wrote in message
...
On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:23:20 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

wrote

As Roger points out the CG is pushing this as a "Homeland Security"
measure not a boating safety
measure. Test based licensing is a different thing and while I don't
see
any compelling reason for it there is a strong trend towards it in
the states.

Thinking about it more, I don't think this will have a huge impact on the
boating industry. The interest groups that would be harmed by test based
licensing sufficient to raise the average standard of competence enough to
have a measurable impact on accident rates and search and rescue costs are
powerful enough that it just isn't going to happen. That would require a
course of instruction at least as long and expensive as the rather minimal
training standards for aircraft. Even that wouldn't do much. 10 - 15
hour
solo flight trainees actually have lower accident rates than 500 hour
pilots. 10,000 hour pilots do incredibly boneheaded things and die.
State
mandated boater safety courses with some kind of certificate that has to
be
presented to register a boat are coming, however. They will increase the
number of people who know the right of way rules enough to make it a
little
less nerve-wracking to be out on a busy Sunday afternoon and eat into the
fiberglass repair business slightly but won't do much else. The fee that
the states can collect when the certificate is issued probably has as much
to do with these programs as concern about the accident rates.

What is inevitable, I'm sure, is a cereal box top style license like the
VHF
operators license. Nothing scares the people protecting our freedoms more
than the public actually being free. They need everyone to have something
that can be taken away if they wish to deprive a person of the ability to
operate a watercraft legally. This satisfies the governmental instinct
for
control and political need to reassure the general non-boating populous
that
the waterways are are not a wild frontier. The fact that you don't need
to
operate legally to blow something up with a boat is irrelevant. It's all
smoke and mirrors, like the obsession with taking away nail clippers on
airlines just before the last presidential election.

Sigh... As I have pointed out before, this is a non-issue. The USCG
changed it's mind about this, and has said so in writing. They like
the idea of requiring an ID, but they don't want to get involved in
administering a special ID of their own. They just want you to carry
your drivers licence or a state issued photo ID.

How much more do they want? I carry a retired military ID card, and driver's
license both with pictures.
Of course, coming back from down island we would add the passport to the
pile. Homeland Security is
just another boondoggle so full of holes and for us taxpayers to foot the
bill.

Leanne