Bonehead captains are BAAAK

[donnamatrix]

Good grief. Out in our kayaks on Monday night-Moultonboro bay. This complete bonehead, has about a 23-ft older cuddy cabin boat. He is pulling on an inflated raft device not 1, not 2, not 3 but FOUR children (This is near teh Suissevale Beach area). NH Law dictates no more than two individuals can be towed at one time. In addition to this idocy, the bonehead has two kids sitting on the prow of his boat, legs dangling over the side. Little or nothing to save them from being tossed into air and going under the boat should they encounter a wave of any sort. I don't think the kids on the front of the boat were wearing PFDs either, which is the law for kids those age. Can anyone explain to me why a person would be so bloody stupid? I was going to point out to him the error of his ways, but my husband suggested that this guy clearly, really didn't give a rat's behind to hear anything I said. AARRGGHH!

[RailroadJoe]

You could have notified the MP.

[tis]

We saw MP stop someone last week for having 3 kids riding on a raft being towed. (We assumed that was what it was for.)

[CrownRay]

Alcohol maybe?

[Belmont Resident]

Tourist season. They are in boats, cars, bikes, trucks you name it and you will see it from Memorial day till Labor day.
Nope not all of them are tourists but most of em R.

[overlook]

We should feel safe, we have a speed limit. Boneheads should only hurt themselves.

[NoBozo]

CAPTAIN.. is a Title that is Earned over time through consistent demonstration of Proficiency. It is a professional rank.

So WHY are there people on this board who continue to refer to ignorant jerks as CAPTAIN...???? NB

[NoRegrets]

I did not see the deployment of emergency response equipment. No police, fire, marine patrol, or ambulance. Maybe the "children" were trained performers. They may have been practicing for a new stunt in a show.

This is a perceived "crime" based on man made nanny state laws. We did these exact horrible stunts in the sixties and learned a great deal of respect for the skills it takes to advance physical abilities. We now have a society looking for infractions and are judgemental of an apparently poorly informed family having fun.

I do not disagree with the laws but..........what price of freedom are we paying?

[BroadHopper]

You won't find any deployment of any kind. SL supporters convinced the State House that the lake is peaceful with no problems. So there is a cutback.

That is why the boneheads are out in full force.

There is a proposal on the legislature to prevent bullying in the State House. If that goes through, O'Brien, Winnfabs pet, can no longer twist everyones arm to go his way!

[Belmont Resident]

I recently did some work for a strong proponent for the speed limit.
Now that it’s in the past we had quite a few laughs. But one thing even he admitted to me, that the winfabs people definitely had issues. I believe fanatic would be an understatement. He supported the cause but not them.

[NH_boater]

I was anchored off of a corner of sandy point, swimming in the water with my daughter when a elderly lady on a PWC, and a person on the back came right at us. They were both looking sideways (almost behind them) and the driver was pointing at sandy point. They were on plane headed right at my anchored boat and us in the water. Luckily I have a very loud whistle and I blasted out a loud one. They both looked forward and quickly realized they were about to run us over. They turned maybe 20 feet from our bow.

I threw my arms up like "What are you doing?" and she shot me a look like I was wrong and said something to here passenger, and they want on, joining another PWC with 2 passengers. I hope she was embarrassed for being so reckless. I have NO doubt that they would have collided with our boat and maybe us swimmers. Clueless, with a thousand pound 150HP weapon.

I see PWC's following the law all the time, but the majority of flagrant violations are often from folks (kids and adults) on PWC's. The others are often cruisers that come off plane and plow by you at maximum wake speed, maybe 50 feet away. Thanks for slowing down for us........

[MAXUM]

No matter how many MPs are on the lake and how many laws there are written there is simply no way to outlaw or control ignorance and all out bad judgement. To throw a broad based net over everyone and try to curb the masses in the effort to control the few idiots out there is even more ignorant than those perpetrating irresponsible behavior out there on the water.

That's just my take....

[BroadHopper]

I was navigating through the Governor's Island bridge tonight after the fireworks at the Weirs. Big pontoon boat coming the opposite direction with his dock lights on. The lights were blinding and many of us sound our horns and curse the driver. He merely ignored us and drove on. I saw only one lone MP boat tonight and that was at the Weirs during the fireworks.

[Seaplane Pilot]

I've been watching boat traffic intensely this summer. Just last night I counted at least 6-8 light violations after sunset. Some with no bow lights, some with no stern lights and some with no lights at all. I will never understand how these people don't kill themselves or others. The amazing thing is that these people think if they go slow, then it's ok to not have proper lights displayed. How about the clowns that were wakeboarding well after sunset last night? How about the million safe passage violations I've seen so far this season.

