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State boater licensing
I was just reading a post and a survey concerning the licensing of boaters
in some states. The state I am in at present has no requirement for licensing to operate a boat, but as I understand it, 31 states do. I am curious about what the thoughts are of the people who frequent this board. Do licenses reduce accidents and save lives? Or are they just another beaurucratic paper job to extract more money and provide more jobs for government workers? I look forward to hearing your replies. |
State boater licensing
No, but education does.
Is a fee any different than a tax? License fees simply help balance the budgets on the backs of boaters. "Listen to the live broadcast of 'Nautical Talk Radio' with Captain Lou every Sunday afternoon from 4 - 5 (Eastern Standard Time) on the web at www.959watd.com or if you are in Boston or Cape Cod set your radio dial to 95.9FM. |
State boater licensing
"Capt Lou" wrote in message ... No, but education does. Is a fee any different than a tax? License fees simply help balance the budgets on the backs of boaters. That's true when license fees are simply dumped into a general revenue fund without regard to how they are apportioned. However, in many jurisdictions, license fees are used as a method of self funding for the cost of government services relating to the scope of activity that the particular type license covers. |
State boater licensing
"Jim Smith" wrote in message . .. I was just reading a post and a survey concerning the licensing of boaters in some states. The state I am in at present has no requirement for licensing to operate a boat, but as I understand it, 31 states do. I am curious about what the thoughts are of the people who frequent this board. Do licenses reduce accidents and save lives? Or are they just another beaurucratic paper job to extract more money and provide more jobs for government workers? I look forward to hearing your replies. Relatively few boating accidents, only about 4% of the total, involve sailboats compared to the number involving power boats and personal watercraft. The vast majority of boating accidents are caused by operator error, recklessness and alcohol impairment. Roughly four-fifths of all boating accidents occured with boats in which the operator had no boating safety education. In states where mandatory boating education is necessary to obtain a required boaters license, overall accident rates and boating fatalities have gone down significantly. |
State boater licensing
Jim Smith wrote:
I was just reading a post and a survey concerning the licensing of boaters in some states. The state I am in at present has no requirement for licensing to operate a boat, but as I understand it, 31 states do. I am curious about what the thoughts are of the people who frequent this board. Do licenses reduce accidents and save lives? Or are they just another beaurucratic paper job to extract more money and provide more jobs for government workers? I look forward to hearing your replies. I am living in the EU, and most states there require a license. And I agree with that. Even if you do not get a real good introduction to boating, you get a least an idea what this is all about. You learn something about the rules, what to do and what to avoid. In short, one is (slightly) less clueless. Just ask the professionals what they think about boaters and why. You will rather fast see that most professionals have a very dim view of boaters, and for good reason It also helps to charter a boat, since most bareboat charterers want to see some paper which states that you have some general knowledge. Otherwise they could have problems with their insurance. While it certainly may be some type of overkill in some cases, in general a boating license is a good idea -- Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked. |
State boater licensing
Peter Köhlmann lifted the trapdoor, peered
around and wrote: While it certainly may be some type of overkill in some cases, in general a boating license is a good idea Any regulation and licensing is only a good idea if it can be demonstrated to actually do something positive. In the case of sailing .... the accident rates are incredibly low, and there is no suggestion they can be lowered significantly by imposing yet more regulation. There are those who believe sailing should be regulated, simply because it isn't. Professionals will always regard "amateurs" as lesser mortals, regardless of how many licenses they hold! It's mandatory! steveb |
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