Lt. Dunleavy, NHMP, responds....

[Skipper of the Sea Que]

This quote from the Radar Thread

Originally Posted by Evenstar

I have been totally honest here. Yet whenever I mention the fact that I have had high speed boats violate my 150 foot zone - because they were apparently going too fast to see me in time - {snip} I have never twisted anything, yet I have been repeatedly accused of doing do. The truth is that some operators travel faster then their ability to see smaller boats in time to stay out of the 150 foot zone. I've seen this happen way too much.

Evenstar, you have consistently claimed that your 150' space is violated by boaters who CAN NOT SEE you due to their excessive speed. I have no doubt that you honestly feel that way. One fallacy is that many of these boaters may actually see you and just not care. Another is that it's primarily boaters going over 45 mph that can not see you soon enough to avoid your 150' zone.

Boaters have violated my 150' space going much slower than 45 mph and some are Go Fast boats that aren't going over 45mph. My 24' cruiser is not low in the water and it's easy to see. I conclude that these violators don't know or care about the 150' rule. I'm up high enough so I can often see that they see me. This is an education and enforcement issue, not a speed problem.

Why do you not address the main theme of your fear - Boaters INABILITY TO SEE WELL. Where is it required that boaters have good vision? Why are you seemingly unconcerned about that?

As an extreme example of my point: What prevents a legally BLIND person from taking the helm of ANY recreational boat on Winnie? At 30 or 50 mph it really won't make much difference if they can't see well in the first place. Even if they see well enough to have a driver's license it may not be good enough in my opinion.

I won't use this un-retouched picture to bolster my point but I can tell you that the Captain of this cat did not see the boy or his OCEAN KAYAK less than 20' away!! Plus now I know what an Ocean Kayak looks like.