I'd support letting PWC back on the water if and only if they came
equipped with an explosive charge that detonated if the vehicle
exceeded the speed limits in mooring fields or other slow speed zones,
or within say 50m of the shoreline. Those who want to play chicken with
boats underway, I'd leave to the shotgun and rifle owning fraternity.

Actually these days it wouldn't be all that difficult to wire the
things to a mobile phone or datalogger with GPS. Then if a complaint
was made, it'd be easy to check the data and either fine or confiscate
the PWC.

PDW

In article . com,
wrote:

Fortunately, these days I live in a place where jetskis are banned.
Long may it stay that way. Guess why they got banned? Noisy offensive
buzzing insects driven by morons who broke every rule in the book

Okay, fine, but do me a favor, suppose this hypothetically:

What if, in recognition of existing problems, and in an effort to get
into your
town's good graces, and most importantly, to be allowed onto your
beautiful
waterways (where we pay the same taxes to support launch ramps and
other
boating-related services as do other boaters), the pwc-owning community
and
industry (not that powerful a lobbying bloc, there are only four
manufacturers),
took certain steps, for instance....

Suppose they/we actively and successfully supported and promoted
mandatory
education and licensing requirements for pwc operators, and as a
result, pwc-related
accident and injury statistics dropped for multiple years in a row, as
has happened in states where such laws have been enacted over the past
five or six years, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut; and
also, young or new pwc owners and operators were, increasingly,
demonstrably and enforceably, at least acquainted with the basics of
boating safety, courtesy and regulations before they could legally
operate a vehicle...(unlike with any other kind of boats, I might add
parenthetically)

Now, suppose further, bear with me here, that in addition, for more
than five years, the entire industry had been on a continuous and
highly effective campaign to make their 'skis dramatically quieter,
cleaner-running, vastly more fuel-efficient and with provably
far-reduced pollution and impact on wildlife and the environment (in
the end comparing at the very least favorably in those areas with
pretty much all other new power boats in the market). Let's say the
new 'skis were found to be 75% quieter than those from five years ago,
with (obviously) the ratio of these newer, clean./quiet models to
older/louder/dirtier boats out on the water, inevitably increased year
by year, obviously that trend stretching into the future...

Now, do you think it would be reasonable to ask those in your
community, those who'd voted for the pwc bans in the first place,
especially those with an interest in boating in general, to be informed
and aware of, and to acknowledge, these developments, and in fact to
reevaluate their impressions of pwc's and their riders, with these
changes in mind, after a number of years?

Would you yourself be willing to do that? To update your level of
knowledge in the topic even though it may not seem to affect you
personally (you never plan to buy a pwc), and to take the banned
community's responses and efforts to improve their reputation and the
entire situation, into account....would you ever be willing to
reconsider and revisit the issue in the name of simple fairness, even
regularly, every five years; would you be able to have your notions on
the matter changed over time by new information?

OR, would you stubbornly cling to your original perceptions and notions
about pwc's, refusing to be swayed by or bothered with ongoing changes
such as these, in your attitudes and policies toward the machines and
their riders.....always basing your final evaluation on the older,
original data on the basis of which you first formed your impressions
years ago? Would you in fact, in your mind, even possibly, tend to
unfairly prejudge and stereotype pwc's and the majority of their riders
based on conditions you observed anecdotally before any of these
changes (in statistics; in technology; in law; in a large percentage of
the riders themselves) had come about?

Rhetorical questions obviously. Just take a look at yourself, man, and
your attitude.

Remember we are all in this together when you talk about bans. There
are plenty of people who would love to see all power boats banned from
our waterways entirely....they are the ones who at FIRST seemed to be
succeeding with national park bans enacted back in the late '90s, until
science and reality bore out the fact that pwc's were not intrinsically
different from any other power boats, the results of the parks' own
studies causing these bans to be rolled back in the last couple years,
one after another....do you think the environmental extremists who
initiated these laws would have stopped at pwc's?

I just know I share a love of the water, and a great number of
responsibilities and concerns, with everybody on this newsgroup, and
every other boater and pwc enthusiast out on the water. Here's
another question: out of pwc's versus boaters at large, which group
more often has a beer in the hand of every person you seem to see on a
vessel underway? How about this: which group has a greater percentage
of always having life vests on? There is stupidity, irresposnbility,
and dangerous, illegal behavior perpretrated by boaters of ALL STRIPES
on all sizes and shapes of boats, but it is WRONG and UNFAIR to
prejudicially make statements painting all those boaters with the same
brush based on the behavior of the idiotic ones. It is just wrong.
And "banning" any type of vehicle based on the illegal behavior of
whatever percentage of its users, is even more wrong....you just might
not know it yet if hasn't affected you personaly with your "choice of
toy."

richforman