no affect on the safety of the lake. I am appalled at how crazy the lake is. YUP I said it "Crazy" I used the term you used. I agree wholeheartedly that the lake is crazy right now. But it is the idiots in the family boat dragging their kids in a channel. It is the bass fisherman coming a few feet up my side waving as he passes me, it is the jetskier cutting across my bow, it is the guy who has NO CLUE that I have the right of way when he is cutting across my bow from the left and I have to stop to avoid killing my family, it is the idiot in the pontoon boat who tired to pass me in a no wake zone (he was on plane). FYI most of this occurred yesterday!!
So please do us all a favor and take off the rose colored glasses because I just can't believe we are boating on the same lake??? This law addresses NOTHING it has done NOTHING! Things are worse.