Throwing a large wake is not necessarily rude, discourteous or
unprofessional. Wakes are a fact of power boating and anyone who
boats in an area frequented by large, fast moving power boats needs to
be prepared for them. I don't like getting rocked any more than
anyone else, but it happens and more often than not, the power boat
throwing the wake is within his rights and is just trying to get
somewhere. The NYS barge canal for example has a speed limit of 10
mph whis is at least 30 to 40% over hull speed for most power
cruisers. The result is a fair sized wake. I will try to slow down
for canoes or other small open boats if I see them in time but it
isn't always possible. Anyone else should be prepared to deal with
the occassional wake or stay off the water. That's just the way it
is. Have you ever seen the wake that a tug boat or lake freighter
leaves when it is trying to get somewhere in a hurry?

============================================


On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 10:35:38 -0700, "QLW" wrote:
We just returned to Texas yesterday after completing an entire summer of
boating, first on lake Summerville in W.Va. and then a 700+ mile circuit
starting at lock 6 of the Erie Canal then to Oswego, Thousand Islands,
Redeau Canal, Ottawa River, Lachine Canal, St. Lawrance to the Richlieu
Canal, Lake Champlain and finally the Champlain Canal back to lock 6 on the
Erie. Over eight wonderful weeks spend on the water. Over 100 locks and
while the exact milage is hard to nail down (due to many side trips) I'd
guess over 900. After a few "teething" problems were worked out, both boats
worked flawlessly. The weather was great , as were the vast majority of the
people, both boaters and landlubbers, that we met. What a great way to
spend a summer. The only thing that I would change is to take more time to
make the trip. We are allredy making plans to go back and do the Trent
Severn and Lake Champlain next summer.

BUT! (there's always a but/butt) there was a recurring problem with power
boaters that just sticks in my craw everytime I think about the trip. I got
absolutely feed up with the discourtesy and poor boating skills of a high
percentage of the power boaters, both American and Canadian. I can cite
instance after instance where power craft should have slowed to no wake or
given more space and often created potentially dangerous conflicts where
none should have existed. Common courtesy seems to be left on the shore by
many/most of these jerks. It got so bad in some of the narrow canals that I
started taking video and was tempted to turn them in to the CG. I don't
know how it could be done by law, but there should be some way to hold these
( mainly 30+ foot) planning hull boats to a set of rules that will stop
them. The damage to the shoreline and the discomfort caused to other
boaters has to be just as important as the right to run around creating 3 to
5 foot wakes.