Roger ,, are you a Communist? What part of "leave me, my boat, my life, my
life on the water" out of your socialist ideas don't you get?

A fee isn't a tax? Sure,,, no, it is a fee. Are you truly so nuts as
this?

The reason we, me, us, go sailing is to get away from authority. To be
FREE. Let the wind drive us forward, the sea our friend ....

But that isn't good enough for you ,, nope. You want to ruin sailing.



================================================== ===========================
"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I'm probably like a lot of you folks. I would like the effects of
licensing, knowing that the burdened vessel converging with me and sort of
wavering around in his course actually does know which way to turn, not
having my tax dollars spent looking for bozo's, etc. I would also like the
freedom of making my own decisions about my competence. It would also be
nice not to have a system come to the waters I sail where there is an
incentive for uniforms who were told to go out and "show that the system
is working" but don't actually know how to come alongside or use fenders
waste a portion of my afternoon looking for little pieces of paper.

Everything about the way NJ has implemented the system strikes me as a
good example of how government always finds a way to inconvenience people
and restrict their freedoms without actually doing anything constructive
about the problem. I don't know what's going on in CT but it's probably
another reason to stay north of Cape Cod.

It will probably come to Maine too but it will probably come last.
Hopefully, it will be after I'm no longer too concerned about it. If it
does come become an issue, it isn't going to do any good to spout some of
the nonsense in the mega thread I started below. We aren't the NRA with a
constitutional amendment backing us up. Some kind of alternative will have
to be presented. Here's just an idea.

Establish a fee (can't be a tax because taxes can't be raised or added
anymore) of, maybe, 1% on the sale of every new and used boat. If the
buyer can produce a certificate from a recognized course such as the power
squadron, or maybe a no claim history from insurance of a vessel of
similar size, the seller can submit a copy of that instead of the fee. If
someone just wants the boat and is willing to pay the fee, then it goes to
safe boating education and printing more of those silly hand outs.

I'm not advocating doing this either but, if licensing talk starts up this
way, I want some alternative to present.


--

Roger Long