The only thing that WINNFABS accomplished was to reduce the amount of qualified boaters that navigate the lake. Laugh all you want, but I believe wholeheartedly that owners of performance boats are among the best captains on the lake. Case in point: I'd like to analyze the total quantity of violations issued by Marine Patrol over a 3-5 year period, then break down the violations by vessel type; runabout, PWC, pontoon boat and performance boats. Might even toss in violations to operators with bona fide Boater Education Certificates as compared to operators with temporary certificates. Then I'd like to compare which catagory of boat had the most violations on average per category. I'll bet dollars to donuts that performance boats had less violations on average per category, then most (if not all) other categories of watercraft.

I hope WINNFABS is happy with their self-serving results. It accomplished nothing and in my opinion has made the lake less safe for all.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by Seaplane Pilot

Case in point: I'd like to analyze the total quantity of violations issued by Marine Patrol over a 3-5 year period, then break down the violations by vessel type; runabout, PWC, pontoon boat and performance boats. Might even toss in violations to operators with bona fide Boater Education Certificates as compared to operators with temporary certificates. Then I'd like to compare which catagory of boat had the most violations on average per category. I'll bet dollars to donuts that performance boats had less violations on average per category, then most (if not all) other categories of watercraft.

Please publish this information when you are done. I'd like to see it even if it does not prove anything one way or the other.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Seaplane Pilot

It accomplished nothing and in my opinion has made the lake less safe for all.

In the two fatality-free years since the Legislature's overwhelmingly official embracing of this rule, what is so terrible?

Originally Posted by Seaplane Pilot

The only thing that WINNFABS accomplished was to reduce the amount of qualified boaters that navigate the lake. Laugh all you want, but I believe wholeheartedly that owners of performance boats are among the best captains on the lake.

Yup—Just ask them.

[NHBUOY]

Has any one else observed what my son and I have termed "willful, planned interference" by the sail and paddle crowd.?. While out sailing our 25' Catalina last week, we were just tacking around off Glendale with some other blow-boaters and witnessed this behavior towards powerboats.. We watched 2 sailboats that would "short-tack"/change course and speed to willfully interfere with any powerboat that had the audacity to try to hold a steady and direct course through "their" area..I have observed this with the kayakers too.. Funny how the other sailors would wave to us, but when we went back out later in the family Wellcraft, they didn't wave at us and "tried" to do the interference thing to us......

[BroadHopper]

Originally Posted by Acres per Second

In the two fatality-free years since the Legislature's overwhelmingly official embracing of this rule, what is so terrible?

fatality-free? There was a fatility at the beginning of the year! What's you beef?

What if Captain Pontoon with the dock lights on is a WinFabs member? What say you?

[Seaplane Pilot]

Originally Posted by Acres per Second

In the two fatality-free years since the Legislature's overwhelmingly official embracing of this rule, what is so terrible?


Yup—Just ask them.

I don't want to ask them or you for that matter. I want the factual data - then there's no question or subjectivity involved.
Just like the line from the movie Officer & a Gentlemen: "You can't handle the truth".

[Mink Islander]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I was navigating through the Governor's Island bridge tonight after the fireworks at the Weirs. Big pontoon boat coming the opposite direction with his dock lights on. The lights were blinding and many of us sound our horns and curse the driver. He merely ignored us and drove on. I saw only one lone MP boat tonight and that was at the Weirs during the fireworks.

We were heading to Mink from Shep's after dinner at Camp after driving up. Was Just past dusk and getting dark fast. Out of the Cattle Landing dock comes Captain Pontoon with no lights on. As we passed him, we saw he did have his "headlights" on however! LOL. Was heading your way. My money was on it being a rental.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I was navigating through the Governor's Island bridge tonight after the fireworks at the Weirs. Big pontoon boat coming the opposite direction with his dock lights on. The lights were blinding and many of us sound our horns and curse the driver. He merely ignored us and drove on. I saw only one lone MP boat tonight and that was at the Weirs during the fireworks.

We were at anchor for a fireworks show one time and a pontoon (also at anchor) was blinding us with his docking lights. They ignored our requests to turn off the lights, so I got out my spot light and aimed it at them until it got their attention. When they finally heard my request to turn off the docking lights, they said they could not do it easily because the "headlights" were wired to the navigation light switch and they had to have their navigation lights on while anchored. They reluctantly disconnected the wires to the docking lights for the show. That same evening, many people yelled to me that my bow lights were off and seemed perplexed when I said I was anchored. After the fireworks, half the boats that left had docking lights on the whole way back. There's a lot of folks out there who have no business operating at night.