BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Not all PWCers are "all for it"

wrote:
Well, the pwc'ing COMMUNITY at large is all for it

Of course. The jerk-ski drivers give you all a bad name...
as well as putting you just as much (perhaps more) at risk
of injury than the rest of us who are unlucky enough to be
on the water near them.

... PWC rights advocacy groups and IMO all of us more responsible,
informed, thinking riders, have advocated and supported, mandatory
education and certification, for ALL boaters as long as I've been
involved, and it seems like an excellent idea to me.

Why? Because you are saddled with a peer group that includes
reckless noisy fools?

I have been sailing for 40 years, have never injured myself
or anybody else with any boat, in fact I have rescued people
numerous times & received official commendations twice for
rescues.

Do I need a "license" to sail a boat, in your opinion?

Bear in mind a sailboat that goes 5 knots presents none of
the same risks... in fact one of the biggest risks is
getting hit my some motor boater. Will taking a course &
getting a license reduce this risk?

.... there are still a lot of
jetski drivers who operate their boats dangerously &
offensively.

Yes, and operators of other size and shape power boats too. That is
why it seems look a great idea to try to guarantee that anyone driving
one has at least been instructed in the basics.

I disagree. A better strategy would be for the state to
ENFORCE already existing laws regarding liability & safe
action. For a skipper who damages his own property or
injures himself, tough luck. For one who injures somebody
else... perhaps you or perhaps me... there are already laws
by which he can be made to pay for damage & injury, as well
as suffer civil penalties. This should be pursued but very
rarely is... not only pursued but given enough publicity
that anyone in the boating community will be aware of it.

The reason why PWC's were the first to be regulated & to
have a license required was due to the large number of
incidents wherein PWC drivers injured others. Injuring
yourself is not the state's business IMHO.

I don't follow your thinking at all. Power boaters with bigger boats
than pwc's can certainly do lots of damage to others

Not with the frequency that PWC drivers seem to.

I don't really see what the big burden is. The class is 8 hours and
free, here in New York State anyway.

It is a burden on my time that I do not have now, and it is
a burden to the taxpayers... do you genuinely believe it is
free?

And if the state thinks it's a great idea to force people to
take an 8 hour class now, and not charge them, how long will
it be before some busybody decides that boat statistics
haven't improved enough, and increases the time required? Or
before the state decides that boaters can afford to help
relieve more of the tax burden on other citizens?

I don't know that the "it's a free country" platitude dissuades me from
thinking that this is a good idea,

I think it's a great idea for jetskis and vroom-vroom boats.
I don't want to be run down by some drunk bonehead going at
a speed that would be illegal on any interstate highway.

.... I guess
you're not in favor of automobile licensing either? After all, I
suppose, it's anyone's free choice to get onto a crowded road they know
is populated by tons of dangerous uneucated maniacs.....every man for
himself, why would the government have any interest in stepping on my
freedom by insisting that I learn to drive and get tested before I get
behind the wheel? I guess I must be some kind of communist.

Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't matter.

What you're suggesting is that *I* ought to be force to take
a class so that *you* can operate a vessel that is a hazard
to me.

This is more like insisting that bicyclists have to get
licenses because car drivers do... or pedestrians.

Sounds to me like some people just think they're too good to take the
course

Exactly.

I never needed it before and I don't need it now... and I
know thousands of other recreational sailors who don't either.

When was the last time anybody was injured by being run into
by an aggressive sailboat driver?

DSK