The real problem with all of these courses is they don't really teach anyone
how to operate a boat.


Well, FWIW it seems that way to me, too, but this begs the question "how
does anybody ever learn to operate a boat then?"


Gould 0738 wrote:
I very much agree.

However, there are a few things that are so fundamental that one needs to know
them before even attempting to learn to operate a boat.

No course is ever going to instill a basic familiarity with the laws of
physics and some common sense.


When you learned to drive a car, odds are you understood what a Stop sign was
and what red, yellow, and green traffic signals meant before you hit the road.

That's sort of how I view these boater education courses. They aren't enough to
turn a rookie into any sort of a boater, but they might prevent a few disasters
caused by the absolutely and totally clueless exercising their perceived
"right" to boat in ignorance.

The main thing these courses need to drive into the skulls of newbie
boaters is

1- It's easier to screw up than you think

2- if you screw up, it will probably hurt. A lot.

2- if you hurt somebody else or damage their boat, they get to break all
your leg & ankle bones. Slowly. And it will definitely hurt. A lot.

It's not quite down to the one sentence minimum, but it covers all the
bases nicely.

Fair Skies
Doug King