Quote:
Originally Posted by fatlazyless
My question to all the 424 NH legislators is: can the new community sailing program safely be in operation in the same lake with a totally unlimited motorboat speed limit? Can 300+ young student sailers, age 8-16, learn to sail in sailboats ranging from 10' Optimist beginner boats to 14' day-sailers to 14' Lasers to 16' blind & handicapped-friendly, computer adapted boats, to a Hobi Cat (for the hot-shot 15 year-olds) and at the same time coexist with high speed motorboaters?
We are talking about 32-foot performance motorboats, namely the Baja Outlaw, that weighs 8000lbs and is equipped with dual 1200hp engines; motorboats capable of going 80mph. A few can even go faster than 100mph.
Is this a safe situation, and how does the NH Dept of Parks and Recreation feel about this?
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First, let's dial back the hyperbole a bit.
The number of students expected FOR THE WHOLE YEAR is 300. They have courses for about 8 weeks. That averages out to around 35 students a week, a nice sized group but hardly a strain for a lake the size of Winnipesaukee that deals with thousands of boaters at a time.
And speaking of the size, is someone driving on Scenic Drive endangered by the higher level and speed of traffic on Lake Shore Road? Except for the the intersection of the roads I would guess that there is little threat to the drivers on Scenic Dr. because they are in separate locations. Similarly, if a powerboat follows the Mt Washington's route they are almost a mile from Ellacoya shore area, where I would guess most of the sailing training would be done. If the powerboat is in the broads, it is over 2 miles away from the Ellacoya shore. The only real threat might be if the powerboat buzzed the shoreline at high speed. Since this would break at least a half dozen existing laws I would think the Marine Patrol could deal with such a moron quite easily. Further, I would guess most power boaters, seeing a collection of sailboats would give them a very wide berth to avoid getting near them and having to drop to headway speed. I think the inexperienced sailors are in more danger of bumping into each other than running afoul of a powerboat. Why not simply flag the primary training zone and make it a restricted speed area?
Finally, although Baja's can be custom powered to run at very high speeds, the cost of such additional power would price the boat out of the range of the vast majority of people and would be a waste to have on Winnipesaukee where the opportunities to use such an extravagant boat would be limited. Are there really any boats on Winnipesaukee that can go much faster than 80 MPH? Talking about 100+ MPH boats on Winnipesaukee is like worrying about the problems of landing the space shuttle at Manchester airport. Yes, the shuttle exists and landing it puts a stain on the landing area. However, I don't think we need to worry about it landing in Manchester anytime soon.
I have been around novice Sunfish sailors many times. I have passed them at a distance at 55 MPH and cruised at headway speed through the middle of them when they were blocking a channel. No one had any problems. Why would an expanded sailing facility be any different?
Maybe I'll sign up for lessons when they get the new facility built.
