I was boating for a week there on my 4-stroke WaveRunner this summer,
it was pwc and boating paradise. I never saw such a huge number of
pwc's about before, or more harmoniously integrated with all the other
boaters. We and all the other hundreds of pwc's we saw every day
boating around the Thousand Islands area (and ranging pretty far out of
that area in both directions) were so clearly accepted and welcomed as
a non-special, non-different part of the boating environment, sharing
the channels, coves, public docks, and open water peacfeully and
non-problematically with all the other larger boats....a terrific
situation....and you really had to know what you're doing up there,
with all the rocks and shoals that come up out of nowhere all over the
place. But in four full days of boating, I didn't see anyone with any
kind of problem with anyone else, everybody seemed happy, no one
annoyed or threatening or suggesting to blow anyone up or shoot them or
ban them just because of what kind of boat they had. Only person I
encountered with a problem was a local on a small fishing boat who had
apparently bruised his hull on a marked shoal, just about run out of
gas, and putted up to me asking if I knew how to get back to the park
he had rented the boat from (I had a chart and a gps and was able to
show him where to go....he seemed like not the brightest bulb around,
but I didn't make any broader inferences about locals, boat renters,
fishermen, or any other category of boaters that he was a part of).
My silent-running, smokeless, shallow-draft, ultra-fuel-efficient pwc
was the perfect vehicle for the kind of exploration we loved doing,
cruising slowly past all the islands so my wife could take pictures of
all the fancy houses, beautiful landscapes, lighthouses and castles to
be gawked at; purring quietly up to the docks at all the local state
parks and up to the many beaches in the dozens of tempting peaceful
coves where just countless pwc'ers and other boaters were enjoying
nature, themselves and each other in friendship and more than peaceful
coexistence; idling happily through the beautiful International Rift
waterway where there's maybe an eighth of a mile separating the US from
Canada and stopping for lots of picnics and swim breaks; and also being
able to ride the waters pretty much from early morning 'til the sun
went down on less than a tank of gas each day....we went to Singer's
Castle on Dark Island, the very famous Boldt Castle on Hart Island
right across from the marina resort where we stayed (where we were
accomdated in a friendly manner by the dock staff in exactly the same
way as all the other boats docked there for the week), and to the
Antique Boating Museum in Clayton, all on my '05 FX HO....didn't buzz
or annoy anybody, go too close to anybody, bother anybody fishing or
saling, and didn't really get the impression that anyone else on the
millions of pwc's out there, were either. Any old prejudices against
the smaller machines seemed to have long ago dissolved in the reality
of modern boats, modern, educated, experienced riders, in an area where
boating and pwc's is so prevalent a part of life that people can't help
but have updated, informed, open-minded impressions about the boats and
their riders.

AND...just this last Sunday....I went out for another late-season ride
locally here in Long Island, and just a bit out into the harbor was a
small outboard with two fisherman whose engine had died on them, and
asked me for a tow back to the ramp which obviously I cheerfully gave
them. We had a few laughs as I towed them back...I don't think my
being there to help them out changed their view of pwc's or pwc'ers
because there was no problem with that to begin with - they saw me as a
fellow boater, out using the same ramp to go out enjoying the same
harbor on the same sunny fall day as them and a million other boaters
out there that beautiful day....pwc's are very prevalent here in Long
Island, too, and I think in general any stereotyped outdated
prejudicial notions about us in the minds of our fellow boats have long
since been dispelled, I get a sense of being welcomed and accepted as
a fellow, full-fledged boater the same as any other, at the docks, on
the ramps, on the beach coves, in the channels, in the salt
marshes....not judged on the basis of the size and shape of my boat, or
the irresponsible behavior of others in the past on similar
crafts...not like sometimes here on the newsgroup.

What about you, some of the guys I've been talking with on this
thread...would you accept a tow from a pwc'er if you needed it? Would
you be surprised if one was willng and able to help? If you don't like
pwc's or pwc'ers in general, would such an incident change your
feelings at all? Would it enable you to realize that maybe your ideas
about pwc's and their operators could be misperceptions? 'Coz I tell
you this happens all the time, I don't know a longtime pwc'er who
hasn't at some point been asked to help somebody on the water (and of
course who hasn't needed help from another boater)...in those instances
we're all in the same boat as it were, doesn't matter what kind of boat
you have, we are all boaters, have a great deal in common no matter
what kind of boat we have, and an inclination to like and relate to one
an other based on our shared values and interests.

I share these anecodtes in an ongoing effort to continue to try to
dispel and counteract the untrue, invalid, unfair, uninformed,
stereoptyped, outdated ideas about personal watercraft and their
operators, the things we do and the way we use our boats these days,
that are apparently being clung to and perpetrated by some posters here
and elsewhere. I don't know if it'll do any good, I don't know if some
of you guys have open-enough minds to admit that maybe you're wrong and
should give the issue an honest reconsideration, but it won't stop me
from trying.

richforman