On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:19:37 GMT, "John Smith"
wrote:

~~ Snippage happens ~~

Hopefully, you mild rant will emphasize to him the importance of learning
how to handle the boat before he leaves the dock alone.

I do it all the time around my marina - you see guys and gals with big
shiny Sea Rays or whatevers with no practical experience beyond a
USCGA or USPS course all of a sudden discovering that a 32 foot boat
doesn't drive like the family SUV.

Hey, if you can afford it, do it. Like a lot of folks in reply to
this thread said, get soembody to show you the ropes, take a course,
get an idea of what you are getting into. I was throwing my Dad's 37
foot converted lobster boat around Marblehead Harbor when I was 14 -
learned a lot with that old tub. So it's certainly doable.

As to Newport, well it's not the small boat operators as much as it is
the weirdos who run full throttle up the East Passage billy-be-damned
if anybody else is around. I've actually slowed down for a gaggle of
old 12 meter racing yachts and had a 70 footer of Italian manufacture
PASS me, straight through the sailers and into the harbor. Lot's of
"sign language" after that event. :)

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
-----------
"Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt..."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler", 1653