On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:13:07 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

By way of example, I recently took my 11 foot inflatable RIB dinghy
for an afternoon ride on Pamlico Sound behind the Outer Banks of North
Carolina. This an area of open water frequented by large numbers of
sportfishing boats greater than 40 ft. You could argue that an 11 ft
RIB is not really suited for those conditions but there I was anyway.
Since the channel is none too wide in many places, I got waked at
least a dozen times. Uncomfortable? You bet. Dangerous?
Potentially. Nevertheless I was able to cope by managing my speed and
angle of approach. Did I get paranoid and accuse anyone of
deliberately endangering me? Heck no, I'm the one who chose to be in
their playground, in a potentially unsuitable boat.

Nice story, but that has nothing to do with the situation I described. If
you feel it was dangerous, you shouldn't have gone there in that.

Precisely.

These sportfish were moving fast however, and coming a lot closer than
you'd really like. No blood, no foul. It gets interesting if I'm
capsized however. They are resposible for their wake, we all know
that. What about my quesionable judgement however (too small a boat),
and failure to negotiate a dangerous wave in a seamanlike manner. Life
is complicated sometimes.