Gould,
The insurance companies agree with you. They have found those who take the
safety courses are less likely to have an accident.


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
The real problem with all of these courses is they don't really teach
anyone
how to operate a boat.

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.

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.