The one thing that does make me a bit sympathetic to basic training
requirements for boating is the right of way rules. It would be nice
if everyone out there knew them and I wouldn't have had my one boating
accident (hole on the port side).

I agree and that is the main reason I favor these kinds of rules.
Everybody should
know the right of way stuff and how to interpret navaids, and the
basics of how
to interpret lights on boats, read charts, stuff like that, and if they
make everyone
take eight hours out of their lives to sit through the course, then
they'll know it, and
WE'LL ALL BE SAFER. It's not even like driving cars where you've had
exposure to
the basics and probably know all the rules just from having sat in a
vehicle and watched
your parents do it for sixteen years before you get behind the wheel.
Newcomers to boating
might know nothing of the basics, so it's just a good idea, it seems to
me, that we REQUIRE
them to learn it. If someone already knows it I have no problem with
them just taking the course,
getting the cert without having to sit through a class, although I
think it shows a better attitude
if you're willing to take it anyway with the idea that maybe you'll
still learn something anyway!

richforman