Look, you're posting this to a cruising n/g. Jet skis are noisy and
offensive buzzing insects and the people who drive around on them are
the seaborne equivalent of morons who ride trail bikes on public
reserves. Go away and play with your toy and don't expect any sympathy
from sailors.

You obviously haven't been actually reading the thread, or refuse to be
shaken from your outdated smug superior false stereotyping notions of
boaters on pwc's. The point has been made (by boaters and non-pwcers):
"jet skis" are actually NOT noisy anymore! Probably the quietest and
cleanest-running power boats being sold. And neither I, nor any of my
pwc enthusiast friends, many of whom also own and operate larger boats
as well, fit your uninformed description...at all. I am a cruiser too,
P, have in fact done more serious long-distance/multi-day cruising on
pwc's, longer, more ambitious and more of it, than most larger-boat
owners I know (as I described to some extent earlier in the thread I
think). Like you and other boaters and cruisers in bigger boats, I
have to learn how to navigate, how to dock, how to launch and retrieve
my boat, how to obey the rules of the road and respect the laws and all
other fellow boaters, how to avoid going aground, how to prepare for
and deal with emergencies and problem situations on the water, how to
use all nautical tools, how to maintain, repair and safely operate my
craft, take careful care of my passengers...and like you and all fellow
boaters, get angry at the behavior of the too-large percentage of
people who do idiotic dangerous irresponsible things on the water no
matter what the size and shape of their hulls, not only because of the
danger they pose but because of the bad face they put on the entire
boating community.

Yes, okay, I'll gladly accept the term "toy" to describe my pwc in the
same sense that any power boat is in a way a toy (and in a way, not).
But no one's looking for any sympathy, just trying to educate and
inform some obviously ignorant, nasty and prejudiced fellow boaters on
what we're talking about. When you specifically insult me and my
friends in words like yours above, I'm not gonna let it slide or just
go away.

It doesn't matter how many anecdotal experiences you've had observing
pwc'ers doing dumb things, you and I have both seen just as many idiots
in bigger boats doing just as many comically or frighteningly bad
stupid things, at the ramp, on the water, around sailboats and surfers,
in the channel, at the marina, in the no-wake zone, near the shore.

I do respect sailors enormously, I know you really have to know what
you're doing to sail. Probably far fewer idiots in that category
because it's a lot more difficult and takes more effort and dedication
to get into in the first place. By the same token, pwc's probably have
a slightly higher percentage of clueless newbies and kids on them than
larger boats, again because they're easier to afford and to get behind
the wheel of in the first place (much less so in NY and other states
now that you have to take a basic boating safety course in order to
legally operate one at all - all but extinguishing the rental market,
which is where most of the problems come from). But most people
exhibiting the kind of behavior you're thinking about on pwc's are
either newbies or kids who haven't learned and figured out the rules
and the impact of their behavior YET, but they will....if not, they're
just idiots, and again there's no shortage of them, no matter what the
level of age, experience, income, or what size and shape boat a person
has.

richforman