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wrote:

I am generally courteous to law enforcement people cuz if they want
they can always find something to cite you for so you might as well get
on their good side. This has worked most of the time for everybody
except the local marine patrol officials who just seem to be ****ed
about life. Fortunately,I never fish (my 9 yr old daughter did two
days ago) so they cannot hassle me about that and never have fishing
gear aboard my sailboat. I also think they tend to stop powerboaters
more as I have never been stopped while on open water.
However, I am building a powerboat (A Tolman Skiff) and I know very
little about power boats. Worse, my daughter now wants to take up
fishing so I may have to do so for awhile. So, although I plan to take
the Power Sqdrn course, I just expect to get hassled. So, how do you
get on their good side (do they have one?) Are my bad experiences with
them just really bad luck or are they generally nasty when they stop
you?

The Power Squadron course is a good place to start. I have not been
stopped in many years since the days of my youth :-) I was maybe 20 or
so. This was on Lake of the Ozarks and the water patrol guy was pretty
cool. He just gave us a inspection and let us on our way. I figure they
were really checking to see if we had beer in the boat or somthing else.

It seems to me most of the time I have seen people stopped they were
doing somthing inconsiderate, or somthing to stand out. Like running a
load boat hard etc.

Stories abound of folks getting some guy who is being a hard nose.
These guys are just like anyone else. They could wake up on the wrong
side of the bed etc. If they guy has a attitude just do what he say and
most likely they will just send you on your way.

Capt Jack R..