"Greg" wrote in message
...
I couldn't hear the guy standing 10 feet away from me, who was
yelling about why these dumb boats aren't illegal.

I don't think they should be illegal but I do think the folks who own them
have
a responsibility to use them in places where they don't unnecessarily
bother
people. These are really offshore race boats, take them offshore and
enjoy!
Like most things, if people don't use self dicipline the government will
step
in and impose law.
My favorite example is the SCUBA industry. In the 60s they took it upon
themselves to regulate themselves and almost a half century later, in a
time
where the government has it's big nose in everything remotely dangerous,
SCUBA
is still pretty much self regulated.

Makes sense for the scuba biz. I suspect much of the health of the industry
is based on tourists who pay to get trained quickly, jump in the water and
see nice fish & coral. That requires quite a bit of trust from the consumer,
and that means the industry had better have its head screwed on right. If
the feds were involved, congress would still be debating whether the bends
was a real medical problem or not. :-)